I just finished to meditate in front of the screen with this clock on:
http://www.clocktab.com/Doing Hong Sau, I check how many breaths per minute and this is a way to try and calm the breath. Tonite the frequency was pretty irregular, sometimes 3 or 4 BPM, sometimes over 10, with very shallow and imperceptible breaths.
Although attention is somewhat diverted watching a clock with eyes open--- I think it is a novel idea and good one to implement in our routine from time to time. I intend on using it to see just how much the breath is slowing down.
I remember spending time with a therapist when I was younger. As a friend he took an interest in my excitement about meditation and showed me a device he had that measured and showed brain waves on a screen. It had wires that had electrodes on the ends to connect to your head and you could see on the screen how your brain waves changed as you started meditating and concentrated on focusing being calm. It was quite amazing how you could consciously change your brain waves from beta to alpha waves with some theta waves coming in! 😉
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http://www.binauralbeatsonline.com/functions-of-the-five-different-brain-waves/I tried for a few minutes this morning. I'm about where u are mccoy...relaxed a bit more and got it to 3 bpm. Will try it some more...I like your experiment.