Your brain works at
specific frequencies.
Tihna is built around that.
Sleep, calm, focus, and morning energy each have a signature brainwave state. Tihna delivers structured programs — real frequencies, real duration, real citations — designed to guide your brain there on purpose. Not a music app. A protocol.
Most audio apps play sound. Tihna delivers protocols — specific frequencies, at specific durations, targeting specific brain states. The difference is measurable, and it's in the studies below.
Four brain states.
Four protocols.
Sleep, calm, focus and morning each correspond to a specific brainwave state. The 2024–2026 research finally shows what a well-designed audio protocol can do to each. These are the four programs inside Tihna, and the studies each one is grounded in.
Week 1–2: 6 Hz theta trains your brain out of the wired, racing-thoughts state. Week 3–4: 3 Hz delta deepens sleep quality and recovery. 20 minutes, headphones on, lights off.
Alpha waves quiet your nervous system without sedation or medication. Week 1–2 starts at 10 Hz. Week 3–4 bridges to 8 Hz for a deeper reset. A separate 2026 study of 219 people found 6 Hz theta paired with pink noise produced the strongest calmness effect on record (Hedges’ g > 0.84).
Gamma is the frequency your brain runs on during peak thinking. Pure 40 Hz across all four weeks — no distractor tones layered underneath. Zhao’s 2025 study specifically shows 40 Hz outperformed 7 Hz and control on a real focus task — a frequency-specific positive result.
Beta is the frequency your brain runs on when it’s awake and engaged. Week 1–2 starts at 18 Hz to lift you into the alert range; Week 3–4 steps up to 21 Hz for sustained morning drive. 15 minutes, headphones on — designed to replace the second cup, not the first.
Tihna is designed to support your wellbeing — not to diagnose or treat medical conditions. Do not use if you have epilepsy, a pacemaker, or are pregnant. If you have any medical condition, consult your doctor before using Tihna.
A frequency alone isn’t a protocol. Duration, sequence, headphone verification, and the right underlying tone all matter. That’s the difference between “audio” and a program — and it’s what Tihna is built around.
Built different.
By design.
What the studies actually show.
Below are the primary 2024–2026 trials each Tihna program is grounded in. RCTs, real N, real p-values — with links to the papers. There’s also an honest note on where the field still disagrees, at the bottom of the section.
1–3 Hz
Deep sleep Theta
4–8 Hz
Sleep & mood Alpha
8–12 Hz
Calm Beta
13–30 Hz
Alert energy Gamma
30–100 Hz
Peak focus
Tihna targets the 4 frequencies your brain uses to shift between states. Delta — the deepest sleep stage — occurs naturally when Theta does its job.
How to Fall Asleep Faster: The Science of 6 Hz Theta Frequencies
Why your brain stays wired at night — and how a structured Hz protocol cuts sleep onset time in half. Plain English, full citations.
Read the article →
Natural Anxiety Relief Without Medication: What the Research Actually Shows
10 Hz alpha doesn't just feel calming — it produces measurable physiological changes. Here's what the trials found.
Read the article →
Wake Up Without Caffeine: How Beta Frequencies Trigger Your Brain's Alert State
Beta is the frequency your brain shifts into when you're driven and switched on. Here's how to trigger it deliberately.
Read the article →
40 Hz Gamma Waves and Focus: What the Science Says About Your Brain's Performance State
Gamma is the frequency your brain runs on during peak thinking. Here's the evidence behind targeting it on purpose.
Read the article →Why the ambience is set exactly where it is.
Most apps let you pile on rain, fire, or ocean sounds until the frequency underneath is drowned. That’s pleasant. It’s also no longer a protocol. Tihna is different.
Every session keeps the therapeutic frequency about 10 decibels louder than the background layer — the exact ratio used in the 2017 Frontiers in Human Neuroscience protocol. Loud enough for your brainstem to phase-lock. Quiet enough to stay comfortable for 20 minutes.
The default is set so the beat leads and the ambience supports. Raise it above 50% and the ratio collapses — you get a nice lo-fi track, not neural entrainment. Drop it below 15% and the pure tones become tonally exposing. 20–40% is the evidence-aligned window.
Master volume matters more than the mix. The entire session should sit at about the loudness of a quiet office. Every guide in the literature agrees: cranking the volume adds fatigue and doesn’t strengthen the effect. Your brain detects the ratio, not the loudness.
The trade-off we’re transparent about.
A 2025 Nature Scientific Reports study found that adding background noise weakens the raw EEG entrainment but improves the behavioural outcome — probably because it keeps the session tolerable enough to actually finish. The 30% default is our answer to that trade-off: enough ambience to stay in the seat for 20 minutes, not so much that the protocol disappears. In the upcoming ambience slider you’ll be able to move it — but the recommended zone will always be visible, and the science behind it will always be one tap away.
A note on the state of the evidence
Binaural beats have promising 2024–2026 RCT data, but this is still a young field and the mechanism is debated. A 2023 systematic review (Ingendoh et al.) found 8 studies contradicting neural entrainment against 5 supporting it. What the outcome studies agree on is that when the right frequency is delivered under the right protocol, people fall asleep faster, feel calmer, and perform better on cognitive tasks. Tihna is built on those outcome studies, and every session in the app cites the specific paper behind its frequency — so you can always check for yourself.
From App Store to your first session
Choose your goal
Sleep better, feel calmer, or think sharper. Pick one. Tihna asks a handful of questions to set your starting point — then gets out of the way.
Plug in your headphones
Binaural beats need stereo headphones to work — each ear hears a slightly different tone, and the frequency emerges from the difference. Tihna verifies your setup before every session so you’re actually getting what the studies tested.
Run your daily session (15–20 min)
Watch the live waveform pulse at your exact frequency. Tap the citation to read the study behind it. Sleep and Calm sessions are 20 minutes. Focus is 15. Headphones on, breathe, and let the protocol do its job.
Watch your own data
Every session logs to your dashboard. By Week 4 you’ll have real numbers to look at — sleep onset, calm sessions completed, focus sessions done — and you can decide for yourself whether it’s working.
The audio app we wished we had.
There are already a lot of apps that play calming sounds. Tihna isn’t trying to be one of them. It’s a small, structured tool for people who want to know exactly what their brain is receiving, why, and what the study behind it says. That’s the whole idea.
- Every session cites the specific paper behind its frequency
- Sessions 1–3 of every program are always free
- Quick Calm needs no account at all
Free forever, or unlock the full 4-week programs.
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Tihna is live.
The first 500 get half off.
Founders get their first year for A$29.99 instead of A$59.99, keep that price for as long as they stay subscribed, and shape the roadmap directly. You can download Tihna now on the App Store — or grab a Founders code first and use it the moment you install.
iOS only · Requires stereo headphones · Not for epilepsy or pacemaker users
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Answer a few questions so we understand what you’re trying to fix and how Tihna fits. Your code arrives by email within an hour. This takes about 90 seconds.
First 500 members only · A$29.99 for the first year