{"id":18218,"date":"2022-10-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=18218"},"modified":"2022-11-02T12:51:20","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T11:51:20","slug":"what-are-white-pink-and-brown-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/10\/11\/what-are-white-pink-and-brown-noise\/","title":{"rendered":"What are white, pink and brown noise?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are white, pink and brown noise?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

ANNE-MARIE FERGUSON, VIA EMAIL<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Hang on a minute, you may be thinking, I\u2019ve heard of white noise \u2013 that untuned radio sound that parents play to sleepless babes \u2013 but brown and pink? That\u2019s right, sound now comes in all the colours of Neapolitan ice cream and if you want to sample them you can just plug their names into YouTube or Spotify, but understanding the difference takes a bit more brain power. You need to think in terms of frequencies \u2013 the differences in pitch that give us musical notes. While white noise contains all the frequencies mashed together equally, brown and pink noise put more energy into the lower frequencies, the result being a bassier sound. Brown noise is the bassiest and, according to the some, the most soothing. Listening to it feels a bit like being awake on an aeroplane at night. <\/p>\n\n

As for whether it\u2019s \u2018better\u2019, well, brown noise is the most on-trend noise colour, with TikTok users, especially those in the ADHD community, singing its praises. Many claim brown noise helps them to focus. Others use it in preference to white noise as a sleep aid. The reality is that scientists don\u2019t really know whether any of these noises work for the purposes that we\u2019re using them for, or whether they\u2019re safe in the long term. <\/p>\n\n

Outcomes from sleep studies on white and pink noise vary wildly, a 2021 review article by University of Pennsylvania researchers found, with some research suggesting that playing continuous noise actually disrupts sleep rather than improving it. Claims about brown noise are even flakier since we hardly have any evidence. That doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t work though \u2013 we just don\u2019t know yet \u2013 but certainly the sounds that work for one person might not work for another. Still, having answered your question while listening to brown noise, I can personally attest to its soothing qualities! HB <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
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IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What are white, pink and brown noise? ANNE-MARIE FERGUSON, VIA EMAIL Hang on a minute, you may be thinking, I\u2019ve heard of white noise \u2013 that untuned radio sound that parents play to sleepless babes \u2013 but brown and pink? That\u2019s right, sound now comes in all the colours of Neapolitan ice cream and if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"81","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"81","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_81-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_81-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"October-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"October-2022","purple_external_id":"October-2022-81-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"October-2022-81-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000089659||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089659||","purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue383","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue383.2","purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue383","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue383.2","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"0f422ad1-c939-476d-9f82-a410052ad4c3","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-10-11T10:40:41Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"1129f2c7-6498-43bc-a137-830966c3f836","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-12T08:58:17Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AESnyx2SYQ7yhN4MJZsP4Ng","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[30],"tags":[15],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/b926a521-9bbc-4074-ae18-a908f5ba01af.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/b926a521-9bbc-4074-ae18-a908f5ba01af.jpg",1221,974,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/b926a521-9bbc-4074-ae18-a908f5ba01af-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/b926a521-9bbc-4074-ae18-a908f5ba01af-300x239.jpg",300,239,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/b926a521-9bbc-4074-ae18-a908f5ba01af-768x613.jpg",768,613,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/b926a521-9bbc-4074-ae18-a908f5ba01af-1024x817.jpg",800,638,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/b926a521-9bbc-4074-ae18-a908f5ba01af.jpg",1221,974,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/b926a521-9bbc-4074-ae18-a908f5ba01af.jpg",1221,974,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"What are white, pink and brown noise? ANNE-MARIE FERGUSON, VIA EMAIL Hang on a minute, you may be thinking, I\u2019ve heard of white noise \u2013 that untuned radio sound that parents play to sleepless babes \u2013 but brown and pink? That\u2019s right, sound now comes in all the colours of Neapolitan ice cream and if…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18218"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19531,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218\/revisions\/19531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}