The Brain Plays On

Talk about rocking and rolling yourself to sleep: Insomniacs may
need to do little more than tune into the sound of their own brain.
Canadian researchers have found that the human brain, which remains
active even in slumber, emits a medley of waves (alpha, beta and delta). These waves can be synthesized into sleep-inducing music.

Leonid Kayumov, director of the University of Toronto's
sleep clinic, recorded the brain waves of 10 people who had trouble
falling asleep and converted the oscillations into audio patterns and
frequencies with the help of a computer.

"The brain waves sound odd," admits Kayumov, who trained as a
classical pianist. "You wouldn't recognize this as music. Sometimes there
are harmonic frequencies, sometimes it's a total cacophony, but the
changes in pitch and tempo melodize into a highly personal
lullaby."

The 22 subjects who listened to a CD of their own brain music slept
more soundly than those who listened to someone else's brain waves,
nodding off in 17 minutes on average, as opposed to 58 minutes for the 22
subjects in the control group.

Kayumov presented his findings to the Associated Professional Sleep
Societies.