Why is the white noise helps us sleep

White noise for some people - a prerequisite of good sleep. Many people can not dive into the night dreams, if background does not sound familiar, "sh-sh-sh". But why replacing everyday sounds other noise so charmingly effect on us? And what color can still be noise?

The idea to replace one another noise to sleep better, it seems ridiculous. What's the point of this? "I can not sleep due to outside noise, so I'll turn-ka another strange sound." Strange. Nevertheless, many people claim that they can not normally fall asleep without white noise. And some companies even sell you a device that plays optimized for noise better sleep. What is wrong with our brains and ears?

The short answer: white noise sounds better. At least for some of us.

Now the long answer. White noise - a steady noise spectral components which are uniformly distributed over a range of frequencies involved.

It's unclear? Imagine an orchestra with a lot of musicians, each playing on the note. This orchestra at the same time covers all the sounds that are available to the human ear. That's what the white noise.

When you wake up from some sort of sound, it is not the sound of his own fault. Wakes you change the background sound that emerged inconsistency. White noise is blocking such drastic changes, like protecting you from unexpected sounds.

"The most simple version is that the rumor is constantly working, even when you sleep" - explains Seth Horowitz (Seth Horowitz), neuroscientist and author. That is why most people prefer to listen to white noise generated by some device, rather than a crescendo-decrescendo snoring spouse.

Well, it seems to be true. If you do not like it is white noise, try to listen to the noises of other colors.

For example, there pink noise. It is also called ciliated. It is similar to white, but its frequency higher. He can be useful for those who suffer from tinnitus. Pink noise can help sleep to those people for whom the white noise is unpleasant.

Red (Brown, Brownian) noise also called the noise of drunken walk. At the hearing, he seems to be more "warm" in comparison to white. The laws of color mixing, by the way, do not work when it comes to noise.

there is blue noise.

And further purple noise.

If you mix brown and violet noise, you get Gray. It is perceived by the human ear as a uniform, but in fact it contains a large range of failure in the midrange.

Of course, not everyone is like that sort of noise. Some people, they, on the contrary, make sensitive to background sounds. Apparently, some of us tend to pick out the individual notes of the endless noise and someone hears it as calming stream.

And what kind of noise is the most pleasant for your ear? Do you fall asleep under one of these noises?