Pink noise for sleep: what the studies really show and how loud to play it

Pink noise for sleep is popular, but the evidence is weaker than most pages suggest. The newest careful study, published in the journal Sleep in 2026, found that steady pink noise reduced REM sleep, the dreaming stage. Here is what pink noise is, what the research really shows, and how to use it if you still like it.

What is pink noise?

Pink noise is random noise that gets 3 dB quieter with every octave you go up, where an octave is a doubling in pitch. That gives it more weight in the low and middle sounds than white noise, so it sounds softer, like steady rain or wind in trees.

Noise	How power changes	Sounds like
White	Even across all frequencies	Hiss, a fan, radio static
Pink	Falls 3 dB per octave	Steady rain, wind in leaves
Brown	Falls 6 dB per octave	A low rumble, distant surf

We compare the colours in more detail in brown noise vs white noise.

Is pink noise good for sleep?

Pink noise is not proven to help sleep, and the latest study suggests it can change your sleep in ways you would not choose. In a 2026 lab study, 25 healthy adults spent seven nights in a sleep lab under different sound conditions. Some nights had 93 bursts of environmental noise peaking at 45 to 65 dBA. Some had steady pink noise at 40 or 50 dBA. Some had earplugs, and some combined them.

Here is what the abstract reports:

• Compared with a quiet night, environmental noise reduced N3 deep sleep, and pink noise reduced REM sleep.
• Adding pink noise on top of environmental noise made sleep structure worse overall, even though it slightly reduced the broken-up sleep and the drop in deep sleep the noise caused.
• Earplugs prevented nearly all the effects of environmental noise, though they began to fail at the loudest level, 65 dBA.
• Next morning, memory and thinking tests, heart measures and hearing were not affected. But people rated their sleep, alertness and mood as significantly worse after nights with environmental noise and pink noise.

The authors point out that REM sleep matters for memory, emotions and brain development, and they caution against the widespread, indiscriminate use of broadband noise. They also say more research is needed on the best noise colour and level, and on long-term use. This was one study, with 25 young, healthy people, so it is not the final word. It is, though, a careful, recent test of steady pink noise during sleep, measured with full sleep recordings.

Does pink noise increase deep sleep?

Not as a steady sound playing all night. The deep sleep results you may have read about come from studies that played short pulses of pink noise timed to the brain’s slow waves. In a 2017 study, 13 adults aged 60 to 84 heard pulses timed live by a computer reading their brain activity. Slow waves grew stronger during the pulses, and word recall the next morning improved more than after a sham night. Across the whole night, though, slow wave activity was about the same.

That method needs sensors on your head and software that reacts in real time. A pink noise track on your phone cannot do it. A 2021 systematic review of 38 studies on steady noise and sleep rated the evidence that it improves sleep as very low quality, and noted it may also harm sleep and hearing.

How loud should pink noise be for sleep?

Keep pink noise as quiet as you can, ideally below 40 dBA. The 2026 study played pink noise at 40 or 50 dBA, and at those levels it reduced REM sleep. For a sense of scale, 40 dBA is about the level of a quiet library.

• Turn it down until it only just covers the sounds that wake you.
• Put the phone or speaker across the room, not next to your head.
• Use a timer that fades the sound out after you fall asleep, rather than playing it all night.

If outside noise is the real problem, the same study found earplugs worked better than pink noise.

Pink noise vs white noise vs brown noise: which is best for sleep?

No noise colour has been shown to be best for sleep. They all work the same way: they mask sudden sounds by making them stand out less against a steady background. Pink sounds gentler than white because it has less hiss. Brown is deeper again and many people find it easiest to ignore. Natural sound works too, and rain sounds for sleep are close to pink noise in character. Pick the one you notice least at low volume.

How do you use pink noise for sleep sensibly?

Use it for masking, keep it low, and give it an end. In Shimmr, pink noise is in the library’s noise sessions, and the sleep timer fades it out so it does not run until morning. If you would rather try sound designed around sleep rhythms, our guide to binaural beats for sleep explains the Awake → Asleep Shift, which glides from Alpha down to Delta. If you have trouble sleeping most nights for more than a few weeks, talk to a doctor.