Sounds to Fall Asleep Fast: What the Research Shows

No sound has been shown to put most people to sleep quickly. Steady broadband noise has the most direct evidence: in one trial, 18 healthy adults took 38% less time to fall asleep with it on. Music has low-certainty evidence from a Cochrane review. Rain, other nature sounds and audiobooks have not been tested directly, and in one trial binaural beats did no better than music alone. The sound that feels calm to you and covers whatever keeps you awake is a reasonable choice.

Most sleep studies measure sleep onset latency: the time from lights out to sleep. The table below sums up what was found for each type of sound. The guide to white, pink and brown noise explains how the noise colours differ.

The evidence at a glance

Steady noise: the clearest result, and still a modest one

In a 2017 randomised trial by Messineo and colleagues, 18 healthy adults slept two nights in a sleep laboratory. To mimic a night of short-term insomnia, they went to bed 90 minutes earlier than usual. With broadband sound of about 46 dB from two speakers, the median time to reach stage 2 sleep fell by 38% compared with ordinary room noise of about 40 dB.

Reviews of the wider literature are less clear. A 2021 systematic review of 38 studies found results ranging from better sleep to worse and rated the evidence that continuous noise improves sleep as very low quality. A 2022 review of 34 studies with 1,103 adults found positive results in 6 of 18 white noise studies and 9 of 11 pink noise studies. It still concluded that there was no strong evidence for either.

The trial tested falling asleep, not sleeping with noise all night. Leaving noise on all night has its own trade-offs, covered in the guide to sleep sounds all night or with a timer.

Music: may help a little, as people report it

The 2022 Cochrane review pooled 13 studies with 1,007 adults with insomnia. Participants listened to prerecorded music for 25 to 60 minutes a day, for periods from three days to three months. Music probably improved sleep quality as people rated it. It may slightly shorten the time to fall asleep, but that finding rests on low-certainty evidence. In three studies that measured sleep objectively, music may not have changed the time to fall asleep.

Rain and nature sounds: not yet studied on their own

Rain is a common choice for sleep, but we found no sleep trials that tested rain or other nature sounds on their own. The reviews above cover steady noise and music, not recorded nature.

So the research cannot say whether rain works. If rain is the sound you find calm, nothing in the research is a reason to swap it for noise.

Audiobooks and spoken word: untested, but there is a related idea

We found no controlled trials of audiobooks as a sleep aid. The closest evidence is about what occupies the mind before sleep. In a 2002 study by Harvey and Payne, 41 people with insomnia received one of three instructions. Those taught to distract themselves with an engaging mental image fell asleep sooner than those given no instructions. The authors suggest the task took up enough attention to keep worries away.

An audiobook may work the same way, but nobody has tested that. A story that keeps you listening to find out what happens next can also keep you awake. Choose something calm or already familiar, and set a timer.

Binaural beats: no benefit over the music alone

A binaural beat plays a slightly different tone in each ear. In a 2019 double-blind trial, 43 adults with mild insomnia symptoms listened to music for 30 minutes before bed for two weeks, with or without theta binaural beats. Insomnia scores improved in both groups, with no significant difference between them.

How to find the sound that works for you

Because the research cannot pick a winner for you, compare sounds yourself:

1. Keep the same bedtime for two weeks.
2. Use one sound for a week, then another. Do not switch every night.
3. Keep the volume low: just loud enough to cover what disturbs you.
4. Set a timer rather than leaving the sound on all night.
5. Each morning, note roughly how long it took you to fall asleep. Insomnia therapy relies on the same kind of sleep diary.

Relaaax puts rain, water, nature sounds, white, pink, brown and green noise, binaural beats, melodies and public-domain audiobooks from LibriVox on one screen, so you can switch without setting anything up. Its timer fades the sound out over the last five minutes, and switching tracks does not restart the countdown. Binaural beats are marked “Better with headphones” in the app.

When to talk to a doctor

Sleep sounds do not treat insomnia. The NHS advises seeing a GP if changing your sleep habits has not helped, you have had trouble sleeping for months, or it makes daily life hard to cope with. For chronic insomnia, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine strongly recommends cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), which typically takes four to eight sessions.

If you use sound to drown out ringing in your ears, see a GP when the tinnitus is regular, getting worse or affecting your sleep. Ask for an urgent appointment if it beats in time with your pulse.

Frequently asked questions