Can pink noise enhance sleep and memory? Early research drives a colour noise buzz

Dr Malkani points to a recording of pink noise being played at brief intervals to enhance slow brain waves during deep sleep at the Center for Circadian & Sleep Medicine at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago on May 16, 2024. Pink noise has a frequency profile ‘very similar to the distribution of brain wave frequencies we see in slow-wave sleep because these are large, slow waves,’ said Malkani. — AP

You may have heard of white noise used to mask background sounds. Now, it has colourful competition.

There’s a growing buzz around pink noise, brown noise, green noise – a rainbow of soothing sounds – and their theoretical effects on sleep, concentration and the relaxation response.