Why it starts quiet
A hiss pulls at your attention in a way a rumble doesn't. Set white noise and brown noise to the same place on the slider and the white one sounds louder and sharper. That's why this page opens quieter than the brown and pink sleep pages do.
Move it from where it opens. If you can hear the hiss as its own thing in the room, bring it down a little; if the voices are still coming through, bring it up a little and stop there. Past the point where it works, turning it up just means sleeping in more noise.
What it covers, and what passes straight through it
Voices are why most people end up on this page, and they're also the hard case. Your ear keeps hunting for words inside whatever you play, so white noise blurs a conversation through the wall until you stop following it, and it never makes the words go away. It still does more for speech than brown noise does, which is the main reason to choose it.
A partner's alarm, a faucet, a dog two houses down, keys in a hallway door: all of that sits where white noise is strongest, and it stops standing out.
Deep rumble is a different job. A bus pulling away from the lights, a boiler at two in the morning, bass from the apartment below: white noise has almost nothing that deep in it, so the rumble passes straight through, and turning it up only puts hiss on top of something you can still hear. For that room, brown noise is the tool and this page isn't.
Sleeping with it every night
The timer is set to run until morning because the noise white noise handles best doesn't politely stop at one. A neighbor on a late shift, a hallway, a road that's busy again at five: a 30-minute timer leaves you awake for the second half of that.
The honest cost is habit. Sleep with a hiss every night and a silent room starts to feel strange. Leaving it off one night a week is a cheap way to check. If nothing happens, the habit is fine, and if it's a bad night you've learned something before your next trip.
Whatever you settle on, keep it quiet enough that your alarm and your smoke detector still get through, and keep the source off the pillow. A speaker on the floor across the room, pointed at the wall the noise comes through, does more than extra volume.
Tonight
- Press play. It opens a little under half volume, lower than the other sleep sounds on purpose.
- Set the level with the room at its normal night volume, not in silence.
- If you can hear the hiss as its own thing in the room, bring it down a little.
- The timer sits on All night, eight hours, since voices and doors don't stop at one. Tap 30 min or 60 min if yours do, and play your alarm over the top first to check you'd wake to it.
Frequently asked questions
How loud should white noise be for sleeping?
Quieter than it feels like it should be. This page opens quieter than the other sleep sounds here, because a hiss sounds louder than a rumble at the same slider setting. You should be able to talk in the room without raising your voice, and you should still hear your alarm.
Is white noise or brown noise better for sleep?
It depends on what wakes you. White noise covers voices, doors and other bright sounds. Brown noise covers a deep rumble like traffic or a boiler. Turning white noise up won't hide a bus, and switching color will.
Is it safe to play white noise all night?
For an adult, at a volume you could talk over, there's no known harm in it. Hearing damage comes from loud sound close to the ear over long hours, so the thing to avoid is a phone under your pillow with the volume up. Stop if your ears feel dull or ringing afterward, and ask your pediatrician before you run anything all night in a baby's room.
Will white noise cover my neighbor's TV and voices?
It blurs them, which is usually enough to stop you listening in, and it won't remove them. Your ear keeps hunting for words in whatever you play. White noise does more for speech than brown noise does, and a closed window or a pair of earplugs will do more than either.
Will I still hear my alarm?
You should at the level this page opens on. Test it anyway. Press play, then play the alarm you actually use. If it doesn't cut through, bring the slider down, and keep the source away from your head.
Can I set it to stop instead of running all night?
Yes. The timer row under the player has Off, 30 min, 60 min and All night, which runs eight hours. It arrives on All night, so tap 30 min if the noise is only around while you're falling asleep.
Will I get used to it?
Likely, if you use it every night. That isn't harmful, but it does make quiet rooms harder work. Skipping a night now and then tells you how much you've come to rely on it.