Cicada Sounds in The Forrest with Black Screen for Relaxing, Meditation, Stress Relief

A noisy environment can disrupt sleep and increase the risk of long-term health effects. The World Health Organization recommends keeping environmental noise levels below 40 decibels at night. Unfortunately, depending on where you live, it may be impossible to ensure a sufficiently quiet bedroom environment.

There is growing interest in using sounds such as music and white noise to reduce the effects of environmental noise. Using sound to improve sleep is an easy, low-cost method with few known side effects. Research so far demonstrates that certain sounds may help people relax for sleep and improve sleep quality, so it’s worth examining how to do so, as well as what sounds work best for sleep.

The best sound to fall asleep to depends on your personal preference, as well as your sleep environment and the nature of your sleep problems. You can experiment with smartphone apps, white noise machines, and other methods to find a sound that helps you sleep. Be sure to turn off notifications if you bring your phone into the bedroom.

Listening to sounds before sleep may not work for everybody. If your bedroom is completely quiet, you may not need to use any sounds for sleep. Similarly, some people may find that wearing earplugs is enough to block out disruptive noises.