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White noise for studying

White noise has equal power at every frequency, like white light contains every colour. Because each octave up contains twice as many frequencies, it sounds bright and hissy: TV static, a fan close to your ear, air from a vent. Its strong high frequencies tend to cover sharp, high sounds such as keyboard clicks.

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  • White noise

    Flat hiss that covers speech best. Keep it quiet.

Generated live in your browser. Start low and raise it until the room blurs.

Pair it with the 25/5 Pomodoro timer

White noise is the brightest of the noises, so use shorter blocks with quiet breaks and keep the volume low. Use 25/5 and keep the volume low.

Focus

25:00

Then a 5 min break

Open the full 25/5 Pomodoro timer page

What the evidence says

Honest summary: the evidence is small and split. In a 2007 experiment, white noise improved task performance for children with ADHD and made it worse for controls (Söderlund et al. 2007). A 2010 follow-up with 51 pupils found the same pattern, helping inattentive and hurting attentive children, and called for larger replications (Söderlund et al. 2010). The 2024 meta-analysis pooled this work: small benefit with ADHD symptoms, small cost without (Nigg et al. 2024). If you do not have attention difficulties, white noise may be most useful as masking in a noisy place.

How to use it with a timer

  1. Start low. White noise feels louder than brown or pink at the same setting.
  2. Start a 25/5 timer and study one topic per block.
  3. If the hiss becomes tiring, switch to pink or brown noise.

Keep it quiet. According to the NIDCD, sound at or below 70 dBA is unlikely to cause hearing loss; long or repeated exposure at 85 dBA or more can (NIDCD). A good rule: you should still be able to hear someone speaking at normal volume next to you.

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Questions

About white noise. Missing something? Write to contact@novasouds.se.

It depends on you. Studies by Söderlund and colleagues found white noise helped children with ADHD or inattention on lab tasks and slightly hurt those without. In a noisy place it can still cover sudden sounds.

Not at sensible volumes: according to the NIDCD, sound at or below 70 dBA is unlikely to damage hearing; long or repeated exposure at 85 dBA or more can. Keep it low enough to hear someone talking next to you.

White noise masks high, sharp sounds best; brown noise masks low rumble and is gentler. Most people find brown or pink easier to listen to for long sessions.

Sources

  1. Söderlund et al. (2007), Listen to the noise: noise is beneficial for cognitive performance in ADHD, JCPP (abstract)
  2. Söderlund et al. (2010), The effects of background white noise on memory performance in inattentive school children, Behavioral and Brain Functions
  3. Nigg et al. (2024), Do white noise or pink noise help with task performance in youth with ADHD or elevated attention problems? Systematic review and meta-analysis, JAACAP
  4. Colors of noise (Wikipedia): White noise
  5. NIDCD: Noise-induced hearing loss