Pink noise
Pink noise sounds like steady rain on leaves: balanced, full and less hissy than white noise. It has equal power in every octave.
- Spectrum
- −3 dB per octave (power falls with 1/f)
- Good for
- Sleep, including in several deep-sleep studies
- Concentration in open-plan offices
- Tuning speakers and rooms
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What is pink noise?
Pink noise has power that falls in proportion to 1/f, 3 dB per octave. That exactly cancels the fact that higher octaves contain more frequencies, so every octave (100–200 Hz, 1–2 kHz, 10–20 kHz) carries the same energy. On the dial its trace is roughly level across the scale.
Because human hearing is organised in octaves, pink noise sounds balanced to most people, which is why audio engineers use it to calibrate speakers.
Pink noise and deep sleep
Some of the most cited sleep research used pink noise. Papalambros et al. (2017, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience) played short pink-noise bursts in time with older adults' slow brain waves and saw stronger slow-wave activity and better next-day recall. Note that those were timed bursts, not continuous noise, so a background track is not the same intervention.
Pink noise for concentration
In offices, pink or pink-like noise is often used for sound masking because it hides speech without the hiss of white noise. If voices distract you, try pink noise at a level just loud enough that you can no longer follow nearby words.
Compare white, pink and brown noise · All noise colours explained
Questions
Is pink noise good for sleep?
Many people find it relaxing, and studies using timed pink-noise bursts found deeper slow-wave sleep. Continuous pink noise mainly helps by masking disturbances.
What is the difference between pink and white noise?
White noise has equal power per hertz and sounds bright. Pink noise has equal power per octave and sounds fuller and softer.
Pink noise vs brown noise?
Brown noise falls twice as steeply (6 dB per octave instead of 3), so it is deeper and darker. Pink sits between white and brown.
What does pink noise sound like in nature?
Steady rain, rustling leaves and wind are close to pink noise.