electroencephalograph, you would see that the different waves
operate at different cycles per second.Beta waves are the fastest and delta the slowest. For example, when
you are asleep your brain is operating most slowly. When you first
go to sleep, it is producing theta waves at four to seven cycles per
second. This is when you can almost feel your brain processing the
experiences of the day, when you often have night thoughts and
need to have a notepad by the bed to scribble them down. As you
go into a deeper sleep, your brain slows down still further to as low
as half a cycle per second or delta waves.
At work, your brain will be predominantly producing beta
waves, somewhere between 13 and 25 cycles per second. This is the
predominant daytime state of talking, thinking, problem solving,
and all the tasks of a typical day.
However, it is the alpha state, some 8 to 12 waves per second,
that we are increasingly realizing is very important. It is when many
people have their best ideas, when your imagination is really work-
ing. Some people manage to reach this state easily, for example, in
a really good creative session such as the one described in the day
in the life of Annie’s brain. Others need consciously to seek to lower
the speed of their busy daytime brain, through techniques such as
brain gym, autogenic training, yoga, or other methods of relaxation.
Or, it could be through really concentrated effort that you some-146 Power Up Your Mind
Alpha wave Beta waveTheta wave Delta wave