You’ve probably noticed, at some point in your life, that having a fan whirring in your bedroom can help you sleep. Maybe you never even quite understood why, but you intuitively felt safe and slightly more “tucked in” when blanketed beneath the comforting whoosh of fast-moving fan blades. Besides making the room cooler (which can also significantly improve sleep quality), the real soporific power of a sleep fan lies in its ability to mask disruptive sounds.
The power of sound masking
One of the most popular and well-known examples of a sound masking noise is white noise. The actual sound of white noise is like the thrum of a fan or a the hiss of a static-y television. How does the drone of white noise work to “mask” other sounds? White noise and similarly sound masking sounds reduce the difference between background noise and potentially disturbing “peak” sounds, therefore making peak sounds less likely to interrupt your sleep cycle. Examples of peak sounds include a door slamming or a dish clattering. With sound masking sounds present in your soundscape to mask peak sounds, you’re more likely to slumber on, undisturbed.
According to the National Sleep Foundation: “If you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, creating a constant ambient sound could help mask activity from inside and outside the house. In your bedroom, white noise can be created by a sound conditioner, a fan or an air purifier, anything that is a consistent and soothing backdrop throughout the night.”
If you don’t have an actual sleep fan, you can still access the effectiveness of white noise or other sound masking sounds thorough recordings and downloads.
Listen: Sleep fan ASMR sounds
Below, listen to a sleep fan — specifically a box fan — for eight hours (a whole night’s sleep!) of sound masking sounds. This particular sleep fan recording induces ASMR — autonomous sensory meridian response. ASMR is an extremely relaxing experience defined by a static-y, tingling skin sensation. In ASMR, this tingly sensation usually starts at the scalp and travels the back of the neck and to the upper spine. See if you experience the effects of ASMR listening to this video …
Listen: Sleep fan white noise
White noise is the sound of all frequencies hearable to the human ear being played at equal intensities, simultanesouly. As mentioned above, a whirring fan is a prime example of white noise. If you’re really needing a night of good, hard, deep catch-up sleep, here’s 11 hours of white noise in the form of a sleep fan … long enough to help you fall asleep and sleep undisturbed all through the night and into the morning.
Listen: Full albums of sound masking sounds
Sound masking power is available in much more advanced forms than that of a simple sleep fan and/or straight white noise. A new sound engine called Endel leverages the neuroscience behind how white noise helps us sleep by creating adaptive, comforting audio environments that align mind and body and mask sounds that might disrupt that alignment. The soundscapes of Endel wrap you in a soft, ambient blanket of soothing sounds to gently relax your mind and body, together, toward sleep.
Now, you can listen to the sound masking power of Endel in the form of five new full-length sleep sounds albums. Each sleep album contains 23 tracks with a total playtime of an hour. These masterfully-crafted, scientifically-proven playlists of sleep sounds — developed by a collaborative team of scientists, developers, and artists — are now available across streaming services.
To give Endel’s sleep albums a listen, click the “play” button below and preview the Sleep: Clear Night, Cloudy Night, Rainy Night, Foggy Morning, and Cloudy Afternoon playlists. Choose “listen” in the top right corner if you wish to view and/or download the full album via your preferred streaming service.
Clear Night Playlist Preview
Cloudy Night Playlist Preview
Rainy Night Playlist Preview
Foggy Morning Playlist Preview
Cloudy Afternoon Playlist Preview
