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."
