If you’ve ever driven through a bad patch of radio reception, you’ve likely heard white noise within that scattered, distorted audio signal. Ranging from a soft hiss to a consistent hum or whirr, white noise is a combination of all frequencies across the spectrum of audible sound, played in equal measure.
While white noise might seem like an annoyance when you’re trying to listen to your favorite music or keep tabs on a baseball game, the sound actually has a wide variety of health benefits, including improving focus and concentration, reducing stress, and enhancing cognitive performance and mental clarity. Researchers have also dug into the value of white noise as a tool for enhancing sleep, and the results couldn’t be more positive and encouraging. If you have trouble getting to sleep at night, or sleeping throughout the night, the best part about white noise is that trying it is also incredibly easy!
Sculpted for Sleep
The first recorded use of white noise to help someone sleep dates back to the 17th century when Italian sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini created a rotating wheel surrounded by a series of paper globes, which emitted a form of white noise when placed into motion. The machine was commissioned in 1667 by Pope Clement IX, who suffered from severe insomnia. The Pope found the sounds of wind blowing through the trees and the sound of a rushing waterfall to be relaxing, and he hoped that Bernini’s machine might mimic those sounds and help him to rest better. The invention was an incredible success, and the Pope’s ability to sleep at night is said to have improved tremendously.
Apart from maybe the bed itself, no other discovery has been so beneficial to our ability to sleep well at night than white noise — its effectiveness can’t be understated. In fact, researchers are still finding new value in its use even today! A recent study conducted by a group of sleep experts in New York City followed participants who struggled with sleep due to the elevated noise levels that come with urban living. These researchers found that when the sleep-deprived individuals added white noise machines to their bedrooms, they significantly improved both their sleep duration and quality of sleep each night the sound was in use.
How it Works
One of the greatest and most helpful qualities of white noise is its ability to mask other sounds. By creating a static tone without any spikes or unpleasantness, white noise is like draping heavy curtains over a bright window. It mutes or dulls out other sounds and creates a relaxing blanket of noise that some have even compared to sounds we experience in the womb. No wonder it’s so comforting! Researchers are still working to map out the exact connections between the way our brain waves may uniquely interact with this sound, but the results of a multitude of existing studies have already proven that having white noise around us is inherently soothing.
In addition to enhancing sleep, you can play white noise to improve your work performance or potentially improve the symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. This type of pleasant sensory experience can also work as a grounding exercise for periods of stress as you allow yourself to focus away from your thoughts and onto the sound.
Try it Now
Machines that produce white noise are readily available. But you can also get the benefit of white noise directly from your phone. The Innery App has an hour-long track of relaxing white noise you can start listening to immediately. Try it tonight, or anytime you need a quick boost in concentration or stress reduction. For better sleep, position your phone near the bed and set it at a volume that offers the noise-masking benefits without being too loud to become a disturbance itself.
If you enjoy the quality of white noise but wish it was a bit different in tone, you can extend your colorful search as we also offer brown and green noise — similar waves of sound only played at slightly different frequencies. Try them all and see which you respond to the best. Finding the right noise is all about personal preference and bringing yourself into a place where sleep can come easy. Happy — and restful — listening!
