What Are Different Color Noises and What They Do

If you’ve dealt with any sort of sleep issues, anxiety, or other mental health issues, you may have had someone, perhaps even a medical professional, encourage you to invest in a color noise machine.

While these machines are certainly useful, the concept of color noise requires us to combine two senses that appear to be mutually exclusive. You see colors, you don’t hear them. In the same way that you don’t see noises, it’s hard to understand how to take advantage of color noises.

It's also important to understand how to stop viewing noise as a nuisance so you can understand noise as a tool. While colored noise is not a replacement for therapy, sleep aids, or other professionally prescribed tools, they’re incredibly useful as supplemental tools.

Learn more about different color noises and what they do.

Different Color Noises and What They Do

Often referred to as “colored noise,” color noises are categorized by where they land on the sound spectrum. In the same way that there is a color spectrum, there is a sound spectrum.

Every sound that you hear comes at you in waves. Whether it’s the sound of your vacuum cleaner, an airplane soaring through the sky, or the music that you listen to in your car, you process sounds based on the way that the waves come at you.

Tight, short waves are high frequency while long, looping waves are considered low frequency. There are also countless frequencies between those two classifications. Now that you have a better understanding of what colored noise is, let’s look at some different color noises and what they do for you.

White Noise

White noise is the most common type of noise on the spectrum, and is sometimes referred to as “broadband noise.” The most prominent trait of white noise is it crosses all audible frequencies and has equal energy. For those who grew up in the 90s, the sound of TV static or “snow” is an example of white noise.

Other examples include the sound of a vacuum cleaner or hairdryer. White noise is considered such an effective tool because high frequencies are heard at the same volume as low and midrange frequencies.

White noise is great at blocking out unexpected noises that can disturb you. If you live in an apartment and have a noisy upstairs neighbor, white noise can block out their thumping around above your head.

If you’re a light sleeper who wants to sleep in on a Saturday, white noise can help you miss the sound of a ringing telephone. The primary purpose of white noise is to help your brain ignore other sounds.

White noise for sleep isn’t its only benefit. People who struggle with ADHD often use white noise when they need to focus on a task for school or work but find themselves getting easily distracted by the noises around them.

The way that humans process noise is a trait that we’re born with, so white noise has also been proven to help babies sleep.

White noise is everywhere. You can download apps on your phone that offer white noise, and virtually every sound machine has it. If you don’t want to go either of those routes, you can also opt for an oscillating fan.

Brown Noise

Brown noise and red noise are the same, which can be a bit confusing, especially for people who are new to the world of color noises. Much like white noise, brown noise uses all the sounds on the spectrum, but it turns up the volume on the lower end.

In fact, higher frequencies are barely audible in brown or red noise. It is considered more turbulent than some of the other color noises.

For people who have a sensitivity to high frequencies, brown noise is a great option for sleep, as it can also block out unwanted, unexpected noises without the use of higher frequencies.

Since brown noise emphasizes lower-end frequencies, or the “bass”, it’s considered a soothing sound. Some therapists who use sound machines in their waiting rooms to help calm patients before their session rely on brown or red noise.

By and large, brown noise is considered a good tool for the workplace. Because of the soothing nature of low-frequency sounds and the ability of brown noise to block out other sounds, it’s considered a good tool for improving focus, increasing executive function or organizational skills, and improving a person’s reaction time.

Additionally, brown noise has been shown to improve memory, which makes it a useful tool for students who are studying.

Pink Noise

Pink noise gets its name because it’s considered a mixture of white noise and red noise (which is another name for brown noise.) Since red and white make pink, the different between pink noise vs white noise is pink noise offers a lower-end, more soothing sound than white noise without the tumultuous nature of brown or red noise.

Have you ever listened to the sound of a gentle rain beating on your roof or the calming sound of the wind rustling through the leaves?

Those are examples of pink noise. If you’ve ever sat on the beach and found yourself captivated by the sound of waves crashing onto the shore, you’ve found the calming presence of pink noise.

Some experts think that pink noise helps by triggering a part of the brain called the hypothalamus to relay messages from one part of the brain to another. This is why pink noise has been found to help with focus, productivity, memory, and attention span.

Green Noise

While most of the sound colors that we’ve referenced are either high or low frequency, green noise is considered a mid-range frequency, which makes it a popular choice for people who don’t enjoy the extremes of high or low noises.

Additionally, green noise is considered unique because while other color noises usually provide either calming effects or improve focus.

Because it’s not considered an “extreme” color noise, green noise actually provides both. While it drowns out distracting, unwanted noises, it also provides a sense of calm. This makes green noise an especially useful tool for those who struggle with ADHD or other focus-related issues in addition to anxiety.

Blue Noise

Finally, blue noise is considered the opposite of brown noise. While brown noise is a lot of bass with hardly any treble, blue noise is almost completely treble with little to no bass. One of the most distinctive features of blue noise is the fact that as the frequency goes up, so does the volume.

As is the case with any sort of color noise, blue noise can be used to drown out other noises when you’re trying to sleep, but its high frequency makes it a less effective sleep aid.

Instead, people typically use blue noise when they need to get things done. It encourages a sense of alertness and concentration that isn’t present in some of the other more calming color noises.

Color noise isn’t a new phenomenon, but it has gained popularity in recent years. Understanding how different color noises work and the benefits they provide can help you choose the right ambient noise for every situation.