Sinead Corcoran Dye takes a sound bath, but is it all noise?

Sound baths use frequencies to switch the nervous system from a fight-or-flight state to a feeling of presence and harmony. Photo / 123rf

Sinead Corcoran Dye discovers whether she's saved by the bell.

"It sounded like the dementors were coming to suck our souls away."

That's my friend Diana and we'd just been to a sound bath. To be fair though, we weren't in a Zen state from the get-go. I had forced Diana to come with me even though she had a date 15 minutes after the class was due to end, and I'd just spent an hour queuing in Kmart to buy us the yoga mats we needed for the class.

According to Medical News Today, a sound bath is a meditative experience where you lie down, usually in a room full of people, and listen to resonant sounds. The experience often involves singing bowls, which create echoing sounds that feel like they fill the room. For the uninitiated, a singing bowl is a type of Tibetan bell that vibrates and produces a rich, deep tone when played.

Some people refer to sound bathing as a healing practice. Studies suggest it may help people relax, but there is no evidence it heals or treats any medical condition. The origins of the practice are also unclear, Medical News Today says.

We entered a beautiful, candlelit studio tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the CBD with a set-up of musical instruments that had been keyed to resonate with our chakras. We couldn't think of a more wholesome way to spend our Saturday evening.

But five minutes into the sound bath I got a cramp in my glute, so I spent the next 30 minutes writhing around, feeling like I had a knife in my butt cheek.

Honestly though, I think we're the problem – because the class was booked-out solid and everyone else seemed in a state of tranquil bliss.

Sound baths also use sound frequencies from instruments including quartz bowls, windchimes and gongs to bring the body and mind to an optimal state by switching the nervous system from a fight-or-flight state to a feeling of presence and harmony. As a result, there is meant to be a shift in brainwaves from a normal waking state to one of deep relaxation and sleep.

The class also promised to "enhance immunity, reduce physical pain, stress and anxiety, restore emotional balance, improve sleep and amplify creativity".

I truly think something is deeply wrong with me though, because to me the instruments sounded exactly like that reverberating sound you hear after you leave a concert at Spark Arena, and you wonder if your ears will ever recover again.

There were parts I did like, though. I loved the candles, I loved the windchimes the instructor dangled over my head at the end, and I loved when she spritzed us all with very expensive-smelling essential oils.

I think I have misophonia because certain sounds are not my thing and I've always been very sensitive to noise – but if repetitive "bongs" sound like your way to unwind, you should definitely give it a go.