Certain kinds of music and sound waves can impact brain activity and how you feel in specific ways.
Science is at the heart of Sollos
Our in-house team of cognitive scientists and machine learning engineers conducts research to inform our work and validate our music has real impact.
Our process
At Sollos, we curate our music with the right combination of acoustic and musical properties to help you focus, reduce anxiety, and sleep better.
After we've chosen our tracks, we then blend 'sound supplements' with the music.
These are special sound waves called auditory beats. Think of them like auditory vitamins, designed to give you a wellbeing boost.
Auditory beats are created when we combine two different pure tones to produce a rhythmic beating sound.¹
Researchers have shown that listening to different frequencies of these beats can support wellbeing in different ways:
Gamma beats are linked to improved working memory and cognitive performance.²
Theta beats can relax you by increasing parasympathetic nervous system activity,³ decreasing anxiety,⁴ and improving mood.⁵
Delta beats can improve sleep quality⁶ and duration of deep sleep.⁷
Our own peer-reviewed, published research shows that listening to music blended with auditory beats for 30 minutes can reduce anxiety and improve mood compared to a pure tone control group.⁸
Certain kinds of music and sound waves can impact brain activity and how you feel in specific ways.
At Sollos, we curate our music with the right combination of acoustic and musical properties to help you focus, reduce anxiety, and sleep better.
After we've chosen our tracks, we then blend 'sound supplements' with the music.
These are special sound waves called auditory beats. Think of them like auditory vitamins, designed to give you a wellbeing boost.
Auditory beats are created when we combine two different pure tones to produce a rhythmic beating sound.¹
Researchers have shown that listening to different frequencies of these beats can support wellbeing in different ways:
Gamma beats are linked to improved working memory and cognitive performance.²
Theta beats can relax you by increasing parasympathetic nervous system activity,³ decreasing anxiety,⁴ and improving mood.⁵
Delta beats can improve sleep quality⁶ and duration of deep sleep.⁷
Our own peer-reviewed, published research shows that listening to music blended with auditory beats for 30 minutes can reduce anxiety and improve mood compared to a pure tone control group.⁸
Our Published Research
Beating stress: music with monaural beats reduces anxiety and improves mood in a non-clinical population
Venkatesan T, Demetriou A, Koops HV and Bowling DL (2025)
A scoping review of music-based digital therapeutics for stress, anxiety, and depression
Venkatesan T, Demetriou AM, Hempel A and Bowling DL (2026)
The soundtrack to success: can music enhance elite athletes health and performance?
Venkatesan T, Koops HV, Allen T, Iqbal Z, Curthoys S, Lewin G and McCall A (2026)
Our Tech
Our proprietary algorithms are developed by our audio engineering and machine learning teams, alongside artists and scientists. They preserve the integrity of the music while adding sound supplements, with producers retaining creative control.
Audio beats generator
Our patent-pending AI generates auditory beats that seamlessly match any track's dynamics and harmony.
Human reviewed
Tinting algorithm
Our proprietary tinting algorithm enhances pink or white noise profiles, then human producers review every track for quality and wellness impact.
FAQs
We love music.
But not all music is designed to support focus, relaxation or sleep.
Our curation team uses the psychology of attention and musical expectation to curate all of our music.
We consider musical and acoustic features like tempo, harmonic structure, spectral profiles, and salience to curate sessions that specifically support focus, relaxation and sleep.
From our music curation to production, everything Sollos does is grounded in the most up-to-date scientific research.
Building on the foundations of secondary literature, Dr. Tara Venkatesan, Sollos' Director of Cognitive Science, also leads empirical studies on the impact of music and auditory phenomena on cognitive, physiological, and behavioural states.
This ground-breaking research guides Sollos' iterative approach to creating music and audio that promotes wellbeing.
Auditory beats are amplitude modulated tones, associated with changes in mood and cognition. [1, 2, 3]
We use a proprietary algorithm to seamlessly blend them with music.
For focus, listening to gamma auditory beats is linked to better cognitive performance [4] and creative thinking [5].
For relaxation, listening to theta auditory beats is linked to increased relaxation and decreased anxiety [1, 6].
For sleep, listening to delta auditory beats is linked to better sleep quality and longer deep sleep [7, 8, 9].
References
- 1.Chaieb, L., Wilpert, E. C., Hoppe, C., Axmacher, N., & Fell, J. (2017). The impact of monaural beat stimulation on anxiety and cognition. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11.
- 2.Shepherd, D., Hautus, M. J., Giang, E., & Landon, J. (2022). "The most relaxing song in the world"? A comparative study. Psychology of Music, 51(1), 3–15.
- 3.Le Scouarnec, R. P., Poirier, R. M., Owens, J. E., Gauthier, J., Taylor, A. G., & Foresman, P. A. (2001). Use of binaural beat tapes for treatment of anxiety: A pilot study of tape preference and outcomes. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 7(1), 58–63.
- 4.Sharpe, R. L. S., Mahmud, M., Kaiser, M. S., & Chen, J. (2020). Gamma entrainment frequency affects mood, memory and cognition: An exploratory pilot study. Brain Informatics, 7(1), 17.
- 5.Colzato, L. S., Barone, H., Sellaro, R., & Hommel, B. (2017). More attentional focusing through binaural beats: Evidence from the global-local task. Psychological Research, 81(1), 271–277.
- 6.McConnell, P. A., Froeliger, B., Garland, E. L., Ives, J. C., & Sforzo, G. A. (2014). Auditory driving of the autonomic nervous system: Listening to theta-frequency binaural beats post-exercise increases parasympathetic activation and sympathetic withdrawal. Frontiers in Psychology, 5.
- 7.Dabiri, R., Monazzam Esmaielpour, M. R., Salmani Nodoushan, M., khaneshenas, F., & Zakerian, S. A. (2022). The effect of auditory stimulation using delta binaural beat for a better sleep and post-sleep mood: A pilot study. DIGITAL HEALTH, 8, 205520762211022.
- 8.Jirakittayakorn, N., & Wongsawat, Y. (2018). A novel insight of effects of a 3-Hz binaural beat on sleep stages during sleep. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 387.
- 9.Abeln, V., Kleinert, J., Strüder, H. K., & Schneider, S. (2014). Brainwave entrainment for better sleep and post-sleep state of young elite soccer players—A pilot study. European Journal of Sport Science, 14(5), 393–402.
The colour of noise refers to the power spectrum of a noise signal. Certain noise colours are linked to improved cognitive performance and sleep.
Sollos uses audio technology to boost the coloured noise profiles of nature soundscapes.
Listening to white noise masks other disturbing sounds and is linked to better cognitive performance [10, 11].
Listening to pink noise is linked to better and deeper sleep [12, 13].
References
- 10.Awada, M., Becerik-Gerber, B., Lucas, G., & Roll, S. (2022). Cognitive performance, creativity and stress levels of neurotypical young adults under different white noise levels. Scientific Reports, 12(1), Article 1.
- 11.Daee, S., & Wilding, J. M. (1977). Effects of high intensity white noise on short-term memory for position in a list and sequence. British Journal of Psychology, 68(3), 335–349.
- 12.Zhou, J., Liu, D., Li, X., Ma, J., Zhang, J., & Fang, J. (2012). Pink noise: Effect on complexity synchronization of brain activity and sleep consolidation. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 306, 68–72.
- 13.Schade, M. M., Mathew, G. M., Roberts, D. M., Gartenberg, D., & Buxton, O. (2020). Enhancing slow oscillations and increasing N3 sleep proportion with supervised, non-phase-locked pink noise and other non-standard auditory stimulation During NREM Sleep. Nature and Science of Sleep, Volume 12, 411–429.
To get the most out of our music, we recommend listening using good quality headphones, especially if you're in a noisy environment.
We also recommend listening to Sollos for at least 20 minutes, to give us time to work our magic.