If you’re easily disturbed by a noisy partner, a restless pet, or outside sounds, adding more noise to drown out what’s bothering you might be the answer.
The market is saturated with products to help you sleep better, including sound machines. But do they actually improve your slumber?
Yes, More Noise Can Actually Help You Hear Less and Sleep Better
Masking noise is perhaps the most common reason people turn to sound machines, particularly if they’re dealing with loud pets, partners, or background noises in their environment. Sound is one of the biggest disruptors of sleep, says Michael Breus, PhD, a clinical psychologist in Manhattan Beach, California, who specializes in sleep disorders and author of The Power of When, a book about how our body clocks affect sleep, productivity, and health.
In a setting that is too quiet, those disruptive noises become more noticeable to some individuals, Dr. Breus explains. “The more quiet it is, the more acute your hearing becomes,” he says. “If it’s too quiet, you hear everything and assign value to it, which usually ends up in getting upset about that noise and not being able to sleep.”
A classic example of this effect is when someone who’s used to sleeping in a city environment (with more ambient noise) has difficulty sleeping when they travel to a more rural location (with less ambient noise). Snores from a partner seemingly get amplified.
A sound machine doesn’t eliminate those disruptive noises, but it can help make them less noticeable to you. “That sound machine can distract you from those noises,” says David Brodner, MD, founder and principle physician at the Center for Sinus, Allergy, and Sleep Wellness in Boynton Beach, Florida.
In a study published in June 2016 in the Journal of Caring Sciences, individuals reported sleeping better while using a noise machine in a hospital setting (complete with various background noises you might expect to hear overnight in a hospital) compared with hospital patients who didn’t use one.
These machines also work well for people with tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, which is why they are the first treatment option Dr. Brodner offers patients with this condition. “During the day when there’s other noise and stimuli around them, they don’t notice the ringing,” he says. “Yet because there’s no background noise at night, the ringing bothers them, and those machines can help drown it out so they can sleep.”
Some Research Suggests Sound Machines Do Help With Sleep
Researchers are still teasing out answers to exactly why and how sound machines help you sleep, but some studies have shown positive results. In a study published in May 2013 in the journal Neuron, pink noise helped improve deep sleep versus no noise. And a study published in March 2017 in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that pink noise helped older adults get deeper sleep (and improve memory).
Breus notes that there’s not necessarily overwhelming evidence behind the effectiveness of sound machines for sleep. But the success rates that can be found in studies (along with personal anecdotes) is reason enough to try them out if various noises are keeping you up. “Sound machines can be useful if you’re trying to mask a sound that’s keeping you up, like your dog or a bed partner who snores,” Breus says.
What to Know About Buying a Sound Machine
If you do decide to try a sound machine to help with sleep, you’ll quickly find that you have a lot of options when it comes to actually picking one out. But a few tips can steer you in the right direction.
Decide on the Color Noise You Want
First, know that there are three different types of noises available from sound machines: White, pink, and Brown. If you’re old enough to remember when TV channels used to sign off early in the morning and leave nothing but white snow on screens, that’s essentially what white noise is. It’s also the static sound you hear when you turn a radio to an unused frequency.
Pink noise is a mix of high and low frequencies that are supposed to sound more natural than white noise, making it more soothing than white noise itself (think, for instance, a steady wind). Breus suggests choosing a sound machine with pink noise over the other colors.
Brown noise generally has fewer higher frequencies than white or pink noise, and tends to sound rougher, Breus says. It sounds like a strong wind.
Whether one is better than the other when it comes to tuning out other noises and helping you sleep is still up for debate, as no study has put them head to head. But there may be a good reason to choose pink. “New developments about using pink noise to enhance slow wave sleep or deep sleep, which is associated with feelings of restfulness and memory consolidation, are certainly worth considering since deep sleep is considered the most important part of the sleep cycle,” says Lawrence Chan, DO, clinical assistant professor of sleep medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. The March 2017 study followed 13 individuals ages 60 to 84 over two nights of sleep and found that after a night of sleeping with ambient pink noise, the participants did better on the memory tests and got more deep sleep.
Check for an Automatic Shut-off Option
Many sound machines give you the option to run the noise all night or set it for a certain time period. You’ll have to decide what works best for you, but consider these two points, “It’s normal to take 15 to 30 minutes to fall asleep, so make sure it’s running at least 30 minutes,” Brodner says. And if you’re waking up in the middle of the night, you might be better off setting it to play all night.
Consider Special Features
Check the customer reviews and what other people are saying about the product before you buy it. Also pay attention to special features. Some sound machines have a meditation function that you might want to use, Breus says. Some have dozens of sound options, some have just a few, and others may have just one. You might find some of those features useful, but it’s really about personal preference, Breus says.
Karen Asp
FEB