Types of Sound Therapy
- Chanting and drums. Ceremonies that mesh spiritual focus with physical meditation often use rhythmic drums, chants, or singing bowls. These tools are soothing, and can create a trance-like state of relaxation. The release of tension can physically diminish your migraine pain, and the trance is pleasantly distracting.
- Chimes and music. Not surprisingly, peaceful and cheerful music is often used in sound therapy to gently release tension and inspire more positive thoughts.
Music is a personal experience, and you may not find relief in the same slow and lilting tunes as other people. For instance, energizing music could be more helpful to fight off an impending migraine, or to get through the worst of the pain. The key is to experiment with music you like — the more you genuinely enjoy a song or playlist, the better it will work for you.
Put Your Technology to Use
You have more audio tools at your disposal than you may think. Visit YouTube for a selection of videos that make choose tones specifically for their headache-fighting power, often pairing them with soothing images and colors.
There are also some helpful migraine apps out there. Whether or not you rely on your phone to help you track your triggers, consider downloading one of these apps that use sound in different ways so you can get relief whenever and wherever you need it.
- Relax Melodies: It’s marketed as a helpful bedtime app, but Relax Melodies can provide perfectly soothing sounds whenever you need them. You can choose from a variety of conventionally relaxing sounds — nature noises, deep chants, ocean sounds, and white noise are all at your disposal — to create a playlist, or else mix sounds together for a unique medley of your own.
- Brainwave Tuner: A bit more in-depth than a series of soothing sounds, Brainwave Tuner generates specific tones that actually change your brainwaves (and your mood and feelings along with them). Depending on what effect you’re after, you can modify the tones for better focus, relaxation, or even to diminish your headache.
- Binaural Beats: By making changes to your brain frequency, the Binaural Beats app can help relieve stress, strain, and tension that is likely contributing to your migraine pain. Another appealing feature is the active user community, where fans of the app can provide feedback and upload their own sounds and graphics to enhance the experience.
There haven’t been many studies to support the usefulness of sound in pain management, but as you likely know all too well, migraines can make you very sensitive to sound in very painful ways. If sound can have such a negative impact on your pain, it is well worth investigating what sort of positive impact it may have.
