Brown noise: how the constant hum of a jet engine can cure your insomnia

Listening to the soft rumble of thunder, or even the hiss of a radiator, can help you fall asleep.

At least, if you believe sleep scientists.

If you’ve been scrolling through social media at any point in the past 12 months, especially TikTok, chances are you’ve come across the sensation of “brown noise.”

Videos claiming it can “calm and focus the mind,” help you fall asleep and prevent tossing and turning have been viewed millions of times.

Up to one in three Britons and nearly half of Americans have insomnia.

Desperate for a cure, millions resort to breathing exercises and lighting scented candles to help them sleep. Some count sheep.

Others even listen to static TV to help them relax. Likewise, frustrated pArents have vowed for decades to use the white noise of a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer to put their baby to sleep.

But now sleepyheads are turning to its “brown” sister sound, according to claims it also possesses miraculous drifting abilities.

While it may sound similar, it is technically softer. Proponents compare it to the sound of running water or the deep but soft growl of a jet engine.

Such sounds are already plugged into phone apps and devices being marketed as having sleep-inducing properties, proven to work by calming your heartbeat.

Professor Dan Berlau, a neuroscientist who currently teaches at Regis University School of Pharmacy in Denver, Colorado, said: ‘Brown noise does something called sound masking where because you hear sound at full frequency it creates a blanket of noise over all other sounds. .’

He said, “It just reduces the distractions in your environment.

‘at night, [it means] when you try to sleep you are not distracted by the creaking and noise of the wind in the house…

“It just creates an auditory blanket that creates all the frequencies of noise so you’re not distracted.”

Professor Berlau added: ‘As a father of a four- and a six-year-old, I can tell you that my children have slept with brown or pink noise all their lives. It is awesome.’

While the simple hack may not work for everyone, Professor Berlau advises the desperate to at least try it.

He believes that listening to sounds is safer than taking a lot of drugs, which used to be the main weapon in a sleep doctor’s arsenal.

Professor Berlau said: ‘There are many drugs for sleep, many of which have very strong side effects. So if there are non-pharmacological therapies that can help with sleep, that would be great.

“The downsides to brown noise are pretty minimal unless you listen to it loud enough to hurt your ears.

“I would advise anyone to use brown noise to sleep if they are having a hard time.”

A scientific one report, published in the journal Sensors in 2022, supports his theory that the sleep-inducing effects of listening to brown noise are due to sound masking.

Rather than prescribing drugs to treat insomnia, the Korean study suggested that white, brown, or pink noise might one day be recommended.

Listening to colored sounds helped participants drift off to sleep about 10 minutes earlier than usual, according to an analysis of sleep diaries.

Dr. Gemma Paech, a sleep expert at the University of Newcastle in Australia, said the waves of an ocean during a storm or a fast-flowing river could also be classified as brown noise.

Dr. Paech explained that the sound is deeper, less loud and more soothing to sleep than white or pink noise.

Pink noise, like brown and white noise, is a sonic hue and can be compared to the sound of rustling leaves.

Dr. Peach told MailOnline that there are other reasons why brown noise can help people sleep, not just because of its powerful masking effect.

She said: “There may be a “conditioned response” – if someone has regularly fallen asleep in the past by listening to these sounds, the brain begins to associate these sounds with sleep, so that when they are played the brain goes to sleep .

Some people may find these sounds relaxing, which can help put the brain in a state ready for sleep.

“For example, if someone has positive associations with rain on a roof, it can be soothing to listen to similar sounds to help them fall asleep.”

But brown noise is just a quick fix and won’t fix the root cause of the sleep disorder, Dr. Peach says.

If stress and anxiety are disturbing your sleep rather than external noise, then these noises won’t necessarily solve your sleep problems in the long run, Dr. Peach explains.

Professor Göran Söderlund, at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, is researching white noise and how it can help with memory and attention, specifically in children.

Sticking to his own theory, he has used the white noise from appliances in his home to put his children to sleep.

He said, “Anyone who has little kids is using white noise.

“Some people use the sound of a vacuum cleaner to soothe their children and put them to sleep. I did that with my child.’