What Is Bilateral Music? How It Works, What the Research Says and How to Use It
If you've looked for music to calm anxiety recently, you've probably come across tracks labelled "bilateral" or "EMDR music". At first they sound like ordinary ambient pieces. Then you put headphones on and notice a sound moving steadily from one ear to the other. So what is bilateral music, and does it do anything?
Bilateral music is music in which a sound, pulse or tone alternates between your left and right ear at a steady pace. The idea comes from EMDR, a trauma therapy that uses left-right stimulation, and the music borrows that rhythm for everyday relaxation. This post covers where it comes from, what the research does and doesn't show, how it differs from binaural beats, and how to try it.
What is bilateral music?
Bilateral music is audio designed so that one element, usually a soft tone, a pulse or an instrument, moves back and forth between the left and right ear. The movement is regular and fairly slow, and it sits underneath calm music or nature sounds.
"Bilateral" means "both sides". Here it refers to bilateral stimulation: input that reaches the left and right sides of the body in turn. That input can be visual (your eyes following a moving light or hand), tactile (alternating taps on the hands or knees) or auditory (sound switching between the ears). Bilateral music is the auditory version, set to music.
Where does it come from?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. Psychologist Francine Shapiro developed it in the late 1980s as a treatment for distressing memories. In a session, a trained therapist asks the client to hold a memory in mind while following a side-to-side stimulus, most often the therapist's hand, though taps and tones are also used.
EMDR is a recognised therapy. In the UK, NICE includes it among the treatments recommended for adults with post-traumatic stress disorder in its PTSD guideline, NG116.
Bilateral music takes the left-right element of EMDR and makes it something you can listen to at home. That distinction matters. The music uses one ingredient of the therapy and leaves out the rest: the assessment, the preparation, the structured way a therapist works through a memory, and the support of having a professional with you.
How is bilateral stimulation thought to work?
The most widely studied explanation is the working memory account. Researchers Marcel van den Hout and Iris Engelhard have argued that when you hold a memory in mind while doing a demanding task, such as tracking a moving object with your eyes, the two compete for the same limited mental capacity. The memory gets less room, and afterwards it tends to feel less vivid and less emotional. That has a practical implication. If the effect depends on how much the task demands of you, then following something with your eyes should do more than passively hearing a tone move between your ears.
Does bilateral music actually work?
It can help some people feel calmer, but the research on audio alone is limited and more modest than many claims online.
Most of the evidence is about EMDR as a full therapy, not about music. Where researchers have compared tones with eye movements directly, eye movements came out ahead. A 2012 study of 12 people with PTSD, led by van den Hout, found that eye movements reduced how emotional and vivid a memory felt more than tones did. A 2013 study of 64 patients by de Jongh and colleagues found a trend in the same direction: tones were less effective than eye movements, though more effective than simply recalling the memory. In both studies, many patients preferred the tones.
What's missing is good research on bilateral music used on its own, outside therapy, as a way to relax. So it's reasonable to treat it as a gentle, low-effort way to settle rather than a treatment. Plenty of people find the steady back-and-forth grounding, and that's a perfectly good reason to use it. Claims that it rewires trauma or replaces therapy go well beyond the evidence.
Bilateral music vs binaural beats
The two are often mixed up, but they work in different ways.
Bilateral music: a sound alternates between your left and right ear, so you hear it move. It needs stereo, which means headphones or speakers placed on either side of you.
Binaural beats: each ear hears a slightly different steady tone, for example 200 Hz in one ear and 210 Hz in the other, and your brain perceives a third "beat" at the difference. It needs headphones, because each ear must hear only its own tone.
Bilateral music is about movement across the stereo field. Binaural beats are about a difference in pitch. Some tracks combine the two, but they are separate ideas.
How to use bilateral music
Use stereo headphones. Wired or wireless both work. If your phone has a mono audio setting switched on, turn it off, or the left-right movement disappears.
Keep the volume low. The sound should sit in the background, loud enough to follow without effort.
Give it 10 to 20 minutes. Sit or lie down somewhere comfortable, with your eyes closed or resting on a fixed point.
Rest your attention on the sound or your breathing. There's no need to bring up a difficult memory. That part belongs in therapy with a trained professional.
For a short practical guide, see how to use EMDR music.
Is bilateral music safe?
For most people, yes. Listening to bilateral music at a comfortable volume is a low-risk way to relax, much like any other calm music. The things to watch are how it makes you feel, and whether you're using it in place of treatment you need.
Some people find the left-right movement makes them feel dizzy, restless, nauseous or more anxious. If that happens, stop. It isn't a sign the music is working, and calm music without the left-right effect will suit you better.
If you're living with trauma or PTSD, bilateral music is not a substitute for EMDR therapy. Speak to your GP or a qualified therapist about treatment.
Who might find it useful?
Bilateral music tends to suit people who want a simple listening routine to wind down after a stressful day, or who find silence hard and ordinary music too busy. The steady pattern gives the mind something light to follow.
It can also work for teachers and practitioners. Meditation, breathwork and yoga teachers sometimes use it as a steady, unobtrusive backdrop, ideally through stereo speakers placed either side of the room. Therapists and counsellors who want bilateral tracks for use with clients should make sure the music they use is licensed for professional settings.
Try it for yourself
If you'd like to hear what bilateral music feels like, start with Flow, a gentle EMDR-inspired piece that pairs the left-right pulse with nature sounds. The full EMDR Inspired Bilateral Music collection has more tracks to choose from. Tracks can be bought for personal listening, or with a commercial licence if you want to use them in classes or client sessions.
Comments