Activity · Calming
Sit back, close your eyes and let your tinnitus tone wash over you. It swells, drifts from ear to ear and fades again. There is nothing to do but listen.
Calming · 15 minutesSoundscape is the calm exercise in Freequency. You put in your earbuds, set your phone down and make yourself comfortable. After a few seconds of silence your tone gently swells in. It holds for a moment, drifting from one side to the other as it does, and fades back into silence. A little later a new wave begins, from a different angle. Fifteen minutes long, without you having to do a thing.
The screen moves along softly: wherever the sound sits, a color blooms in the dark. And with every wave you feel light taps in your hand, in rhythm with the sound. So you practice with the same principle as in Catch the Tone, but sitting or lying down. Ideal for the evening, for when you have no room to walk around, or for days when you simply want a moment of calm.
How it works
A session takes fifteen minutes. The only thing you do is begin. The app takes care of the rest.
Make yourself comfortable
Put in your earbuds and sit or lie down. The app shows whether your earbuds are connected and Professor Toon briefly tells you what is about to happen.
Start with silence
After you start, it stays quiet for a few seconds, so you can set your phone down and settle in. Then the first wave arrives.
Let the tone swell
Your tone rises slowly, holds for a few seconds and sinks away again. Meanwhile it drifts from one side to the other, taking a different route every time.
Feel the rhythm
Light taps from your phone follow the sound: faster as the tone rises, slower as it fades. The screen blooms wherever the sound is.
Finish with the check-in
After fifteen minutes you have reached your goal, but you can stop whenever you like. Then log how you feel with the flower check-in.
The science
Soundscape is exposure in its purest form: you deliberately seek out your own tinnitus tone, in a setting where nothing threatening happens. Because the tone moves and arrives from a different angle every time, your brain keeps perceiving it as something from outside. Repeat that daily, and the alarm response your brain has to the sound slowly shrinks.
Good to know
Soundscape is deliberately kept simple. This is what happens under the hood.
It starts softly
The first waves are softer than your tone in the tone generator. With every wave the sound grows a step fuller, until it reaches full strength after a few waves. It never catches you off guard.
Every wave is different
Where the tone starts, where it ends and how long the silence in between lasts is different every time. Your brain cannot predict what is coming and keeps listening along gently.
Several tones at once
Do you have more than one tone active, say a whistle and some noise? Then they drift along together, exactly as you set them up in the tone generator.
Eyes open or closed
The screen is black with a soft color that follows the sound. Nice to look at, but not necessary. It works just as well with your eyes closed.
Tips
Soundscape asks little of you. With these tips it becomes a moment to look forward to.
Pick a fixed moment
Many people do the soundscape in the evening, to close the day. A fixed moment makes it easier to keep going.
Set your phone down
There is nothing to tap. Put your phone next to you or on your stomach, so you feel the taps without having to look.
Start with a good match
The soundscape uses the tones you created in the tone generator. Does your tone no longer fit? Adjust it first.
Stopping is always fine
Feel like it is enough? Then wrap up. A shorter session beats no session, and your check-in still counts.
Alternate with Catch the Tone
Both exercises work on the same principle. Energy for a game? Pick Catch the Tone. In need of calm? Pick Soundscape.
Keep the volume comfortable
Set the volume so the tone is just as present as your own tinnitus, not louder. Comfort comes first.
Get started
Ten minutes a day, your phone, and your own tone. That's all it takes, and the first 3 days are free.
Freequency complements your existing care and does not replace it. Use it in consultation with your audiologist or healthcare professional.
