What is White Noise?
White noise is the sound you get if you combine all the audible frequencies of sound in equal intensity at the same time. The name white noise comes from the analogy to white light, which contains the whole light spectrum.
The sound of white noise is often likened to the static noise that comes from an untuned radio or television. White noise is also similar to the sound of rain, rustling leaves or a rumbling waterfall.
What are the benefits of White Noise?
There are many benefits of listening to white noise. The main benefits of white noise are:
- Helps you concentrate and focus at work
- Helps you study
- Helps you sleep better
- Soothes and pacifies babies
- Helps you cope with ADD / ADHD
- Helps you cope with tinnitus
White noise has various benefits and applications, and among others, it is often used to enhance privacy, help improve productivity and focus and even help improve sleep quality.
As white noise contains all the different audible frequencies of sound, it has a great masking ability, that is the capability to reduce or eliminate the perception of other sounds.
Imagine you’re sitting in a coffee shop. If there are just a few people you are able to hear and follow their conversations. However, as the cafè gets more crowded, all the conversations now blend together becoming background noise and you won’t be able to distinguish single conversations anymore.
White noise works the same way, and thanks to this masking capability, you can use white noise to create a constant background noise that is very helpful to mask and drown out other noises around that could predominate and eventually disrupt your concentration or your sleep.
Let’s say you’re in a silent room at night and trying to fall asleep. As a big truck passes by, or a loud noise suddenly comes from your neighbor, you will hear everything and your sleep is disrupted. However, if you’re listening to white noise in the background, any additional noise will just add up to what you’re already hearing, making the disruptive noise less noticeable.
White Noise helps you concentrate and focus at work
One of the biggest issues for employees in their work environment is noise. No matter if you’re working from home, your local co-working space, a cubicle or from the newly designed open office. Disturbance by loud coworkers, general office noise or noise caused by incoming notifications from various devices, they all have a tremendous negative impact on your productivity.
Listening to white noise through your headphones can effectively block out your co-workers and any other annoying noises in order to restore your privacy and create an environment of peace and calm where you can focus on your tasks.
White Noise helps you focus while studying
Annoying noises in the environment are disrupting not only for workers but also for students. Kids can have a hard time focusing in class, but also in the library or at home while studying.
By listening to white noise they can mask other noises and therefore prevent to get interrupted by their siblings or other classmates. Especially in places where it is generally very quiet, like the library, white noise is great to create a continuous buzz of background noise which will help to stay alert and concentrated.
White Noise helps you sleep better
A lack of sleep has a negative impact on your mood (higher irritability), your immune system (loss in ability to fight off infection) and your brain. Your ability to concentrate, to take in new information or to make critical decisions is highly reduced. One third of American adults suffer from sleep deprivation.
White noise is often used as a sleeping aid, helping you fall asleep and preventing that you’re getting disturbed by other noises. As specialist in sleep disorders Thomas Roth, PhD, puts it: “It’s the inconsistency of sound or silence that’s disruptive”.
Another interesting aspect is, that our brains naturally crave for sensory input, says Ralph Pascualy, MD, and thus white noise both blocks out disruptive sounds and provides just enough noise to secure a good night’s sleep.
What noise is best for sleep?
White noise is often the first recommendation if you have problems falling asleep, live in a noisy neighborhood or suffer from insomnia. You can also try out other noises such as pink or brown noise or combine white noise with other sounds such as rain or rustling leaves to create a relaxing and soothing sound environment to help you sleep.
White Noise for babies
Many parents rely to white noise when it comes to calming down their crying baby or helping the baby to fall asleep. How come? Before birth, the baby was used to a lot of different noises such as the heartbeat, respiration and digestion of the mother. All those noises came in the form of white noise.
Playing white noise to your baby creates a familiar and calming environment which helps the baby to calm and fall asleep. Furthermore, white noise will mask any outside noise distractions so as to not wake your baby up.
White Noise and ADD / ADHD
People that suffer from ADD or ADHD have a hard time paying attention and concentrating. External distractions and annoying noises can be an extra challenge for them since they are more easily distracted by their surroundings.
Listening to white noise can effectively help to block out these annoying noises and help to create a distraction free environment. This will allow them to concentrate better, improve cognitive function and increase overall productivity.
White Noise and tinnitus
Tinnitus is a condition where people hear a ringing or buzzing in the ears. Between 50 to 60 million people in the United States suffer from this condition. It is mostly noticed when things are quiet around, such as in silent rooms or at night. Since studying, concentrated work and sleeping require most of the time a more quiet environment, white noise can help to mask the noise coming from Tinnitus and thus help to minimize its impact.
What are the different noise colors?
Apart from white noise, there are many different colors of noise: white noise, pink noise, brown noise and even blue noise, gray noise and violet noise.
White Noise vs. Pink Noise
Compared to white noise, pink noise is more intense in the lower-frequencies, and as a result it sounds lower pitched than white noise. Pink noise is often compared to the noise produced by the rain.
White Noise vs. Brown Noise
Compared to white noise, brown noise is more intense in the lower-frequencies, even more than pink noise, and is the lowest pitched of the three. Brown noise is often compared to the sound of a rumbling waterfall.