The Ome Effect of Alpha Waves

Many people meditate, I for instance am a keen meditator and meditate for around an hour daily. I do this for many reasons: it fits in with my lifestyle, calms me before and after any assignments or tough workloads, it helps at my gradings and as a cool down after a martial arts training session and as a sufferer of chronic pain, I know it helps reduce the pain and get me to sleep. Yet my research in biological psychology has allowed me to learn more benefits of meditation.

In advance I apologise to any neuroscientists and psychologists (or medical doctors, etc.) for my tedious explanation, but here goes. Our brain is made up of neurons which communicate through a process called neurotransmission which can be either chemical or electrical. For this explanation we are interested only in the electrical communications within each neuron. I was able to use an EEG machine (a machine which measures the electrical activity in the brain) on one of my fellow students. Our mission? To find out what the difference in electrical activity was when doing different tasks. So, my participant put the cap on their head - as cheerfully as I have ever seen anyone cover their head with latex so electrodes could be stuck to them - and we turned on the machine. My participant was told to complete several tasks in the following order:

• Rest for 30 seconds so a baselane EEG reading could be made (with eyes open)
• Solve a mathematical problem in their head (the participant was not allowed to speak aloud)
• Take a 10 second rest (with eyes open)
• Read an extract from a book in their head
• Take a 30 second rest with eyes closed

We must note for the purpose of this that there are three main types of EEG waves, beta, alpha and delta (occuring in that order) and these are pevelant in different sleep levels (for example if one is awake they experience beta waves, in the first stages of sleep they experience alpha waves, and through other sleep stages, delta). Beta waves were the most prominant wave form when the participant was wide awake and carrying out the activities which required cognitive function. Alpha waves set in slowly on the first two resting periods when the participant had their eyes open and alpha waves were the prominant waves when the participant was a rest with their eyes closed.

My interest was peaked, and so with supervision we added an extra condition: the participant was to hyperventalate (breathe as though they had been excercising) for thirty seconds and then to relax with their eyes closed. Alpha waves again were the dominant wave, yet my participant was far from asleep.

In result of my work I spoke to Dr Windisch (a lecturer at the University I attend) to find out more, she commented on the interest of alpha waves in meditation. She explained to me that the beneficial effects are present with alpha waves as they provide a temporary relief from the presence of beta waves and so allow the brain to calm and for cognitition to relax, allowing rest and relaxation. It has been suggested in one of my textbooks, Pinel's Biopsychology that delta waves are not needed and alpha waves will suffice (this is because some psychophysiologists would say that we don't need sleep at all - but that argument is one I should put forward another day, when I am less tired and my beta wave levels are reaching higher than their current level).

To sum it up, the more you meditate the more alpha waves you experience, the less you need sleep and the more you can learn. When you're an expert at it, you dont even need your eyes closed to achieve high levels of alpha waves. I'm not there yet, one day though, I hope to be.