The benefits of sleeping to broadband sound may be obvious. It can mask disturbances, like TV in the other room, snoring family members, traffic outside, or a noisy neighbor. It can also cue us into a restful state, as we are attuned to more intricate sounds throughout the day, and the sound of the noise machine is constant and soothing. It can help us to fall asleep faster and stay asleep throughout the night. So why the different “colors”?
White noise
Pink noise
Brown noise
All three of these “shades” of noise work to increase latency in the brain, or cause brain waves to reach a lower potential, and while that sounds scary, it’s not. It doesn’t damage our brains, only temporarily disarms them, which is why it’s so useful for sleep. It not only blocks out disruptive sounds but also decreases our likelihood of thinking of all our stressful, unproductive thoughts as we try to drift off, like everything we said that day, who we offended five years ago, a painful memory, what we have to do tomorrow, and so on.
From Poosh