If you live in a city or have family members who keep you up at night, you likely have a love-hate relationship with noise. Loud changes in voice are disturbing and can interrupt sleep. However, noise machines provide sleepers with a consistent chromatic noise that helps block out these unwanted sounds.
You might be thinking of white noise now. White noise is the best known, and the machines that make it have been on the market for decades. But that’s not the only noise that can help you sleep. Let’s dive into the types of noises, what they sound like and which ones are best for sleeping.
What is a sound wave anyway?
All the different “colors” of noise resonate with different amplitudes at different frequencies. They can all help you sleep, but it’s worth trying out the different sounds.
Wikipedia
Well, let’s dive into a little bit of the science. You can separate sound waves into two components:
- repetition, which indicates how fast a wave vibrates per second and is measured in hertz (distant memories of high school science coming back yet?). One hertz means one vibration per second.
- amplitudealso called powerwhich indicates the size of the waves. This is usually measured in decibels, which is a measure of the volume or intensity of a sound.
All the different colors of sound vibrate at different frequencies, and their names are very similar to the colors of light. For example, white noise emits all frequencies audible to human ears, just as white light contains all colors of light visible to the human eye.
Don’t confuse the colors of sound with ambient noise, which refers to background noise present in any given location; For example, the rumble of a train mixed with the chatter of passengers, or the rustle of tree leaves in the wind mixed with the chirping of birds.
Sound colors are continuous, unchanging signals of a given frequency and amplitude.
Why should I use noise to sleep?
We’ve talked about what sound waves are, now let’s define why they can help you fall asleep.
- Other sounds drown out: In general, it is not the sound itself that wakes us up or prevents us from falling asleep in the first place. Instead, harsh changes in sound wake us up — think of a door slamming, a dog barking, or a bolt of lightning. This is where sleep sounds come into play. By filling our bedrooms with static sound, we can muffle those outside distractions and create a more serene environment.
- Helps you relax and focus on sleep: For many people, the reason they can’t sleep at night is because they can’t make their brains “run off”. With daily worries, anxieties, and an endless to-do list, it can be difficult to relax enough to sleep at night. Sleeping with noise, such as brown noise, will help you focus on the sound and allow you to fall asleep easier.
The original self-proclaimed white noise machine, Marpac has been making copies of the Dohm Classic since 1962.
Marbak
What is the appropriate color noise for sleep?
White noise for sleep
Legacy Sleep Sounds, white noise has lulled people to sleep for ages. Since white noise encompasses all frequencies a person can hear (around 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz), it has the ability to block out any external sound.
The consistency of white noise creates a tried-and-true masking effect, which can help people fall asleep faster. White noise sounds like the static you hear when cable TV accidentally tunes to an unused channel.
White noise is best for: those who have insomnia or ADHD.
Try it: Since it is the most popular of all the colors, almost every sleep sound app includes it. You can also find plenty of products that use white noise, like the Marpac white noise machine with over 10,000 five-star reviews.
Pink noise for sleep
Pink noise has recently become the darling of all sleep sounds, presumably due to the fact that recent research has shown that pink noise can increase the time spent in deep sleep and improve memory.
Pink noise is a mixture of high and low frequencies, such as the sound of falling rain or gentle ocean waves, which makes it soft and soothing. It also has more energy in the lower frequency ranges than white noise, and these strong tones make the sound less harsh to the human ear.
Since it includes both high and low frequencies, it also has sound-blocking benefits that can help eliminate distracting noises that keep you from sleeping. For example, if you live in an apartment complex where people come and go all night, pink noise may help you drown out the sounds of speeding engines or footsteps.
Pink noise is best for: People who sleep lightly.
Try it: Check out the DreamWeaver Sleep Fan from Honeywell, a small bedside fan that emits a pink noise along with the fan’s oscillation and cooling.
Dreamweaver is a new product from Honeywell that combines an oscillating fan with pink noise for the ultimate snooze.
Honeywell
Brown noise to sleep
Think of brown noise like a deeper version of pink noise, with more bass notes and focused low-frequency energy. It sounds softened compared to white noise, but somewhat stronger, comparable to rough ocean surf during a storm or the clank of a low-humping brass instrument.
Unlike other sounds, the brown noise is not named after the actual brown color. Instead, brown noise gets its name from its similarity to Brownian motion, which is the random and rapid movement of particles in a fluid.
Brown noise is best for: People who live in noisy places or struggle to clear their minds at night.
Try it: The LectroFan Classic contains 10 variations of noise, which include white, pink, and brown. You can also find brown noise in most sleep sound apps.
LectroFan makes a small bedside noise machine that plays a variety of different “colors” to help you sleep.
Lectrofan
Blue noise for sleep
Blue noise’s energy is mostly concentrated in the high-frequency end, with very few deep notes to balance it out. As such, the blue noise is like the sounds of a twisted water hose. If you’re not sensitive to high-pitched sounds, blue noise does a great job of masking outside noise very hard.
It’s harsh at high volume levels, but audio engineers often use blue noise for reverb, a process in which they intentionally add noise to a production, such as a remix of a song, in order to soften the sound.
Blue noise is the bestThose who cannot hear high-pitched sounds well.
Try it: Because blue noise is harsher than other colors, many manufacturers don’t include it in their basic sleep sound machines. If you really like blue noise, you’ll probably have to tweak a little more for a high-end device that lets you mix and customize sounds at different frequencies, like the Sound Oasis Deluxe Sleep and Tinnitus Sound Therapy System S-6000. However, there is an app for iPhones, White Noise for iOS, that has a blue noise track.
What color noise is best for sleeping?
The truth is, we don’t know what colored noise is best for sleeping. No one knows for sure, because no scientists have conducted research that explicitly compares different colors of sound in a controlled environment. To find out which type of noise helps you sleep better, test them all out with an app.
I like White Noise Lite for iOS. I’ve had the lite version on my phone for years, and use it whenever I need a little help while snoozing. It contains all the different colors of sound described in this article, as well as some other familiar sounds, such as the air conditioner, the oscillating fan, light rain and thunderstorms. You can also mix tracks to create the perfect sound cocktail for bedtime.
Once you find a sound that you like and that consistently helps you sleep, consider purchasing a sound sleep device, such as High fidelity white noise machine from LectroFan, which contains 20 sounds to choose from. Dedicated devices often offer higher definition audio and can reach higher volume levels than a phone can.
The information in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have about a medical condition or health goals.