Do Sounds Really Help Us To Sleep?

In 1996, in an episode called “Messages from Earth,” part of the beloved sci-fi TV series Babylon 5, Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) confesses to his Minbari colleague Delenn (the late, great Mira Furlan) that he always got a good night’s sleep thanks to the sound of rain. As he and Delenn try to get a rest before a space battle, she deftly has the alien computer of the starship White Star play rain sounds for Sheridan, because, wow, in the future, wise aliens have figured out the science of simulated sounds as a sleep aid.

Thirty years later, this sweet and humanistic scene is hilariously anachronistic, but telling.

Of course, from cassettes to vinyl records to CDs, the idea of recorded noises that aid in relaxation was nothing new in 1996. But what Babylon 5 did predict was the seamless ease of firing up a calming soundscape without leaving one’s bed. Today, this technology exists in various guises, like in the Calm app, a place where rain sounds for stressed-out folks is just the tip of the soundscape iceberg. But the real question is: as we head into a future of sleep being constantly aided by sonic inputs, why are we doing this at all? Why are we obsessed with finding things that we’re not really listening to?

Soundly Sleeping

When we say that someone has “slept soundly,” what do we mean? Basically, we mean that someone slept well, but the sound part is interesting, since in the 21st century, there’s a whole subset of our culture obsessed with using soundscapes, music, and sleep stories to either fall asleep more easily, or, in a more dubious claim, to promote better sleep.

The reasons are somewhat obvious, but worth stating. Noise pollution is a problem for many, not just in big cities, while more common use cases are to combat insomnia, stress, and anxiety.

“Sounds that support sleep generally work in two ways: they reduce disruption and cue the brain that it’s time to rest,” a spokesperson for the popular Calm app tells Inverse. “Nature sounds, like ocean waves or rainfall, often follow slow, rhythmic patterns that can mirror breathing, and may also help the body relax and mind settle.”

This sounds incredible, but, scientifically speaking, is it true? According to Jean Tsai, MD, PhD, these kinds of sounds can serve as “It's a cue for your brain to relax — so when you hear those sounds, your brain says, ‘Oh, it’s time to go to sleep.’ It also distracts you, in that it masks other sounds that might be stimulating you to be awake. It helps for people who are hyperaware of their surroundings and are kept awake by environmental noises.”

So, human beings need to be distracted in order to, sometimes, enter into the ultimate state of distraction, sleep. But, are we talking about simply getting to sleep or having better sleep?

The Sonic Jury on Sleep Is Still Out

When it comes to rhythmic patterns that send signals to our brain, there’s no universal truth. What is calming to one brain is useless as a sleep aid to others. Or to put it another way, from the variety of non-rhythmic soundscapes offered in Calm, the idea that repetition is essential to sonic sleep aids is simply not true. Case-in-point: the “Rainy Paris Night” is intentionally unpredictable, complete with the occasional sounds of Vespa scooters puttering away in the distance. But according to the people at Calm, the sometimes discordant realism, or curated realism, seems to be part of the appeal, because “there’s also a conditioning effect at play ... When people use the same sound night after night, it can become a learned signal for sleep, making it easier for the nervous system to shift into a calmer state.”

So, like our intrepid space captain in a 1990s sci-fi drama, it's not that the rain sounds are technically more calming than the thrum of an invented spaceship (Calm has those too), but that his brain is conditioned to that rain. This is why Calm notes that there’s no one catch-all formula for every person when it comes to sleep sounds. Basically, there is no “best” type of sleep sound because sleep sounds are “ highly individual because our brains process frequencies differently.”

Some of this comes down to the different color-coded noises. A “brown noise” often contains a deep, bass-heavy rumble. While a “white noise” is closer to the sound of a fan, and tends to mask other noises, “green noise” is suggestive of the forest or other nature sounds.

Nobody can really debate the calming effect inherent in Calm’s basic claims. But most studies behind sonic sleep aids aren’t so certain. A systematic review published in Sleep Medicine Reviews found “white noise had little beneficial effect on sleep.”

What's more, according to Dr. Sogol Javaheri, in a 2024 article from Harvard Health Publishing, “white noise may interrupt important stages of sleep, such as REM sleep or deep sleep, and affect hearing if it is too loud.”

So, while there’s a knee-jerk desire to believe in a vague sci-fi belief that certain sonic configurations create certain kinds of sleep, the current science thinking probably is: If it’s working for you, great. But don’t make it a universal rule for all of humankind.

The Paradox of Sleep Sounds

In the movie Inception, a fictional drug called Somnacin, combined with music, allows ideas to be implanted in people’s brains and for humans to share dreams. This idea suggests that the end-goal of sleep is something we can cognitively remember.

But, in practice, from sleepy soundscapes (like white noise or rain sounds), to music, to specifically-crafted sleep stories, the odd paradox of these kinds of compositions is that they are, by nature, designed not to be finished. Sigur Rós albums might be great to help you fall asleep, but getting to the end of that album isn’t the goal when the music is being used as a sleep aid.

Ditto for sleep stories on Calm. We’re never really supposed to worry too much about the ending of the rainstorm or the various bedtime stories. There are lots of wandering and ruminating in the audio stories, which aren’t just curated for kids. Instead, you can have Cillian Murphy narrate a train trip across Ireland, or Eva Green tell you a calming bedtime story about walking in the forest at night. For those using the app, the effectiveness speaks for itself; I have never once arrived at the end of the Irish train ride with Murphy, nor discovered why Green’s narrator wanders at nightfall.

Calm is well aware of the contradictory nature of these stories, tales that, very clearly, don’t demand conflict or resolution. “Sleep Stories are intentionally designed to be the opposite of traditional storytelling,” they explain. “The writing favors simplicity and gentle description over plot or tension. The goal isn’t to keep someone hooked.”

In a world of manic information exposure and worries of screen time addiction, it's nice, and somewhat evocative of a hopeful sci-fi future that maybe, the best apps on our devices are the ones that are designed, eventually, to be ignored. Whether or not you feel better in the morning might be connected to your own personal, subconscious tendencies. One thing sleep experts do agree on is that we need more of it. And so, if your mind is comforted by fake sci-fi rain or stories that never end, that’s just fine. But just remember: One sleeper’s calming noise is someone else’s cacophony.