Sounds for focus and sleep
Ten sounds, each playable here. The noise colours are generated in your browser and download nothing; the recordings load once and then loop from memory rather than streaming.
How to pick one
Background sound mostly works by masking: a steady signal raises the noise floor so intermittent sounds stop punching through and pulling your attention. That means the right sound depends on what you are covering, not on which one is nicest.
- People talking — white or pink noise. Speech lives in the mid and upper range, which is where they have energy.
- Traffic, machinery, bass through a wall — brown noise or heavy rain, which carry their weight at the bottom.
- A room that is too quiet — room tone or light rain, which change how empty silence feels without covering anything.
- Nothing in particular — pink noise or rain. Both are easy to stop noticing, which is the whole job.
Use the least sound that does the job. Anything past that is just more noise you have chosen for yourself.
- Rain SoundsWorking in a room where other people are talking
- Heavy Rain SoundsNoisy environments where light rain is not enough
- Brown NoiseCovering low-frequency intrusions — traffic, machinery, bass through a wall
- White NoiseMasking speech, which sits where white noise is strongest
- Pink NoiseAll-day background, where white noise becomes tiring
- Meditation Hall Room ToneSilence that feels too empty to work in
- Fireplace SoundsReading and unhurried work
- Stream and Water SoundsDaytime work where rain feels heavy
- Wind Chime SoundsSitting practice and slow starts to the day
- Wooden Fish (Muyu) SoundsRepetitive work that benefits from a steady beat
Related
- Free online study room
- Online timers
Working timers for every focus length, with the honest case for each one.
- Rain Sounds
Steady rain on leaves, looping in your browser. No account, no ads, and it keeps playing with the network off once it has loaded.
- Heavy Rain Sounds
Dense night rain in a forest, looping in your browser. Louder and lower than light rain, for when there is more to cover up.
- Brown Noise
A brown noise generator that runs in your browser — the deep, low-heavy noise colour, generated on your machine rather than downloaded.
- White Noise
A white noise generator that runs in your browser — equal power at every frequency, generated on your machine rather than downloaded.