There is a moment, usually around 10–15 minutes into Sound Bath when you may feel something begin to shift.

Your busy thinking mind may start to slow down, your shoulders may sink a little deeper into the floor, the tightness in your jaw and forehead may start to relax, and for the first time in days, sometimes weeks your mind will go quiet.

If you have experienced this in a sound bath you will know what I mean. But if you haven't, you might be wondering how does lying on the floor listening to some bowls actually even do anything? This is a totally understandable question, and the answer is rather more interesting than you might expect.

We are currently living in the most overstimulated period of time ever in human history, which is just mind-boggling when you think about it.

Before we explore what sound does, it’s worth understanding what your system is already dealing with.

Your nervous system was designed for a very different world. One with natural daily rhythms, times of silence, and rest built into the day.

It is actually made to handle short bursts of stress, such as when a threat appears - you respond, it passes, and you recover quickly.

What it was not built for is, notifications from the moment you wake up, constant news updates that trigger your stress response, open-plan offices, traffic, back-to-back meetings, screens in your face until the minute you sleep. And even in our downtime Netflix, podcasts, and endless picking up of our phones and scrolling the constant overstimulation never actually stops.

And result of all this, day in day out, is a nervous system that is chronically activated and gradually losing the ability to switch off even, when it desperately needs to.

Day to day this shows up as tiredness that sleep really doesn’t fix, a mind that starts racing as soon as you lay down in bed, so then you cant get to sleep. And that constant tension in your shoulders, your jaw, your chest, feeling wide awake but exhausted, irritable for no clear reason and struggling to be totally present with what you are doing.

So what actually happens in a sound bath?

When you lie down in a sound bath and the sounds from the crystal singing bowls and chimes begin, your brain starts to respond immediately.

Your brainwaves slow down: Your brain operates at different frequencies depending on what you’re doing. Beta waves dominate when you’re alert, and in doing mode, the state most of us are in all day.

Alpha waves appear when you’re calm and relaxed and Theta waves are the deeper state associated with meditation, and when you are on edge of sleep.

The sustained, resonant frequencies and vibrations of the crystal singing bowls, and chimes act as an external rhythm your brain naturally synchronises with, a process that is called brainwave entrainment.

Without any effort on your part, your brain begins to shift from beta down into alpha and theta. This is the same state experienced by long-term meditators. And you do not need to have ever meditated for this to happen, the sound does it for you.

Your vagus nerve is activated: The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body and the primary pathway of your parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest system that is there to balance your stress response. When the vagus nerve is regulated, your heart rate slows, your breathing deepens, your digestion relaxes and your body receives a clear signal that you are safe.

Sound vibration, particularly the low, sustained frequencies of the crystal singing bowls directly stimulates the vagus nerve. It is one of the reasons people describe a sound bath as feeling different from other relaxation techniques as it's working at a deeper, more physical level.

Your cortisol drops: Cortisol is your primary stress hormone in the body. In short bursts it is essential, but when it is chronically elevated it is damaging, affecting sleep quality, your immune function, digestion, mood and cognitive performance.

A PubMed-indexed research study found that just one session of singing bowl meditation led to significant reductions in tension, anxiety and fatigue. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27694559/

The vibration moves through your body: We are made largely of water. Sound moves through water. When you are lying near a singing bowl, the vibration can be felt physically as it travels through the body. Many people notice it in the chest, the stomach, the jaw, generally the places where tension is most commonly held.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t experience the benefits at home. Even through headphones, your nervous system is still responding to the sound. Your brain still begins to slow, and your body can still soften and find that sense of space.

Why this is self-care not a luxury: Sound baths can feel like a treat, something to do every so often. Something nice but not really necessary. But I would kinda challenge that. The reason why is that your nervous system needs regular periods of genuine rest in order to function well. Not just sleep alone, though sleep is super important too. But active, intentional down regulation time.

For most people, that isn’t really happening. Not in the evenings or at the weekends and often not even on holiday. The nervous system stays alert, and it never quite gets the chance to reset.

A sound bath gives your nervous system exactly what it is designed to need. 60 minutes where the brainwaves slow, the vagus nerve activates, the cortisol drops and the body finally receives permission to rest, not because you willed it to, or meditated hard enough, but because the sound created the conditions.

One session can be lovely, however a regular practice can help build a nervous system that is more resilient and less reactive over time.

Ready to experience it?

I run fortnightly sound bath sessions in Hessle, with both evening and morning classes available.

If you can’t attend in person, or even if you can, there are some great sound baths available on YouTube and Insight Timer that are a good place to start. With regular practice your nervous system will feel the difference.

Online sessions are coming soon. Join my email list to be the first to know.