White noise vs brown noise (vs pink, vs green)
Same family, different personalities. Hear all four in ten seconds, then read what each one is actually good at.
The difference in one paragraph
All noise colors are continuous "masking" sounds that blur out disruptions. The difference is where the energy sits. White spreads it evenly — bright and hissy, like static. Pink tapers the highs by ~3 dB per octave — steady rainfall. Brown tapers ~6 dB per octave — deep waterfall rumble. Green concentrates the middle of the spectrum — wind through trees. Same tool, four textures.
| White | Pink | Brown | Green | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sounds like | Static, hard rain | Steady rainfall | Waterfall, plane cabin | Wind in trees, distant surf |
| Character | Bright, hissy | Balanced, natural | Deep, warm | Mid-toned, airy |
| Best at masking | Sharp sounds: clicks, doors, voices | Mixed environments | Low rumbles: traffic, HVAC, bass | Mid-range chatter, office hum |
| Typical fans | Light sleepers, parents of newborns | People who find white harsh | Focus/ADHD users, deep-sleep seekers | The TikTok sleep wave of 2025-2026 |
| Research base | Most studied for sleep onset | Some studies on deeper sleep stages | Less studied; strong real-world adoption | Newest; essentially anecdotal so far |
How to decide in one night
Skip the theory war and run the test: tonight, fall asleep with white noise at low volume. Tomorrow, brown noise. Keep whichever you noticed less — the whole point of a masking sound is to disappear. If both feel wrong, try pink or green above, or take the quiz; not everyone benefits from noise, and pretending otherwise would be marketing, not advice.
Deep-dives: the brown noise guide, the green noise guide, the full noise colors spectrum (including blue, grey and black), and the babies & white noise safety notes if you're choosing for a small human.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better for sleep, white or brown noise?
There is no universal winner — masking works with both, and comfort decides whether you keep using it. As a rule of thumb: pick white noise when your problem is sharp, unpredictable sounds (doors, clicks, voices), and brown noise when you find white noise harsh or your disturbances are low rumbles. The reliable way to choose is to test each for a night.
Pink noise vs brown noise — what is the difference?
Both roll off the high frequencies, brown just rolls off harder. Pink noise loses about 3 dB per octave (sounds like steady rainfall), brown about 6 dB per octave (sounds like a waterfall or airplane cabin). In practice: pink keeps some brightness and detail, brown is pure warm rumble. If white is too sharp but brown feels muffled, pink is your color.
Which is better for ADHD and focus?
The published research (mostly Söderlund and colleagues) used white noise and found benefits for attention in some groups. The ADHD community online has largely adopted brown noise for comfort reasons — it is less fatiguing over long sessions. Since the masking mechanism is similar, comfort is a perfectly good tiebreaker. More on this in our ADHD guide.
What is green noise?
Green noise concentrates energy in the middle frequencies (~200-900 Hz) — roughly the middle of the audible spectrum, often described as wind through trees or distant surf. It has surged in popularity as a "softer than white, brighter than brown" sleep option. You can play it right on this page.
What about blue, violet, grey or black noise?
They exist as signal-processing concepts: blue and violet emphasize the highs (rarely pleasant for sleep), grey is loudness-corrected white noise, and "black noise" is mostly a poetic name for silence. We cover the whole spectrum honestly in our noise colors guide.
Can I mix colors?
On this site the player runs one color at a time to keep things simple — though you can layer a binaural beat under any color on the focus pages. In practice, one well-chosen color at the right volume does the job.
All the colors, one free app
Brown Noise Machine plays brown, white and pink noise with background audio and a sleep timer — so the test above can run all night with the screen off.
Download on the App Store