Using Pink Noise to Help You Sleep

White noise, a bland sort of even-keeled background noise, has been used to help people sleep, concentrate, and more for decades. Now there’s a new noise in the neighborhood, pink noise. Similar to white noise, but a bit deeper, pink noise is gaining traction for its possible ability to help people sleep more deeply. 

Noise in all colors
White noise, famous for its ability to block out offending noise, and help people sleep, got its name due to its similarity to white light, According to APNews. Like white light, white noise is essentially all frequencies audible to the human ear at the same volume, just as white light contains all color wavelengths visible to the human eye. So, that being said, what is pink noise? 

Pink noise, according to the Sleep Foundation organization, contains all frequencies audible to the human ear, but as the octaves of the noise rise, the volume decreases, giving a deeper sound than white noise. It often shows up in nature in the form of the sounds of rain, waterfalls, rivers, wind, and other sounds of nature. 

Pink noise is not the only noise named after a color. There is also brown noise, which is even deeper than pink noise, blue noise, which sounds higher and shriller than pink noise, and even gray noise, a more balanced form of white noise. 

Uses of pink noise
Over the last few years, there have been a few small studies on the benefits of pink noise.  One undefined in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience shows that playing elderly people bursts of pink noise when they sleep increased their slow wave activity during sleep which improved their sleep dependent memory retention upon waking. 

Another study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology showed that pink noise had quite a significant effect on improving sleep stability and quality in 40 test subjects. That’s because it reduced brain wave activity and induced a more stable sleep time.

Additionally, AP reports, there is some indication that pink noise may be somewhat beneficial for people with ADHD. But, there is still a lot of research to be done. 

But it makes sense that pink noise can help you sleep. After all, the sound of the waves, the rain and other natural sounds are soothing to begin with, regardless of whether it is natural or in pink noise waves. So when you need to sleep, go pink, and rest easier.