Is Loam meditation app free?

Yes. Loam is free to download and free to start. Core tools like breathing exercises, journaling, daily check-ins, and streak tracking are always available at no cost. Premium unlocks the full guided session library, unlimited custom Moments, and advanced features.

What makes Loam different from Calm or Headspace?

Loam composes every session around how you feel right now — the voice, the pace, and the therapeutic approach all adapt in real time. Instead of a catalog of pre-recorded tracks, Loam generates a new meditation tailored to your current emotional state, calibrated to your experience level, and grounded in peer-reviewed research. It also ships with Sage, a wellness coach trained in Motivational Interviewing, and 15 breathing exercises with haptic-synced animations.

Is Loam safe to use alongside therapy or medication?

Yes. Loam is designed with clear clinical guardrails. Sessions never claim to diagnose or treat mental illness, never tell you to stop therapy or medication, and always defer to professional care for symptoms that warrant it. Content is constrained to evidence-based techniques (ACT, self-compassion, MBSR, somatic experiencing, CBT-I) and a carefully reviewed voice and pacing library. Meditation is a complement to care, not a replacement. If you're in crisis, please contact a local crisis line or your care provider.

What research is Loam based on?

Every therapeutic technique in Loam cites primary peer-reviewed research. Loam's breathing library is grounded in work by Balban et al. (Stanford, 2023), Zaccaro et al. (2018), and Lehrer & Gevirtz (2014). The Moment's therapeutic architecture draws on polyvagal theory (Porges), ACT (Hayes), self-compassion (Neff), MBSR (Kabat-Zinn), and somatic experiencing (Levine). A full citation library is available at /research.

Who are the voices in Loam?

Loam uses 13 research-selected voices. Each voice is chosen for the emotional state it handles best, based on polyvagal theory, ASMR research, and voice psychology — low resonant voices for grounding, warm bright voices for light moods, measured voices for heavy ones. Loam automatically picks the voice the research says will work for your current state, or you can override manually.

Does Loam work offline?

Core tools work offline, including downloaded meditations, breathing exercises, and the journal. The Moment — Loam's custom meditation composer — requires an internet connection at the moment of generation, because the session is composed on the fly. Once generated, every Moment is saved to your library and can be replayed offline without using any credits.

Does Loam have sleep stories?

Yes. Loam includes narrated sleep stories, sleep soundscapes, and wind-down rituals. The sleep content uses anti-storytelling techniques — structured to prevent the mind from latching on to narrative — based on CBT-I stimulus control research (Bootzin & Epstein, 2011).

What breathing exercises does Loam offer?

Loam offers 15 breathing techniques across beginner, intermediate, and advanced tiers, including Box Breathing (4-4-4-4), 4-7-8 Relaxation, the Physiological Sigh, Coherent (Resonance) Breathing at 5.5-5.5, Alternate Nostril, Ujjayi, Kapalbhati, and the Wim Hof method. Every technique links to the peer-reviewed research that validates it, so you can read the study if you want to.

Will I lose my streak if I miss a day?

No. Loam's streak system is explicitly wellness-first: streaks pause, they don't break. You get two streak freezes, you can mark rest days, and the app never shames you for missing a session. Anxious users are especially vulnerable to streak mechanics turning self-care into another source of pressure — Loam is designed to avoid that failure mode.

BINAURAL · 16 Hz · BETA

Every claim cited · Every technique peer-reviewed

Focus (Beta 16 Hz)

Name: Loam
Availability: InStock
Author: Loam

A 16 Hz low-beta binaural beat for concentration. The beta band is the EEG signature of active thinking and focused attention. Some trials report modest attention-task performance gains with beta binaural beats; the effect is small and inconsistent.

Updated April 2026·4 min read

What it is

Beat frequency: 16 Hz · Carrier: 400 Hz · Band: 13–30 Hz (Beta) · active concentration

A brighter, more active beat than the sleep/meditation presets. The 400 Hz carrier is high enough to feel alerting without being harsh.

Why this frequency

Beta EEG is associated with active cognition. A handful of studies have tested whether beta binaural beats measurably improve attention-task performance; results are mixed but modestly positive on average. Works best as a pre-work ritual (10 min before you start) rather than during complex work.

Relevant research: Garcia-Argibay et al., 2019 (Psychological Research).

Best for

pre-work focus priming
low-complexity cognitive tasks
exam preparation
study sessions

One honest caveat

For complex work (writing, coding, strategy), most people do better with silence or brown noise than beat-entrainment. Beta binaural is a nice warm-up, not a replacement for flow conditions.

How Loam uses binaural beats

Binaural beats work as a layer in Loam — you can pair one with any soundscape or with The Moment, at an independent volume, through headphones. They're not sold as a miracle cure. The honest position: some people find them helpful, the effects are subtle, and the real research base is narrower than the internet claims.

Try it in the Loam app

Focus (Beta 16 Hz) is one of six binaural presets in the Sound Studio mixer. Download Loam to listen with headphones — they are required for the binaural effect to work.

Related binaural presets

Browse the full binaural preset library, or try: Clarity (Gamma 40 Hz), Relaxation (Alpha 10 Hz), Meditation (Theta 6 Hz).

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