Adding noise to your sleep routine may sound counterintuitive, but many people swear by wrapping themselves in a blanket of sound to get a better night of rest.
You’ve probably heard of white noise. Now, other colors of noise like pink and brown are increasingly popular, especially on TikTok. The continuous, ambient sounds are often used to drown out the cacophony of other noises that can keep people up at night.
Many TikTok users hail white, pink and brown noise for its supposed benefits — from improving sleep to promoting relaxation and boosting productivity. There are a growing number of sound machines and apps designed to play these sounds.
What is the difference between white, pink and brown noise and do these actually help improve sleep like people claim?
What is the color of noise?
“The term ‘color’ of noise is used to describe the strength and frequency of a noise signal on the power spectrum,” Shelby Harris, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist specializing in behavioral sleep medicine and director of sleep health at Sleepopolis, tells TODAY.com.
“Different colors of noise have different strengths and frequencies, and as a result, they sound different to the human ear,” Harris explains. White, pink and brown noise are all types of noise with varying amounts of energy at different frequencies.
White noise
“White noise contains all frequencies in equal amounts, resulting in a constant hiss or rush similar to the static on a radio (or television),” Harris. It may sound like the continuous hum of a fan, a hair dryer or a vacuum.
It’s called white noise because it is analogous to white light, which is a mixture of all the different wavelengths of light together.
White noise is often used to mask other sounds in the environment, says Harris, and many people claim the constant static helps lull their brain to sleep. It’s also used to soothe babies because it is said to mimic the sound of amniotic fluid in the womb, TODAY.com previously reported.
Brown noise
Brown…
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