Why this one starts lower than the rest
White noise puts 83% of its power above 4 kHz. Its spectral centre is 12,026 Hz — an order of magnitude above brown noise at 537 Hz. Your ear is not evenly sensitive across that range, so equal energy does not mean equal loudness. The same fader position that feels moderate on brown noise feels sharp on white.
Forty-five is where a bedroom stops sounding hissy on most small speakers. Every other sleep preset here starts at 50 or 60.
The mistake: using it for the wrong disturbance
White noise is very good at what it is good at. Voices through a wall, a partner's alarm, a tap, a dog two gardens away — all of that lives where white noise is strongest, and it disappears cleanly.
Traffic does not. A bus pulling away is mostly under 250 Hz, where white noise has 1% of its power. Turning it up does not fix that; it just adds hiss on top of a rumble you can still hear. For that room, brown noise is the correct tool and this page is not.
Running it to morning without getting used to it
The timer is set to all night because the disturbances white noise handles best — voices, doors, a neighbour's routine — do not politely stop at 1am. The cost is habituation: sleep with it every night and a silent hotel room becomes hard work.
A cheap hedge is to leave it off at weekends and see what happens. If the answer is nothing, the habit is fine. If it is a bad night, you have learned something worth knowing before a trip.
What the generator produces
Rendered on 2026-09-04 from the browser's own per-sample algorithm, 30 seconds at 48 kHz, measured with the EBU R128 meter and an averaged 8192-point FFT.
| Layer | Preset level | Loop | Loudness | RMS | Centre | Low / mid / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White Noise | 45% | generated, no loop | -11.5 LUFS | -14.7 dBFS | 12026 Hz | 1% / 15.6% / 83.4% |
- What this preset cannot do: White noise is the loudest of the four colours at the same fader setting — 6 dB above pink on the integrated meter. Match levels by ear when you switch colours, not by the number on the slider.
Play white noise for sleeping
- Open this page in any browser.
- The preset is already applied: white noise at 45%, timer set to all night.
- Press play with the room at its normal night level and set the fader against that, not against silence.
- If you can hear hiss as a separate thing, drop five points.
Frequently asked questions
How loud should white noise be for sleeping?
Quieter than it feels like it should be. This preset starts at 45%, below every other sleep preset on the site, because white noise carries 83% of its power above 4 kHz and reads as louder than it measures. Keep alarms audible.
Is white noise or brown noise better for sleep?
Depends on the noise. White noise covers voices and bright sounds; brown noise covers traffic and rumble. Measured here, white noise has 1% of its power below 250 Hz and brown noise has 66%.
Is it safe to play white noise all night?
At a level where you can still hear a smoke alarm and a person speaking, yes. Keep the source away from your head, and stop if listening leaves your ears feeling dull or ringing.
Will I get used to it?
Likely, if you use it every night. That is not harmful, but it does make quiet rooms harder. Skipping a night now and then tells you how dependent you have become.
Is there a recording behind this?
No. White noise is generated in the browser sample by sample, so there is no loop and nothing repeats.