How it works
Fifteen minutes built on what we know.
A single fifteen-minute piece, played as it is at every session. Here is what happens minute by minute, and what research says about it, limits included. We cite; we do not overreach.
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0:00
A held note, and a 4 Hz beat
From beginning to end, a low A (220 Hz) stays under the music. It carries a binaural beat: a barely different note in each ear, and the brain hears the gap between them, 4 Hz, as a slow pulse. That is the rhythm of theta waves, the ones measured at drowsiness, at the edge of sleep. Headphones are needed: each ear must hear its own note.
What research says. Gerald Oster described the phenomenon in 1973. Work on its effects is more measured: a 2019 meta-analysis finds real but modest effects on anxiety and attention, varying from person to person. So we promise nothing: we set a rhythm, gently, under the music.
Oster G. (1973). Auditory beats in the brain. Scientific American, 229(4). · Garcia-Argibay M., Santed M.A., Reales J.M. (2019). Efficacy of binaural auditory beats in cognition, anxiety, and pain perception: a meta-analysis. Psychological Research, 83.
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2:00
The descent, in a minor key
The pads come in one by one, in a minor key, with no marked pulse. Each instrument takes some thirty seconds to appear: nothing arrives abruptly.
What research says. Luciano Bernardi and his team measured, in musicians and non-musicians alike, what music does to the body: with slow music, heart rate, breathing and blood pressure slow down; with fast music, they rise. The body follows the tempo, whether or not you like the piece.
Bernardi L., Porta C., Sleight P. (2006). Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory changes induced by different types of music in musicians and non-musicians: the importance of silence. Heart, 92(4).
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7:00
Two minutes of silence
In the middle of the piece everything withdraws: only the held note remains. That is where, around 7:52, the most important sentence of your session arrives — one sentence, when nothing competes with it.
What research says. In that same study, a two-minute pause inserted into the music produced a deeper relaxation than the music itself: heart and breathing dropped lower during the silence than at any other moment. The title of the paper says it: the importance of silence.
Bernardi L., Porta C., Sleight P. (2006), Heart, 92(4).
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12:00
The peak, in a major key
After the silence the chords return, then the same note brightens: the piece moves into A major and reaches full volume at 12:00. The landmark has not moved; the light has.
What research says. The move from minor to major is heard as an opening far beyond Western culture: Thomas Fritz and colleagues showed it with the Mafa of Cameroon, who had never heard Western music. And the awaited peak of a piece triggers a release of dopamine, in anticipation and then at the peak itself, measured by Valorie Salimpoor and Robert Zatorre.
Fritz T. et al. (2009). Universal recognition of three basic emotions in music. Current Biology, 19(7). · Salimpoor V.N., Benovoy M., Larcher K., Dagher A., Zatorre R.J. (2011). Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. Nature Neuroscience, 14(2).
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15:00
The return
The voice brings you back, the note fades. The session is over.
And day after day
The same music, with the same calm.
You listen to the week's session every day, over the same music. Repeated alongside the same state of calm, it becomes a signal: your body learns to settle from the first notes. That is why the music never changes, and why the words do.
What research says. This is the conditioning Ivan Pavlov described: a signal repeated with a state ends up calling it. Repeated exposure to a piece of music also makes it more familiar and better liked (Robert Zajonc, 1968). And a 2015 Cochrane review concludes that music, listened to as a routine, improves perceived sleep quality in adults who sleep poorly.
Pavlov I.P. (1927). Conditioned Reflexes. · Zajonc R.B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9. · Jespersen K.V., Koenig J., Jennum P., Vuust P. (2015). Music for insomnia in adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Aurore is not a medical device and is no substitute for medical or psychological care. What this page describes is how the piece is built and what studies have observed; effects vary from one person to another.