Brain FM reviewed as Music for ADHD

Posted on November 20, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

Brain FM Review

This is a Brian FM review of their music streaming service and its potential for those of us with ADHD.

How I work and listen to music.

Within the programming community, having a good computer is synonymous with having an equally high-quality set of headphones. It’s almost a cliche, the image of a programmer in front of a set of dual monitors, wearing their headphones, with their minds sunk deep into a mental trance.

I admit, I’m a programmer, and I am writing this article in front of two monitors with my headphones on. They are good headphones, and I’m a bit embarrassed about how much money I spent on them.

However, I am firmly convinced that my concentration skyrockets when I listen to the right music while I work. It’s definitely not the same with all music. Personally, I listen to instrumental, rhythmic, and electronic music while working. Some of my favorite genres are Deep Tech, Chillstep, and Melodic Progressive.

My particular electronic music favorites work well for me because they tend to have repeating rhythms and no lyrics. It’s a bit of a buzzword right now, but these genres can create mental flow. Flow is a term from psychology that describes a mental state with high concentration, clear focus, positive energy, and high task engagement.

A quick primer on ADHD.

I was also diagnosed with ADHD in the early 80s. So, low short-term memory, short attention span, and high distractibility have always been a struggle.

ADHD is a neurological developmental disorder that affects the prefrontal cortex and causes low levels of specific neurotransmitters. Those neurotransmitters are primarily dopamine and norepinephrine, which carry signals to the prefrontal cortex to utilize the brain’s executive functions.

Executive functions are the brain’s ability to analyze incoming information in a top-down method. This top-down cognitive method is utilized in prioritizing which incoming stream of information is essential at the current moment. In essence, our executive functions help us pay attention and ignore distractions.

Why music can help us focus.

A research paper published in the Psychological Research journal in 2020 found a statistically significant correlation related to listening to background music while performing a sustained task (Kiss, Linnell, 2020). The study showed that listening to background music while working on a task that required sustained attention led to increased focus and decreased mind-wandering.

Another study published in 2012 by the Department of Occupational Therapy, Fu Jen Catholic University, found that background music without lyrics led to greater worker attention and performance than music with lyrics. The paper’s authors, Shih, Huang, and Chiang, propose that when measurably compared, music without lyrics leads to better worker performance than music with lyrics.

Having shown the positive effects of instrumental music without lyrics for attention and performance, which music streaming service is the best?

Brain FM Review. The science.

In this Brain FM review, I’m going to take a close look at the music service that is arguably the largest player in this niche music market. To achieve its current market position, Brain FM uses a well-developed scientific model to develop its music for focus.

The first goal of Brain FM’s model is to decrease distractions. To do this, they produce music that is intentionally designed to sit in the background. Brain FM’s music is specifically created to avoid musical elements that might grab your attention.

The result of Brain FM’s science is music that keeps your mind engaged on a task without causing your mind to focus on the music. The music stays in the background, keeping you focused on a task and avoiding any distractions.

This first goal from Brain FM is consistent with the research from Shih, Huang, and Chiang that suggests that music without lyrics will lead to better performance.

Brain FM reviews and uses controlled studies to measure this goal of distraction reduction. Specifically, they use EEG and brain fMRI imaging. EEG, electroencephalography, measures electrical signals produced by the brain. Brain fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging, is brain scan imaging that shows neural activity. Both EEG and brain fMRI are highly efficient tools for measuring brain function (Mulert, 2013).

As Brian FM‘s website states, the EEG and brain fMRI study results are used to measure the “Phase Locking Value” of different types of sound. Essentially, Phase Locking measurements indicate the level of neural synchronicity while listening to sound. Neural synchronicity and oscillations can lead to optimal phase concentration, which is optimal for processing information (Breska, Deouell, 2017).

To demonstrate how well Brain FM creates optimal neural oscillations, their website includes a study by Dr. Psyche Loui and MIND Lab at Wesleyan University. The study shows that, compared to Spotify, silence, and pink noise, Brain FM’s specially designed music elicits increased Phase Locking and neural oscillations (Loui, Wesleyan University).

Brain FM‘s second goal is to uniquely combine AI, science, and musicians to create streams of music that are both scientific and uniquely human. This goal can’t be measured and quantified like the first goal.

The full Brain FM service.

In all, Brain FM has 18 Focus channels, 10 Relax channels, and 8 Sleep channels. This is in addition to the preset music for each mental state of Focus, Sleep, Relax and Meditate. Additional special selections exist for Deep Work, Creative Flow, Study and Read, and Light Work within the Focus category. There are also additional special selections for Chill, Recharge, Destress, and Unwind within the Relax category. Within the Meditate category, there are additional special selections for Unguided and Guided Meditation.

Some examples within Brain FM’s Focus channel include:

LoFi Focus
Classical Focus
Atmospheric Focus
Beach Focus
Chimes & Bowls Focus
Drone Focus
Electronic Music Focus
Forest Focus
Grooves Focus
Nightsounds Focus
Piano Focus
Rain Focus
Relaxed Focus
Study Focus

Although I have focused this article on Brain FM’s concentration music for those of us with ADHD, the Meditate and Relax channels can be equally important for managing ADHD. With the anxiety and stress that often accompanies ADHD, both the Relax and Meditate channels can be of immense help.

My Brain FM review experience.

I have been working on this Brain FM review article for the last four hours. During that whole time, I have been listening to Brain FM. Specifically, I have been listening to their “Deep Work” channel.

Honestly, Brain FM just works. I always listen to music while working, but Brain FM is optimized specifically for this reason. It has kept my work session productive. Brain FM’s music has also reduced my distraction while remaining in the background of my mind. But, of course, this is precisely what Brain FM designed its music to do.

Brain FM is definitely on par with the music I normally listen to while working. The key with Brain FM is that you can explore their music options without the risk of picking a bad music station. With other music services, it’s a trial-and-error process. I try an album, and if it works well for my concentration, I’ll add it to a playlist. With Brain FM, this process has already been done for you. You can be reasonably assured that the music will perform well as concentration music.

I would describe the music as engaging enough to keep my attention on my task, but not distracting enough to cause me to stop and listen to the music. The particular “Deep Work” channel I am listening to is fast-paced electronic music that I find energetic, to the point that it keeps my concentration flowing at a fast and constant pace. This “Deep Focus” channel is definitely generating an increase in my work pace and productivity while I am writing this Brain FM review.

For me, Brain FM performed well. The music rarely caught my attention. Instead, the music was a constant, wordless rhythm that kept me engaged and on-task.

I would even venture to say that Brain FM’s music had me in an induced hyperfocus session. ADHD already tends to create hyperfocus. However, this music is optimized for hyperfocus.

Also, because of Brain FM’s wide selection of music, I was able to find an electronic music channel for focus that I preferred. I specify focus because their music streaming app works for more than just focus. They also have music specifically designed for relaxing, sleeping, and meditating.

Final Verdict.

What’s important to remember about Brain FM is that it is purpose-driven music. It is designed to achieve specific mental states. So, it won’t replace Apple Music for general use. When you hit the streets for an afternoon jog, you’ll still need Apple Music to play the best ’90s workout songs.

So, when you have a goal in mind, and the task is more important than the music, then Brain FM can provide the perfect music to help you achieve your goal. For less important times, you’ll still use Apple Music for listening to the best 90’s grunge bands.

I signed up for a 3-day trial to write this Brain FM review. This is a great way to try out this music service and see if you experience an increase in focus and productivity. Because the trial is only for three days, I would sign up on Thursday of any week. That way, you would have two days to test out the music at work, and the remaining day to test on the weekend. Over the weekend, you could test out the Relax and Meditate channels.

Here is a link to try out the Brain FM music streaming app. After using this app for several hours, while concentrating on writing this article, I can easily say that the Brain FM music streaming service is worth at least a trial to test out the service.

Based on my personal experience with writing this Brain FM review while listening to Brain FM, I feel confident in recommending this service.

Writing this Brain FM review was much easier with Brain FM playing on my Bose NC 700 headphones. For a dive into noise-canceling headphones, take a look at this article.

Their pricing is $6.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. Using this coupon code, “TheADHDLifestyle,” you can get a 20% discount on a subscription to Brain FM.

Citations:
Kiss, Luca, and Karina J. Linnell. “The Effect of Preferred Background Music on Task-Focus in Sustained Attention.” Psychological Research, vol. 85, no. 6, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2020, pp. 2313–25, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-020-01400-6.
Mulert, Christoph. “Simultaneous EEG and fMRI: towards the characterization of structure and dynamics of brain networks.” Dialogues in clinical neuroscience vol. 15,3 (2013): 381-6. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2013.15.3/cmulert
Shih, Yi-Nuo, Huang, Rong-Hwa, and Chiang, Hsin-Yu. ‘Background Music: Effects on Attention Performance.’ 1 Jan. 2012: 573 – 578.
Breska A, Deouell LY (2017) Neural mechanisms of rhythm-based temporal prediction: Delta phase-locking reflects temporal predictability but not rhythmic entrainment. PLoS Biol 15(2): e2001665. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2001665

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The best Music for ADHD Concentration reviewed for 2022

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

This is a short review of streaming services that I have tried and used for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. These are my top personal choices in Music for ADHD Concentration.

Throughout the day, I switch music channels frequently. With ADHD, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that I get bored with my music quickly. However, regardless of the music channel, I avoid music with vocals.

Music with vocals can easily distract and are not very effective as music for ADHD concentration. They are essentially the same as someone talking directly to me while I am trying to focus. Vocals begin to compete for our attention, commanding attention from our brain’s executive functions.

Music with vocals is generally considered more distracting because it is more salient and prone to stealing our attention. Conversely, music without vocals is more like white noise in its ability to remain in the background.

A study in 2016, published in Behavioral and brain functions, found that children with ADHD performed better while listening to white noise. Another study in 2007, published in Psychological Review, found that controlled environmental noise had positive effects on ADHD and cognitive performance.

There are several categories of music for ADHD concentration that work well as background music. As mentioned earlier, white noise or environmental noise is effective. In addition, music for ADHD with consistent and repeating rhythms can also be highly effective. Electronic music is an excellent example of music with repeating rhythms and beats. In particular, electronic music categories in ambient, trance, techno, dubstep, and bass create perfect background music.

Soundscapes and noise generators work well for creating white noise and environmental noise. Several apps can generate white noise, such as Noisli and White Noise App. In addition, some apps offer environmental noises and soundscapes, such as cityscapes and nature sounds.

Personally, I listen to music for a variety of reasons that help me stay balanced and productive as an adult with ADD. At work, I’m looking to have 30 to 40-minute concentration sessions. In between the concentration sessions, I try to destress and breathe. Mind you, I cannot keep this session switching going for more than 3 or 4 hours. However, as with most things in life, I’ve gotten better with practice.

These are my top choices in Music for ADHD Concentration.

Focus@will

Focus@will provides effective Music for ADHD Concentration, backed by some equally impressive research. I use the focus@will music streaming service frequently. The productivity that I achieve while listening to focus@will is measurable and significant. A huge pro for focus@will is their extensive array of carefully curated music to help you concentrate. Their collection of music is essentially curated by a collaboration between neuroscientists, traditional music producers, and musicians.

Focus@will even has a music channel dedicated to ADHD. They list a lot of science on their site, focused on keeping your mind active while not distracted. Although their music is only geared toward focus, their music service excels at this goal. This music streaming service may not have a selection as large as Apple Music or Spotify, but they excel at their targeted purpose of concentration. With a monthly subscription price of $7.49, focus@will is also cheaper than Apple Music and Spotify.

Brain.fm

I have used this music streaming service extensively for the last several days, and have found the music immensely useful for concentration.

Like focus@will, Brain.FM‘s service is based on science designed to achieve Focus. Specifically, their music is designed to achieve Neural Phase Locking. This specific neural activity is described by Brain.FM as large clusters of neurons activated and coordinated to work on the same task.

In addition, Brain.fm also has science-backed music designed for Relaxation, Sleep, and Meditation, along with Focus. So, I can stay in the same app for several hours a day just by switching the music type inside the Brain.fm app. Like focus@will, Brain.fm has a good library of different genres that are effective as music for ADHD concentration. However, it adds extra value by using the same technology to provide music curated and designed for more than one goal, such as relaxation, meditation, and sleep.

I wrote an in-depth review article about Brain.FM, which is available here. Their pricing is $6.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly, which is significantly cheaper than Apple Music and Spotify. Using this coupon code, “TheADHDLifestyle,” you can get a 20% discount on a subscription to Brain FM.

Endel

Endel is a unique music streaming service that can be very effective at matching your daily pace while creating a non-distracting and unique music experience. Endel’s website describes that content as soundscapes, which I think is more accurate than music for ADHD. Endel is unique because the soundscapes are AI-generated and are matched to the user’s device input, such as heart rate and sleep schedules. In addition, the music is thoughtfully generated using Endel’s unique algorithm that attempts to avoid distraction by using certain music elements such as pentatonic scales.

I have used Endel and can attest to its unique soundscape that enhances concentration while avoiding distracting notes or percussion. My issue was that the soundscapes were so non-intrusive that they sometimes lost their ability to improve my concentration actively. For concentration and focus with my adult Attention Deficit Disorder, I want engaging music without being distracting. However, for relaxation, which is badly needed after a long day of concentration sessions, Endel delivers nicely. Its relaxation and sleep modes are very effective and are almost like AI-generated lullabies.

Apple Music

Apple Music is an outstanding all-around streaming service that excels especially if you are well tethered to the Apple ecosystem. This service has a massive library of on-demand music. Their website page boasts “millions” of songs that are streamable and on-demand. They also have a good assortment of curated playlists available. Within their extensive library is a large selection of music for ADHD concentration. A simple search for “music for concentration” will yield a large selection of around 40 choices. Also, assuming you don’t choose to listen to your favorite ’80s artist, there are plenty of options for Focus, Relaxation, and Meditation.

They don’t claim any of the science that focus@will or Brain.fm advertises, but they do have a large selection of music that works for several parts of my day. For example, after listening to music for concentration, it helps me to be able to easily stream some of my favorite Grunge bands from the ’90s. Apple Music is also great for workouts, as you can fine-tune your playlist with the best 90’s music for a good jog.

Digitally Imported (DI.FM)

Over the years, I have found electronic music to be excellent background music for ADHD concentration. I spend a lot of my day programming, and I have found that moderate to fast-paced electronic music keeps my brain incredibly active and on task. It’s like a “flow” kind of focus. I especially find this true within the genre of dubstep. Digitally Imported is very specific to electronic music and boasts over 90 curated channels. However, a subscription for Digitally Imported also comes with access to their other dedicated streaming services like RadioTunes, JazzRadio, Zen Radio, ROCKRADIO.com, Classical Radio.com.

Each of the services, just like Digitally Imported, has a large assortment of curated channels in several related genres. I find their service to be exceptionally well priced, given all their apps for each music type. I mostly use the Digitally Imported service to listen to electronic Dubstep music. Dubstep has a strong repeating percussion background that I find helps me achieve a focused concentration session.

Spotify

Spotify is comparable to Apple Music. They both provide large libraries of music on-demand for streaming. However, Spotify does seem to have a more extensive and more diverse array of curated playlists. In using Apple Music, I haven’t seen as many pre-made and curated playlists. I have used Spotify in the past, but I’ve ended up using Apple Music instead because I was already in Apple’s ecosystem.

The Calm App

Although the Calm app is better known as a meditation app, they have a surprisingly large selection of Music. Within their website and app, there are several categories of curated music lists and albums. Within that list, there are categories for Work and Focus. Both of these categories have some excellent music for ADHD concentration.

The Work category has over 20 curated music lists and albums, while the Focus category has over 50. I’m not sure that the music alone justifies the monthly subscription cost of the Calm app. However, if you are looking for a meditation app, their music is a huge bonus. Also, if you are already paying for their app, it is worth your time to check out the music section.

Noisli

Noisli is an app that offers the user several sound categories that can be mixed to create custom white noise. This app has a 4.1-star review rating and only costs $1.99. It is available on the Apple App Store, Android App Store, and Chrome browser extension.

White Noise App

The White Noise App has an enormous catalog of sounds that can be mixed to create custom white noise. This app also offers the ability to record your own noises to create sound loops. There is also a companion app that can download over 25,000 sounds, including soundscape recordings of nature. The Pro version of the app costs $2.99 and has a 4.8-star rating by 2,300 raters. The app is available on nearly every platform, including Apple, Android, Amazon Fire, Alexa, and Windows.

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CALMING MEDITATION WITH ADHD, 7 HELPFUL APPS

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

Meditation with ADHD

Meditation is an essential part of my day, which I both need and enjoy. It’s also a tool in my ADHD kit that I use for focus and to create calm moments. Meditation with ADHD does take practice, but it’s worth the effort for its calming effects and its ability to improve focus.

The most common forms of Meditation with ADHD usually involve closing your eyes, focusing on breathing, and allowing distracting thoughts to float past you, without judging them or engaging them. As your mind wanders, you just bring the attention back to breathing.

Meditation with ADHD can also come in the form of controlled breathing exercises, where the goal is to take deeper and slower breaths that are time-controlled. This kind of Meditation with ADHD is especially beneficial during moments of high stress. It can be as simple as counting your breaths during a particularly stressful moment at work when you need something immediate to relieve anxiety.

In practice, there are several methods of timed breathing Meditation such as 4-7-8 breathing. In the 4-7-8 meditation breathing pattern, you start with 4 seconds breathing in, followed by holding your breath for 7 seconds, then breathing out for 8 seconds. This particular pattern is known for its reduction in anxiety.

In general, most people can only effectively learn or concentrate for about 30 minutes. With ADHD, it’s not a given assumption that I can concentrate and focus for 30 minutes or even 15 minutes. If someone without ADHD can achieve a 30-minute session of focus, it’s probably a safe assumption that someone with ADHD may struggle to achieve half the time.

This is where meditation provides considerable gains in focus and concentration. It provides a solid strategy, with practice, for achieving longer focus sessions. I like to use the term “focus session” because it describes blocks of time that I can maintain focus. If I aim for too many minutes in a specific focus session, I risk completely losing track of what I did during the session.

This type of focused Meditation is generally referred to as Mindfulness. Meditation with ADHD and Mindfulness work together to create a foundation in the current moment. With Mindfulness, I can begin to bring my scattered ADHD brain into alignment with the present moment and my current tasks.

Through Meditation, I’m not allowing random thoughts to engage my attention, which gives me the ability to control my focus better. For me, the key is to neither block nor engage the random thoughts. This allows me to choose my focus. This is how I use Mindfulness and Meditation with ADHD.

The other benefit of meditation with ADHD, besides focus, is the ability to be present in the current moment to relieve stress. ADHD can create a lot of stress, which we carry with us all day. Meditation provides a way to leave the day behind us and embrace the current moment.

I’ve listed and provided a brief review of the tools I’ve used for Meditation with ADHD and Mindfulness.

Calm
I use the Calm app on my iPhone daily. The meditations are narrated by Tamara Levitt, who has an amazingly relaxing voice. Every day, I aim to do at least the main featured meditation, “Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt.” They list over 70 individual meditation choices, with many sessions that change daily. They also offer an extensive library of music and nature sound scenes for relaxation as well as meditation. Their music selection even includes curated music that was co-developed with popular artists. But seriously, it’s all about Tamara Levitt’s relaxing voice in the narrations.

Flow Lab
I also use this app several times a week. Their tagline on their website is “Train your mind to get more done. With less stress. And more FLOW.” Their system of meditation is geared towards focus and achieving optimal mental performance. To that end, the meditation recordings that I have used are great and focus on achieving the best mental productivity performance.

Balance: Meditation & Sleep
This is an interesting meditation app that gives users prompts that are used by the app to customize their meditation routine and content. I used this app for several months and found the meditations to be helpful. My main issue with this app is that I didn’t know how to answer the prompts in the app’s initial phase. Consequently, I didn’t know if the app had adapted my meditation routine and content accurately in later use.

The Apple Watch Breathe app
The brilliance of this app is its fast accessibility. It’s an Apple Watch app that is built in as an Apple-designed app. Its simplicity adds immensely to its effectiveness. Just follow the breathing prompts. An interesting piece of data that can be captured and measured by this app is your Heart Rate Variability (HRV). HRV provides a gauge to help you understand the impacts of stress.

Breathe: relax & focus
The app is focused on breathing exercises to calm and relieve stress. The exercises are guided by a relaxing voice and instruct the user at each stage of the breathing exercise. A helpful feature of this app is its stats and progress screen that provides info on the number of sessions, total minutes, and usage charts that cover day, week, month, and year. It also includes four different breathing exercises. The app can also be integrated with Apple Health and is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Breathe • Calm down • Meditate
This breathing exercise app has a beautifully minimalistic user interface and is intuitive and straightforward to use. Upon opening the app, the user is welcomed with a warm and personal message and prompted to choose a breathing exercise to begin. The breathing exercises are guided by a gentle bell ring and a minimalistic and artistic circle that grows and shrinks to the exercise. The breathing circle animation can be customized to be one of several choices, including four flower icons. The guiding bell sound and app color theme can also be customized. It includes progress tracking, app reminders, Apple Health integration, and a customizable Power Breathing mode. This app is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Breathe+ Simple Breath Trainer
This is a well-designed app that offers a lot of customization. Like most breathing apps, the breathing exercises are guided by an onscreen visual that contracts and expands, along with a sound cue. The breathing exercises can be customized for length, visualization colors, nine different cue sounds, and breath cycle timing settings. The app also offers session tracking reports by time period. Breath+ includes Apple Health integration and is available for iPhone and iPad.

The Apple Watch and Meditation.

I’ve mentioned the strong benefits of the Apple Watch in other articles, and the Apple Watch is equally beneficial for Meditation. A main strength of the Apple Watch is its accessibility; The watch is always at hand when needed. This is a critical benefit to meditation because of ADHD’s tendency towards anxiety.

When ADHD pushes us towards situational anxiety and nervousness, the Apple Watch can be a lifesaver in providing fast access to meditation techniques. A good example is breathing techniques. There are several Apple Watch apps that provide visuals to help guide breathing.

The pre-installed Breathe App on the Apple Watch is an effective and free app that can guide breathing. Another good Apple Watch app for guided breathing is Breathing Zone. This app provides a visual and optional voice guide for timed breathing. This app also has the ability to sync the guided breathing to your current heart rate.

In addition, several of the larger meditation apps have accompanying Apple Watch apps, such as Calm and Headspace. These additional apps provide the ability to play and pause the guided meditations, as well as the ability to save guided meditations directly on the Apple Watch.

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