Most of the time I would find myself lying awake, tossing and turning, because I couldn't get my brain to wind down - I would stay wide awake thinking about the day's events, or what I was going to do the next day or suddenly a fantastic brainstorm would overcome me and I'd have to get up and scribble down some new ideas and projects to accomplish -- none of which I ever got around to doing because I was exhausted every single day.

After quickly determining that over the counter sleeping pills were a bad idea -- they made me feel worse ---- I tried meditating. That actually helped at first, especially when I used guided meditations designed to help me fall asleep. But it didn't help enough or every night, and I still found myself waking up frequently during the night and then unable to get back to sleep.

Since Guided Meditation did help, at least initially, I figured it was time to investigate this technology known as "brainwave entrainment". Basically it is audio with a special beat, a pulse, that helps re-sync your brain. It is very effective at helping you get to sleep because as your brain syncs with the pulse, it slows down all the racing thoughts inside your head, allowing you to relax and finally get a good night's sleep.

If you've also investigated some "sleep technology" on your own, you may already be familiar with the type of beats known as binaural beats. That's the most common kind of brainwave training available.

I've used binaural beats audio myself, and just like the guided meditation, it did help me fall asleep. In fact, it worked much better than guided meditation on its own. The problem, however, is that binaural beats only work when you are wearing headphones. That's fine for falling asleep and it's usually okay just to remove the headphones as you feel yourself starting to drift off, but it doesn't help at all with staying asleep. I just can't wear headphones all night. So even with binaural beats, I still found myself waking frequently in the middle of the night and then not being able to get back to sleep again.

There is another type of brainwave entrainment available though and it is called isochronic tones. Binaural beats use a different tone in each ear, but isochronic tones use a rhythmic pulse that turns itself off and on. The brain responds powerfully to the off and on rhythm and so isochronic tones are actually much more effective than the binaural beats that are found in most insomnia audio products.

The big advantage though is that you don't need to use headphones all the time with isochronic tones. They're recommended when using the tracks that are specifically designed for falling asleep, of course, but for tracks that are designed to be left playing all night, you can just play them on a stereo system or in a cd player in your clock-radio.