The internet loves a creepy-sounding explanation for basic human misery. This week’s version is “Earth’s heartbeat,” a low-frequency hum that some people swear spikes and then leaves them with headaches, brain fog, sleep trouble, and a high-pitched ringing that makes you want to move into the woods and throw your phone in a lake.
The real science object behind the folklore is the Schumann resonances. NASA describes them as extremely low frequency electromagnetic resonances in the cavity between Earth’s surface and the ionosphere, a conductive layer high above us that’s shaped by sunlight and charged particles. Lightning excites this Earth–ionosphere “waveguide,” and the resonances show up as peaks at specific frequencies, including a fundamental around 7.83 Hz.
The 7.83 Hz figure is why people keep trying to connect Schumann resonances to brainwaves. Some sleep-related rhythms overlap in range, especially around drowsiness. “Overlap” is the key word. It’s not the same as “controls.”
so what about the ringing ears?
A second issue is that a lot of viral posts mash together separate phenomena. When you see the “0 to 9” rating, that usually refers to the planetary Kp index, which NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center uses to summarize geomagnetic disturbances over three-hour windows. Kp can signal conditions that affect radio, navigation, satellites, and power systems. It is not a Schumann resonance scorecard.
So what about the ringing? Tinnitus has a long list of boring causes, including hearing loss, noise exposure, earwax, certain medications, jaw issues, and stress. Research has looked at links between symptoms and electromagnetic exposure claims, including a study in International Journal of Neuroscience that examined tinnitus and self-reported electromagnetic hypersensitivity. It explored associations, not a clean causal pipeline from geophysics to your inner ear.
Schumann resonances are real. Space weather is real. Humans feeling weird is also real. The leap is pinning your insomnia and ear ringing on a planet-scale signal without solid evidence that it reliably drives those symptoms in everyday life.
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