“If a person on TikTok wants to feel the healing power of brown noise, they’ll probably feel it,” says Berlau. This is probably also why people report improved sleep with brown noise. People who find their focus or concentration improves with low-level background brown noise may just be benefiting from “sound masking”: “The sound blocks out other sounds so you’re less distracted.” There are probably other elements at play: the therapeutic effects of full-spectrum noise (whether white, brown or other) have been shown only at high decibel levels, Berlau says. It just hasn’t been confirmed experimentally.” Creating this external noise that sort of ‘blankets’ the brain it makes sense that would calm some of that brain noise. People with ADHD do not have the regular trickle of “tonic dopamine” of neurotypical brains, he explains, leading to “constant thoughts they can’t really get rid of. However, “it does make sense,” says Berlau. Research has not yet investigated the calming, “no thoughts” response to brown noise that the TikTok ADHD community describes. What people actually experience when they listen to brown noise is unclear. It sounds like, for this ADHD community on TikTok, they’ve identified brown noise as something that helps them, which is terrific.” “I think all of those sounds can have similar effects on the brain, but people like what brown noise sounds like, so that’s the one that catches on. “I don’t think there’s anything magical about brown noise,” he tells me. Are there the same proven benefits with brown noise?ĭan Berlau, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Regis University in Colorado, has reviewed the literature on the benefits of white noise. The staticky sound of white noise has been demonstrated to improve sleep and some cognitive tasks for children with ADHD “white noise” machines have existed since the 1960s. According to Williams, it’s now considered “a viable option for use in deep relaxation rooms or sleep pods” for wellness businesses keen to move away from whale song. “It helps me not wake up suddenly with every tiny noise,” says another.) You can get eight hours’ worth on CBeebies radio and some tinnitus sufferers find it reduces their symptoms. Several people I speak to use brown noise to drop off at night (“I can’t sleep without it,” says one. Ever since, I use it every time my mind is all over the place and I need to get work done.” When I was poor and couldn’t afford to go to a coffee shop, I tried finding coffee shop sounds on YouTube, and then I found something called ‘brown noise for concentration’. “I would only manage to concentrate in coffee shops. “I live in this denuded soundscape.” My colleague Nikola discovered brown noise at university. “I listen to brown noise … day and night,” she told a Penguin podcast. It has fans beyond the ADHD community, including the author Zadie Smith. “Brown noise is a more palatable listening experience because most of the higher frequencies, which can be harsh or distracting to the listener, are removed,” says Giles Williams, the music director of commercial music service Rehegoo. In essence, brown noise is the familiar, staticky sound of white noise (that is, all the audible frequencies simultaneously) but with the low frequency notes augmented and the less pleasant high frequency notes turned down, counteracting the human ear’s natural tendency to hear higher frequencies louder. The “brown” in brown noise is not a colour, but a reference to sound that mimics Brownian motion, the movement pollen makes in water, identified by the botanist Robert Brown in 1827.
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