Does White Noise make you sleep better

There is a reason why so many people swear by their white noise machines, and that is because they work, and they work really well. If you have been having trouble lately falling to sleep and staying asleep, you can at try using white noise every night to see if it will help any. You do not have to buy a fancy, expensive white noise machine, you can just install white noise apps (there are dozens of them) on your smartphone.

However, why does white noise work? And is it true that it can drastically improve the quality of your sleep?

There are several reasons why white noise can help people fall asleep. Here are a few of the main reasons:

White Noise Masks Other Disruptive Noises

It is not just the volume of the noise, it is the unexpectedness of it that actually wakes people up from their sleep. Some really light sleepers can wake up violently when they hear a pin drop in the middle of the night, and then they will feel so wired after that they could not even fall back to sleep.

Ideally, it is best that people sleep in an environment that is completely devoid of noises. However, this is impossible as you cannot completely eliminate all sounds, unless of course you are in a vacuum chamber, in which case noises are the least of your worries.

When you play ambient sounds in your bedroom, it is like you are enveloping the entire space with a dull, uniform sound that is unpredictable and does not require any focus whatsoever, and this sound prevents other sounds from reaching your ears and disrupting your sleep.

White Noises Calm People Down

Familiar ambient sounds can actually switch off people’s fight-or-flight responses. Researchers have found that people who listened to nature sounds at bed time find it much easier to relax and fall asleep rather than just lying down in a completely silent room.

Some people find it soothing to listen to the sound of waves crashing on the beach, others find the crackling sounds made by a campfire relaxing, while others like listening to the sound of rain. It is like a primal reflex in people that kicks in whenever people feel at home.

White Noise Distracts Your Brain Just Enough to Relax

There are times when total quiet is a bad thing. If you have anxiety problems, lying down in a room that is totally quiet can be quite tortuous. When there is no other sound that can distract your mind, it will start running rampant. You will start overthinking about your problems and thus, causing you to overthink and flood your mind with unpleasant thoughts.

Playing ambient sounds in the background gives your brain something else to take notice of, and since it is easier to focus on the white noise, you will forget about the worries and negative thoughts that were previously racing through your head.

If you are suffering from tinnitus, you will find white noise as a welcome reprieve from your daily struggles. The problem with tinnitus is that you really cannot make it go away, the “ringing” is actually coming from inside your ears, so putting on earplugs will not do anything; if anything, earplugs will only make your tinnitus seem worse.

White noise can help by masking the ringing in your ear, well to be more accurate, it distracts your mind away from the annoying ringing sounds. You are actually replacing the annoying sound with something that actually makes you relax.

How to Use White Noise and/or Ambient Noises

There are many ways that you can use ambient sounds. The “traditional” way is to use a white noise machine. These kinds of machines have been around since the late 80s, these are basically speakers that play different kinds of ambient noises. There are still quite a lot of these appliances still available these days, however, there are some other alternatives that you can use.

If you have an Alexa-capable smart speaker, you can activate the Ambient Noise skill and use it to play over two dozen different ambient sounds. If you want something a bit more discreet, you can download any one of the many smartphone apps that play different ambient noises. This is one of the most popular choices because it is not as loud; you just need to turn on your ambient sound of choice and place your phone beside your pillow while you sleep.