This week’s Time Out New York features a story titled “Trebled Mind,” about Brain Music Therapy (BMT). As a life-long insomniac, music reporter Mike Wolf says he’s tried everything––save “those lame CDs of whale songs and Amazon rain forests”––so the idea of having his brain waves recorded and put to music wasn’t so weird. The therapy, he reports, was founded by Dr. Iakov I. Levine, a Russian doctor, in 1991 and is now dispensed by only one person in the U.S., Galina Mindlin in New York City. BMT records your brainwaves while you wear a mesh cap with electrodes, and then passes them “through a computer algorithm that composes the exact sequence of notes that promote both relaxation and activation (increased alertness and acuity) in that specific patient,” he writes.

After listening to the music––which turned out to be very non-rocking piano tunes (“Think of it as medicine,” advised the doctor)––every morning before waking and every night before bed, he found his sleep got much deeper and longer. Pretty cool. It’s kind of pricey at $550, but as Wolf points out, that still could save you loads on addictive sleep drugs. And, apparently, it also works wonders on anxiety. For more info on BMT: brainmusictreatment.com

Brain photo: Burke/Triolo Productions/Getty Images