Surely you know someone with a “white noise” machine.
Those are the contraptions that generate a wall of amorphous sound, often to block out unwanted sounds that disrupt sleep, but also employed because people have become convinced they reduce stress.
Who uses them? Busy executives, stressed-out lawyers, or — and now we’re going to talk about real stress — Moms and Dads.
Turns out that they might not work as well as other methods. In fact, a spectacularly popular “Mommy blog” has just featured information on a sound-based sleeping aid that seems to have a better handle on what people of all ages need to really relax, unwind, and sleep well.
There’s a lot of technical information in the fascinatingly insightful MommyPotamus piece, but the gist of it is this: white noise is actually more jarring than restful (and has even been tied to decreases in higher brain function, learning, and memory), but a newer, specially designed system called Sleep Genius might be much better.
Why?
Well, partly because white noise is just a masking sound — and a static-y, hard to process sound, at that — which may block stuff out, but doesn’t put anything all that auditorily helpful in.
The research behind Sleep Genius came from NASA studies initiated because astronauts had sleep problems on space missions. What they discovered was that high-amplitude vibrations picked up by the vestibular system stimulate alertness, while low-amplitude vibrations make us sleepy.
In plain English?
“What NASA research revealed is that motions such as rocking or riding in a car are not the only way to deliver low-amplitude vibrations – we can do the same thing with sound.”
Sleep Genius, in short, is the science of sleep set to music. They used the NASA findings to create something that actually calms the brain and induces relaxation and rest.
What the Sleep Genius app does is integrate multi-band binaural beats — “pulses of sound that create a relaxing cascade of sound” — with what the researchers call pink noise (masking sound, but without the stress-inducing, high-pitched frequencies) — and all of it coalesced with scientifically composed music that weaves all the elements together.
In a word, it’s not white noise, it’s perfectly designed music based on the latest findings from high level research on sleep.
This development could be music to the ears of millions of people who find their stress levels, environments, or other factors are preventing them from getting the deep rest they sorely need.
Today, you don’t have to be a sleep genius to get good rest. But you may want to try Sleep Genius and see what a difference it makes. To check it out, click here.
