An article on the Harvard Medical School website said that “pink noise can enhance deep sleep in older adults and improve cognitive performance.” Brown noise can also help sleep, but the article cited research that “white noise had little beneficial effect on sleep.” I had never heard of brown and pink noise, but Dr. Anil Rama, who runs the Sleep and Brain clinic in Saratoga, told me that “Pink noise is like steady rain while brown noise is like ocean waves. Both can quiet a restless mind and ease you into sleep.”
The Harvard Medical School article quoted Dr. Sogol Javaheri saying, “More data is needed to determine what role pink and brown noise may play in sleep, such as what volume and duration would be of most benefit,” Javaheri said. “For now, I would not recommend pink or brown noise continuously, but rather use it for a set time if it helps you fall asleep more quickly.”
I’ll defer to these esteemed doctors to advise on what color of noise, if any, might help you sleep, but I can testify that my wife and I often ask our Amazon Alexa device to play “ocean sounds,” which I now know are considered “brown noise.” I’ve also benefited from those oh-so-pink rain forest sounds, but, to be honest, sometimes mellow music does the trick as does listening to an audio book read with a soothing voice. Most nights, we just turn off the lights and go to sleep in silence.
If I’m having trouble sleeping when traveling, I might use Spotify or another music app to play ocean or rain sounds on my smartphone.
Earbuds for sleeping
Listening to these sounds through speakers is usually fine, but not if my wife, who sleeps next to me, wants silence. So, last night I wore the Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds, whose tagline on the box is “Fall Asleep Faster. Sleep Longer.”
When you install the earbuds in the Soundcore app, you get some additional features, including access to a large audio library of “soundscapes,” with as many white, pink, brown and other noises as you could possibly want. You also get a sleep timer, and it reports sleep metrics on the app, including total sleep time, sleep stages, your sleep positions through the night (left, right, back and prone), number of awakenings and how often you rolled over. As with all sleep trackers, it’s up to you to figure out what to do with this information. Based on what I’ve learned, it mostly reaffirms what most of us already know, such as avoiding caffeine, screens and stress late in the day, going to bed earlier and trying to relax more, especially before bedtime.
There are some other clever features, including the ability to download sounds to the earbuds so you don’t need to use your phone or app at night and a sleep timer that automatically turns off sounds when you fall asleep. You could, for example, listen to a podcast or music when you get in bed and have it stop when it senses you’re asleep.
Soundcore sells the Sleep A20 earbuds for $180, but even at Amazon’s price of $143, they are not inexpensive. However, in addition to their sleep function, they are good sounding earbuds, and they fit nicely into your ears, don’t stick out and are quite secure. Unlike my $189 Pixel Buds 2, which also work well for sleep, these are not likely to fall out, which is reassuring when you spend that much. They do not have active noise canceling, but they are snug enough to block out a lot of noise, including on airplanes. I find them quite comfortable. In addition to sleep, you can use them to listen to music, podcasts or other audio from your phone. The Soundcore app also lets you adjust the controls, so you decide what happens when you tap or double tap on the left or right earbud. Choices include volume, next, previous, and play/pause.
They do not have many of the features you’ll find in fitness trackers, smart watches or even smart rings such as heart rate, SpO2, exercise tracking or the ability to take an EKG. And although they do a good job of passively blocking sound, the app doesn’t let you put them in transparency mode, so I don’t recommend them where your safety might be impinged by not being able to easily hear sounds around you. Even though you can use these during the day, I would not recommend them over more general-purpose earbuds except possibly on a plane or other place where the passive noise blocking or ability to play relaxing sounds might be helpful.
Of course, there are plenty of other devices that can track your sleep, including most fitness bands and smart watches.
Google Nest Hub (2nd gen) ($99) can also play soothing sounds at night and sense and report on your sleep without you having to wear a watch, earbuds or anything else. It sits on your nightstand and uses what Google calls “low energy radar” to sense the movement of the person closest to the display. It can also detect sounds like snoring and coughing as well as environmental factors such as light and temperature in the room.
I hope this column has been helpful, but if you’re reading it late at night, it might be time to turn off your device or put down the paper and get some rest.
Larry Magid is a tech journalist and internet safety activist. Contact him at [email protected].