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White noise as sleep aid may do more harm than good, say scientists

theguardian.com

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Re: White noise as sleep aid may do more harm than good, say scientists

#31

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

Vaslo wrote: post #7

I use a machine built just for this purpose. It’s a fan that stays on until morning. I cannot have a restful sleep without it - if someone in the house coughs or a slightly louder car drives by, ill be awake. Then I’ll spend part of the night worrying about things like a financial result at work or whether or not I locked the basement door.

> Then I’ll spend part of the night worrying about things like a financial result at work or whether or not I locked the basement door.

May I gently suggest that it sounds like you're papering over the real problem?

Re: White noise as sleep aid may do more harm than good, say scientists

#33

Post by mac-chaffee »

> Despite including thirty-eight articles, a systematic review was opted for over a meta-analysis due to heterogeneity in research methods, including the population of interest, study design, noise characteristics, sleep measurement methodology, sleep outcomes, and statistical analyses, if any. As such, effect size calculations could not be conducted.

Is it normal to not do any kind of statistics? Can you even draw any conclusions by just counting the number or studies as if they were all created equal?

Re: White noise as sleep aid may do more harm than good, say scientists

#34

Post by mgkimsal »

Reason077 wrote: post #6

I find the best thing for falling asleep in a noisy room is noise-cancelling headphones. I get very annoyed by the sound of humming fans and the like, and can’t imagine why you’d want to add more noise! The only downside is that it’s hard to find noise cancelling headphones that are comfortable to wear while sleeping, if you sleep on your side. Big market opportunity here!

haven't tried 'sleep buds' in particular, but had tried a different product ($399!) and... the 'white noise' sound they had had some noticeable ... frequency that my brain locked in to. After about 3 days it was impossible to use them - my brain actively stayed awake with them in, trying to find the sounds it 'knew' were there.

Switched to bose QC20 and... they're generally great ... except... don't sleep in them! They'll break. Often. I've switched to cheap earbuds from the dollar store tied to a white noise app. The $5 earbuds may break every 1-3 months, I just get more.

The 'sleep buds' look nice, but would be hard to justify another ~$300 at this point.

Re: White noise as sleep aid may do more harm than good, say scientists

#35

Post by omnicognate »

cdubzzz wrote: post #5

> True white noise is the hissy fizzing sound of all the frequencies that humans can hear being fired off randomly and at the same intensity. In recent years, numerous apps and devices have been developed that use it – or other “relaxing” sounds such as the hum of a fan or crashing waves – to help people fall asleep. The title of the article seems to be inaccurate in that it is discussing other sounds, _not_ “true” w…

Brown noise is much nicer than white, especially if you apply an exponential smoothing to it (there are examples on youtube, look for smoothed brown noise). I attached a speaker to a raspberry pi and use its hardware random number generator to make that sort of noise. It's a pleasant, smooth rumble that I leave on all night. I certainly find it helps a lot (I'm prone to insomnia) and I'd be astonished if it's having any negative physiological effect.

Re: White noise as sleep aid may do more harm than good, say scientists

#36

Post by graeme »

davidmurdoch wrote: post #8
graeme wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder, can others not hear their pulse through their pillow when in a dead quiet room? That’s called pulsatile tinnitus. I used to hear silence, then after a jaw injury I started hearing my pulse and eventually ringing. But no normally you wouldn’t.

TIL! My jaw is almost never relaxed, and I clench my teeth together when I sleep. Interesting correlation.

Oh. Take it from me, go see a dentist, and ask them to look for cracks in your teeth, and receding gums. If they do a panorex x ray they can also look for bone growth in your jaw.

I clench, didn’t know about it for years and so didn’t have a mouth guard. Have a bunch of cracks in my molars now. My dentist always used to say these sort of cracks were the biggest problem in adult dentistry.

The solution is to get a mouth guard. Bottom guard type seems preferable. This will prevent future cracks, protect your gums, and protect the jaw joint. Unfortunately it doesn’t solve the problem, but no one seems to have figured that out yet.

You can also use a Sleepguard device to measure clenching activity. A bit clunky, but it has been very useful for me in figuring out triggers for worse clenching and confirming I do it.

My clenching started after that same jaw injury, I think. Or wisdom teeth extraction.

Someone else recommended off the shelf guards. I would suggest a custom splint from a dentist. If the splint is misaligned you can clench unevenly and cause jaw structure changes.

Re: White noise as sleep aid may do more harm than good, say scientists

#37

Post by graeme »

hoka-one-one wrote: post #12
davidmurdoch wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL! My jaw is almost never relaxed, and I clench my teeth together when I sleep. Interesting correlation.

You're supposed to clench your teeth together when you sleep. What's the alternative? Hanging your mouth open?

You’re supposed to keep them somewhat together. If you clench them together that is Bruxism and it cracks teeth over the long run.

Re: White noise as sleep aid may do more harm than good, say scientists

#38

Post by benji_is_me »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #20

The article makes it sound like the alternative to white noise is luxurious, dead silence. But, especially in the city, the alternative is usually just patches of semi-silence interrupted by loud or sharp things. Dogs barking, a police siren, the neighbor coming home at 3am, your partner flushing the toilet, inexplicable noises that start and then stop before you realize why you're up. I listen to white noise like a…

Have you tried using ear plugs? I've found they work well for me outside of when I need to use an alarm.

Re: White noise as sleep aid may do more harm than good, say scientists

#40

Post by graeme »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #23
burntoutfire wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a tinnitus, so I have a fan running in every room of my apartment to (partially) cover it with a white noise. I live alone right now but I wonder how many women, if they were to live with me (in a relationship), would be ok with it. BTW the biggest win in getting a good sleep for me has been making sure my bedroom is properly ventilated, so that I have low levels of CO2. Since I started doing that, my sleeping…

I’ve never heard about CO2 contributing to sleep issues. What did you do to diagnose and remediate this?

It’s an emerging field of research. A bunch of studies have found cognitive effects of CO2 rising above 800 ppm or so. This study looked at the effect on sleep.

It’s still all a preliminary field however.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ina.12254

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