Overview
- In a seven-night lab trial of 25 healthy adults, pink noise at about 50 decibels was linked to nearly 19 minutes less REM sleep per night than silence.
- Intermittent aircraft noise reduced deep N3 sleep by roughly 23 minutes compared with quiet nights.
- Combining aircraft and pink noise cut both REM and deep sleep and shortened total sleep by about 15 minutes.
- Standard earplugs largely mitigated sleep-stage losses from environmental noise and improved reported sleep quality.
- Authors highlight the study’s small, controlled design, note widespread use of broadband sleep sounds, and caution parents about use near infants and toddlers.