Short Stuff: Colorful Noises

We’ve all heard of white noise, that static sound the TV makes when poltergeists arrive. There are other colored noise too that mimic natural sounds like rainfall and ocean waves. What they do for us is just now being studied. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Josh Clark?

  Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota Ford ability and it starts with a great deal on an off-road ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's longest lasting trucks, combining power for work, tech for adventures and style in between. And they're built on a reputation for quality and reliability, which is why Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.

• 0:39Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh Clark and this is Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry's there. She doesn't have a sound associated with her because she's already listening to sound and this is short stuff.

• 0:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, we're doing one on the different color noises, you know, white noise, brown noise, pink noise. And Jerry literally just said, hey, I'm listening to brown noise right now, which I've never heard of anyone just listening to noise unless they were trying to sleep or, you know, at a place where they were trying to block out other noise. But I think Jerry just said it like helped her relax or something or concentrate.

• 1:18Josh Clark?

  Focus, I think she said.

• 1:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, kind of the same thing I said, but with a different word.

• 1:24Josh Clark?

  I used to, I used to try it too during work. It is supposed to help you focus and at the very least drown out other noises, but it just didn't take with me, at least at first, at least for working. I get it.

• 1:38Speaker 02

  You do like ambient music now, don't you?

• 1:39Josh Clark?

  Yes.

• 1:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:40Josh Clark?

  But I get it for sleep for sure, which is what most people use it for. Jerry's an odd duck.

• 1:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I have been on record before. I'm a brown nose adherent. Brown noise, I didn't know, apparently. Did I almost say brown nose?

• 1:55Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think you did say brown nose.

• 1:59Speaker 02

  It can also be called red nose or red noise, which I didn't know, but brown noise, as I've demonstrated on the show, if this is white noise, this is brown noise.

• 2:11Josh Clark?

  And this is pink noise.

• 2:16Speaker 02

  Brown noise is deeper, has lower frequencies, it's got more bass, minimalizes that higher frequency. And I didn't really know this, but apparently you can liken some of these to sounds in nature. And apparently brown noise is more akin to like a river rapid or a heavy rainfall or thunder.

• 2:35Josh Clark?

  Yes, distant thunder, rumbling thunder even.

• 2:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:40Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so obviously that's very alluring. Everybody likes those sounds, so brown noise makes sense. And because there's also white noise and pink noise, you think brown noise is just named after the color brown. Like for some reason, maybe it evoked the color brown and the person who named it. Wrong. There was a scientist named Robert Brown from Scotland, who in the very early 1800s, was looking at pollen grains through his microscope and saw them basically dancing around. And he said, this is not possible because pollen is not alive. And he had no idea what this was, but he, he published his paper so that future generations could solve it.

• 3:21Josh Clark?

  And apparently no less than Albert Einstein took it on and found this, this was an excellent demonstration of atomic particles interacting. And basically moving ultimately these pollen grains along. And the reason that it's named after Robert Brown, brown noise, is because he tried to figure out how to quantify these random movements, right?

• 3:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, and this is a part like, I don't know, this is way above my scientific pay grade. So I'm not sure how you go about this. But he devised this mathematical formula to predict the movements of the pollen and use that to generate an electronic sound. And that was brown noise.

• 4:05Josh Clark?

  Yeah, well, other people who came used his formula to generate sound. I don't understand it either.

• 4:11Speaker 02

  But yeah, so the, the sound of brown noise is literally the, the formula for the sound of pollen moving, which is just kooky to think about.

• 4:19Josh Clark?

  It is, but it's, it's pretty cool, too. I just think.

• 4:21Speaker 02

  It's a good, good fact of the show, I think.

• 4:22Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I mean, it's all math, so technically you could use math to translate into other kinds of math. I'm guessing, but just the idea of, yeah. Figuring out how random movements can turn into into sound is just, I love that stuff.

• 4:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, me too.

• 4:38Josh Clark?

  Let's talk about this offline, Chuck, while we take a break.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  All right.

• 4:53Speaker 02

  Hey, everybody. The holidays are coming up, so let us throw this out there. Are you prepared to host friends or family, like really prepared? Because there's a difference between having people stay at your house and properly hosting them.

• 5:04Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that's what we thought. So maybe it's time for a little refresh. Well, we have a tip. For all things hosting, Wayfair delivers high-quality, customer-trusted products for your home, so you can host and celebrate without the stress.

• 5:18Speaker 02

  That's right. Whether you're just swapping out a busted appliance or going all in on a top-to-bottom home makeover for the holidays, Wayfair has you covered. Thousands of products, every style, every budget.

• 5:27Josh Clark?

  And it's all built for real life. Every item is hand-vetted by specialists with a 10-point quality inspection. And on top of that, with over 20 million verified five-star reviews, you can have total confidence in all the picks you make.

• 5:39Speaker 02

  So remember, when refreshing your home this holiday season, Wayfair delivers exactly what you need. Just head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com.

• 5:55Josh Clark?

  Everyone has a story to tell. What's yours? The moment you met your partner, landed that promotion? For people living with a rare disease, life can feel divided into before-the-diagnosis and all-the-after moments that follow. On Voices of Vivgard, Vivgard is also known as its generic name, Fgart Tigamod Alpha F-CAM, you'll hear powerful stories from people facing challenges and embracing a life with a rare disease.

• 6:19Speaker 02

  Join host Andra Stratten as she guides listeners through honest conversations about life after diagnosis. You'll hear how each guest worked with her care team on their treatment plan, as well as their personal challenges, setbacks, progress, and moments of connection.

• 6:32Josh Clark?

  These stories reveal that life is bigger than a moment, a condition, or a tough day. Listen to Voices of Vivgard on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  Well, we just had a great conversation about brown noise.

• 6:58Josh Clark?

  It was wonderful.

• 6:59Speaker 02

  Offline, but now we're going to talk about white noise, the higher cousin to brown noise. Obviously, it does have a range. It's not like it's just high frequency, but it's not as bass-heavy. They have the lows in there, they have the mids and the highs. But white noise is used, aside from just sleeping, a lot of times with like noise-canceling headphones and stuff, masking other sounds. This one is akin naturally to like a light rain or a gentle breeze through the trees.

• 7:29Josh Clark?

  Very nice.

• 7:29Speaker 02

  Sounds kind of nice, too.

• 7:30Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm. One of the coolest things I learned ever is that in Kyoto, Japan, there is a, the sound of wind blowing through bamboo in this one park is a protected heritage site. Like, the sound itself is protected.

• 7:47Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 7:48Josh Clark?

  As a world heritage.

• 7:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I think I remember talking about that game I played, The Ghost of Tsushima. I think that's what it's called. It was the sort of feudal Japanese warrior PS4 game that I played. The sounds in that game?

• 8:05Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:06Speaker 02

  It's a gorgeous game, but the sounds of the wind blowing through the poppy fields and through the bamboo forests, like, you could tell it was a thing that they really wanted to capture, and they did so.

• 8:15Josh Clark?

  That's cool. I think you're confusing that with Qbert.

• 8:18Speaker 02

  Yeah. Dying, dying. All right, what about pink noise?

• 8:25Josh Clark?

  Pink noise is a little different. It's kind of like the compromise between white noise and brown noise. Because the white noise includes all frequencies, a lot of people are like, I don't like those high frequencies, especially when I'm trying to sleep. But I'm not down with just nothing but the low bass-heavy stuff. Give me some mid-range and maybe accentuate the lower and higher things a little bit, but not too much. And if you do that kind of stuff, you have pink noise.

• 8:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, and, you know, I just realized I have my app here. I might as well figure out what pink noise sounds like, because I wasn't exactly sure. So, we can just play this, if that's all right with you.

• 9:02Josh Clark?

  Yeah, go ahead.

• 9:06Speaker 02

  So that's pink.

• 9:07Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  That's white.

• 9:11Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I could adjust.

• 9:15Speaker 02

  Well, I think that does sound like ocean waves. That's brown.

• 9:18Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 9:19Speaker 02

  But my app has a bunch of other colors and I'm not sure if this is like, hey, let's just go crazy. But there's also purple noise, blue noise.

• 9:26Josh Clark?

  Which app? Are you talking about DwellSpring?

• 9:28Speaker 02

  No, no, no. This is a different one. But yeah, our friend actually developed a white noise app, right?

• 9:33Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's called DwellSpring. The guy who created our website, Brandon Reed, friend of the show and just friend in general, and also one-time world record holder, Guinness record holder of the 400 meter piggyback.

• 9:47Speaker 02

  Man, what a dude.

• 9:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah, he created just a world-class sound generator app. And in addition to all the different colored noises, he also has things like a box fan, the airplane cabin sound.

• 10:01Speaker 02

  That's the one I use on my app. But I forgot Brandon had his. I'm gonna switch over just to support.

• 10:05Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's really great. I mean, like, it's a really good app. The one that got me was crackling fireplace in a thunderstorm.

• 10:12Speaker 02

  Oh, buddy.

• 10:13Josh Clark?

  That is niche. Yeah, exactly. So.

• 10:15Speaker 02

  Oh, that just put me to sleep thinking about it.

• 10:17Josh Clark?

  Go check out DwellSpring. It really is a good app. And I think it's everywhere you can get apps.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  I'm sure it is. Nice work, Brandon. So, back to the noises, like, as far as which one is best for sleep. There have been some very middling studies over the years. We'll mention a few of them, but the problem with these is, you know, in 2017, they were like, hey, let's get eight people in here and watch them sleep.

• 10:42Speaker 02

  Or the one in 2016, they got 16 people. There's just never a lot of folks, you know? I guess, you know, bed space is probably not the easiest thing to do unless people are doing this at home. But at Oxford in 2017, they got those eight people and they said that they fell asleep 40% faster listening to white noise, but their overall sleep was about the same.

• 11:02Josh Clark?

  Okay. But still, falling asleep, not being able to fall asleep is a part of insomnia. Not being able to get back to sleep is another part of it, too. So, yeah, I mean, I would, I would say that's great. A year before, somebody decided that they wanted to see how, how much better you could recall vocabulary words if you slept using pink noise.

• 11:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:28Josh Clark?

  And I guess there was, they, they found that 16 young adults who slept with pink noise had slightly improved recollection of vocabulary words. So they were like, and pickle. Whereas the other, the control group couldn't ever remember pickle.

• 11:44Speaker 02

  They were like, the green thing that was a cucumber once.

• 11:47Josh Clark?

  They're like, man, I should have slept with pink noise.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  Uh, there was a study in 2017 from Northwestern of 13 older adults. And they said, uh, pink noise provided deeper sleep overall and improved, again, ability to recall words.

• 12:02Josh Clark?

  And again, that word was pickle.

• 12:05Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 12:06Josh Clark?

  There was a study in Iran, and this is probably the most robust of all of them. They looked at 60 elderly coronary patients. And they said, half of you are going to sleep with white noise. The other half are not going to have white noise, but all of you are in a hospital. And if you've ever tried to sleep in a hospital, it should be illegal, the, the sounds that they have, because your sleep just deteriorates the longer you're in the hospital. It's awful. Yumi took care of her brother when he was in the hospital for like three weeks. She would stay there overnight.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  It's tough.

• 12:39Josh Clark?

  She would, in addition to just all the beings and the beeps and all that stuff, the nurses come in and they're just like, hey, how's it going? It's time for your blood pressure. Uh, like, and it's three in the morning and that happens every like, you know, there's something that wakes you up every 20 minutes. And it's just so nuts that hospitals are just so aloof about that when we all know how important sleep is. And then that and then nutrition in hospitals is abysmal as well. I should say, American hospitals.

• 13:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:08Josh Clark?

  I just wanted to go off on that because it is something that, that should be fixed and remedied.

• 13:13Speaker 02

  No, it's, it's tough. If you've ever had to be at a hospital for a long time, supporting somebody or just, you know, being the patient, it is hard to sleep. The beds are not great and they're always throwing on those fluorescent lights right when you're dosing off.

• 13:25Josh Clark?

  It'd be like going to get your tires changed at Sears and they keep tacks all over the floor.

• 13:32Josh Clark?

  You know, like they're trying to, they're just sabotaging themselves and doing what they're supposed to be doing, which is healing.

• 13:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's a good point. And we should say the results of the study in the control group, they found the quality of sleep degraded as they obviously spent multiple nights there with all those beeps and, and, you know, let me check your blood pressures happening. Once they had, the ones who had the white noise, their quality of sleep remained basically the same throughout their stay. So it did not degrade over time.

• 14:02Josh Clark?

  Yeah, not bad.

• 14:03Speaker 02

  Which is great.

• 14:03Josh Clark?

  Yeah, for sure. I mean, like, just put a white noise generator in every single room, or give every patient Wellspring.

• 14:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. Or, you know, there, there, there's that app, there's other apps, there are standalone sound machines that you can get, you know, that's just a little thing that you put beside your bed, or maybe Jerry has beside her desk at work, so she can sleep on the job. And then as far as like how to use it, like, that's up to you, depending on what noise does best for you. Try different ones out. The volume, try some different ones out. I find that I get my very best sort of put me to sleep stuff when I run it through an actual speaker, instead of just through my, my phone speaker, because that you get some more deep bass resonance.

• 14:51Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 14:52Speaker 02

  And, and my napping trick is I will put a pillow over my head and face and stick that phone under there with me, and it creates this sort of echoey, not echoey, but like a, just sort of a, it traps the sound. It's like a cavern of sound, and that really gets me out.

• 15:09Josh Clark?

  That and three shots of rum.

• 15:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, the afternoon rum.

• 15:14Josh Clark?

  You got anything else, man?

• 15:16Speaker 02

  I got nothing else.

• 15:16Josh Clark?

  I think that was very nice of you. You gave some great advice to people who have trouble sleeping, which my heart goes out to people like that, for sure.

• 15:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:24Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I guess I mean, short stuff is out.

• 15:30Speaker 03

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.