White noise generator
Pick white, pink or brown noise and press play. Set a timer to fade it out, for focus or for falling asleep.
Deep and rumbling: a waterfall, or the roar inside an airliner.
Paused
The colours of noise
| Noise | Spectrum | Sounds like | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | Equal energy at every frequency | Bright hiss: a detuned radio, a fan | Masking voices and sharp sounds |
| Pink | Energy falls by half each octave up | Steady rain, wind in leaves | Sleep, and longer listening |
| Brown | Falls twice as fast: mostly low rumble | A waterfall, surf, an airliner cabin | Focus, and covering low hums |
Why steady noise helps
What breaks concentration and sleep is usually change: a voice, a door, a car. A steady background sound raises the floor those sounds have to stand out from, so fewer of them get through. That's masking, and it's the main thing noise does. Some small studies have also found that background noise helped people with attention difficulties on memory tasks, though the effect varies from person to person.
Our article on brown, pink and white noise covers what the research does and doesn't show. If you prefer something recorded, try rain sounds or the hum of an airliner cabin.
Questions
What's the difference between white, pink and brown noise?
How their energy spreads across the frequencies. White noise has the same power at every frequency, so it sounds bright and hissy. Pink noise has less at higher frequencies, so it sounds softer, like rain. Brown noise drops off faster still and sounds deep, like a waterfall. Brown is named after Brownian motion, not the colour.
Which noise is best for focus?
There's no single answer: it's mostly preference. Many people find brown noise easiest to work to because it has no hiss; others like pink. White noise is best at masking speech, which helps in an open office. Try each for a few minutes.
Is it safe to sleep with noise on?
Keep it quiet: just loud enough to cover the sounds that wake you, and not right next to your head. Use the timer to fade it out after you fall asleep if you don't want it all night. For babies, sleep machines should be kept well away from the cot and at low volume.
Does it keep playing in the background?
Yes, while the tab is open. The noise is generated in your browser and loops seamlessly, so there's nothing to download and no gap to hear.
Further reading
- Brown noise vs white noise vs pink noiseWhite, pink and brown noise compared: how they sound, how they differ, what research says about noise for focus and sleep, and which one to choose.
- How to focus when working from homeWorking from home trades the office's distractions for new ones. How to give work a place, a start and an end, tame the chat, handle noise and work in sessions.
- How to get into a flow stateFlow is the state of total absorption in a challenging task. What Csikszentmihalyi found, the conditions that make flow likely, and how to get there more often.
More free tools
- Airplane cabin noiseThe hum of an airliner cabin, recorded in flight.
- Rain soundsRain on a tent, a downpour or a storm, recorded for real.
- Flight time calculatorHow long is the flight? Flying time, distance and local arrival time.
- Flight distance calculatorMiles, kilometers and nautical miles between any two airports.
- Where can I fly?Everywhere you can reach from your airport in 1, 3 or 10 hours.
- Time zone converterWhat time is 3 PM in London in Tokyo? Any city to any city.