Noisy Sleep

You’ve probably heard of white noise as it’s long been used as a sleep aid because it can help to mask other sounds that might be present in the environment – think traffic, noisy neighbours or pets etc. By providing a consistent and soothing background sound, white noise can make it easier for people to fall asleep and stay asleep, and a recent study saw 38% of participants fall asleep faster whilst listening to it.

Recently, we’ve been hearing about different types of noise – brown noise? Pink noise? Yeah, we didn’t know the difference either, so we set out to find out.

The colour of noise is determined by the energy of the sound signal. Specifically, it depends on how energy is distributed over various frequencies, or the speed of sound.

Pink noise consists of all frequencies we can hear, but the energy isn’t equally distributed across them. It’s more intense at lower frequencies, which creates a deep sound – think steady rain and rustling leaves. To the human ear it sounds flat or even.

White noise includes all audible frequencies. Energy is equally distributed across these frequencies, unlike the energy in pink noise. The equal distribution creates a steady humming sound akin to TV static or a whirring fan.

Brown noise, also called red noise, has higher energy at lower frequencies. This makes it deeper than pink and white noise, but despite this, it sounds similar to white noise to the human ear. Brown ‘noises’ are similar to heavy waterfalls and thunder.

Or are you a black noise fan? Black noise is an informal term used to describe lack of noise, i.e. silence!

So how do you find the type of noise that suits you? Well, trial and error. Personally we’re big fans of pink noise (I’ve found that it filters out my partner’s awful snoring!)

There are hundreds of apps and YouTube loop videos out there that are designed to help you get a better night’s sleep using white noise. We’ve been using (and rate) Rx Noise- Pink Noise for Sleep app as well as White Noise Deep Sleep Sounds app.

We’re also loving Dalesnale’s 10 hour loop YouTube videos to help you get a restful night’s sleep, just remember to turn your screen brightness all the way down!

What’s your noise?! Let us know via our socials.

Goodnight x

N.B. Glorious is not affiliated with any of these apps. We are not sponsored by them and do not receive any monetary gain from featuring them, we’re just big fans!