What does white noise mean? White noise

Why use white noise for newborns? What types of white noise are there, and what are their benefits? Could this be a great new way to put your baby to sleep? Let's figure out what's what.

What is white noise?

In scientific terms, white noise is stationary noise, the spectral components of which are evenly distributed over the entire range of frequencies involved.

To put it more simply, it is a uniform, monophonic sound without drops. Although pure white noise does not actually occur in nature or technology, because such a signal would have infinite power. The concept of white includes any noise in which high, low and mid frequencies have the same volume and therefore do not differ from each other by ear. As a result, we hear a monotonous sound.

There are other colored noises: pink, red, blue, purple, brown and gray.

Types of white noise

White noise can be natural or technical. Falling asleep sweetly and happily to the sound of rain, many do not even realize that the sounds of strong, uniform rain are a type of white noise. And it was created by nature itself. Like the sound of a nearby waterfall, for example, and the sound of a stream. And the noise on the TV or the noise of a hair dryer are technically generated white noise. There are even special “white noise machines”. By the way, the whispering and drawn-out “shhhhhhhh” that mothers intuitively try to calm the child down is also a type of white noise.

For us, the most famous types of white noise are:

• the sound of water flowing from the tap and from the shower head;
• noise of a fan, vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, washing machine, air conditioner;
• the hiss of a free radio frequency or television channel;
• the sound of the ocean, the rustling of leaves, the wind.

White noise for newborns

Often children cannot cope with their not yet formed nervous system, even if they are very tired. However, they are not wet, not hungry and not sick. Parents suffer for hours to no avail to help their child. They rock you to sleep, try not to move or breathe, and close all the windows and doors. And then . Because, for example, a fan was turned on in the room. Why is this happening?

Creating ringing silence for falling asleep is not entirely the right approach, because the human ear is not accustomed to it. Complete silence even frightens us. After spending 9 months in the mother's womb, the child became accustomed to constant noise. The uniform beating of the mother’s heart, the monotonous flow of blood in the placenta, some muffled voices from the outside. White noise very much reminds the baby of this “acoustic system”, which was a guarantor of safety for him. That is why the baby automatically relaxes and calms down under its influence.

The benefits of white noise for a newborn

In addition to helping newborns fall asleep, white noise improves sleep quality. The usual cycle of deep sleep in babies is only 20-30 minutes, and then the superficial sleep phase begins, when even a slight cough can pull Morpheus out of the arms. After this, the child will hardly be able to sleep soundly. This phase occurs twice as often in infants as in adults. Exposure to white noise prevents sleep from being interrupted at the moment of transition from one phase to another.

Also, calming and relaxing from white noise often helps a baby if he refuses to latch on due to overexcitation or extreme fatigue. White noise for newborns is also an aid in relieving stress.

There is a theory that using white noise while a baby sleeps reduces the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). This is a very controversial statement, since a study by foreign scientists using a fan in a child’s room was aimed at testing the theory of the influence of carbon dioxide accumulation on the breathing of babies. The fan was supposed to accelerate it. And excessive concentrations of carbon dioxide are one of the possible causes of SIDS. The results of the experiment say nothing about white noise.

Thanks to more regular sleep due to white noise, children are less prone to somnambulism (sleepwalking).

White noise can also help parents get better sleep due to the same principle of reducing REM sleep. The child sometimes just tosses and turns, but does not wake up completely, and the mother immediately reacts to any rustle and then cannot fall asleep for a long time. White noise will help her sleep better and feel better.

Harm of white noise for a newborn

Scientists have not identified any direct harm from white noise. Although it has been proven that the brains of experimental rat pups developed more slowly under the influence of such noise, this fact cannot be confidently applied to people. The human brain is still completely different and develops somewhat differently.

There are some restrictions on the use of white noise:

• do not leave white noise on all night;
• do not place the white noise source closer than one meter from the baby’s crib;
• The volume of the white noise source should be very moderate, but at the same time such that other sounds are absorbed by it. For example, for that same mother’s “shush” to work, it is necessary that the volume of the mother’s voice exceeds the baby’s crying.
• When using white noise, do not exceed the permissible sound power of 50 decibels. Louder noise will be harmful to the psyche and hearing.

Video

Many mothers use this sleeping method as white noise for newborns. Listening to the calm sounds of nature, the sound of the surf, the sound of water, the sound of a hairdryer, the murmur of a stream is useful for sleep.

"White noise" for newborns

No sooner had my baby arrived from the maternity hospital than her newly-made uncle, my little brother Andrei, came to visit us. Before he had time to fully enjoy his communication with Katyusha, she began to be capricious.

- What's happened? Hungry, probably.- Andrei became worried.

- No. I think she's tired and wants to rest. Still, it’s hard work to explore the world, especially for such little ones.

Continuing to communicate with Andryusha, I wrapped the child tightly in a blanket so that she would be warm and comfortable, and, lightly rocking, moved her closer to the sink with the water turned on. Katya, as soon as she heard the sound of water bubbling from the tap, calmed down and slowly began to fall asleep. At that moment my brother looked at me as if I were a great magician.

- “What kind of miracle is this? How did you put the child to sleep in a second?”- Andrei asked in surprise. I had to explain that the whole secret lies in white noise, a kind of cradle from nature. This noise as a background sound helps babies stop being capricious, relax and soon fall asleep due to the fact that it resembles noises in the mother's womb.

So what is this “white noise”?

A good analogy would be the concept of light. It is known that light is represented as a complex spectrum of colors. By the same principle, in white noise, sounds with different tonality and saturation are combined into continuous noise. Such sounds include: the noise of pouring water, a running engine, a room fan and other household appliances. The sounds are different, but they all have one feature, namely, monotony, which magically calms the child’s central nervous system.

Why do children love to listen to white noise so much?

There are many reasons for this. The first and main reason is a reminder of the cozy and familiar mother’s womb with its characteristic noises for babies. The second reason is simple - when the little one is tired and can’t cope with going to bed, the noise will really calm him down. And the third reason is that this kind of noise can distract the baby from new and often frightening sounds of the external environment - be it music, loud voices or street sounds. It turns out that white noise helps to remain in an understandable environment for children, but at the same time they are in a completely new environment for their perception.

How does white noise work?

“Calm a child with the noise of a vacuum cleaner? What nonsense. These were exactly my first thoughts. But once I tried it, I was convinced that this method works. The baby really calmed down and began to fall asleep. Surprising but true. Advice to all mothers to try this method, it saves better than toys with music.” What is the secret of such an influence on the child’s psyche? The baby's body is saturated with oxygen due to intensive blood circulation in the vessels of the maternal placenta.
A pediatrician from the United States, Harvey Karp, says that the baby’s central nervous system relaxes due to the triggering of an innate reflex in children that responds to the sounds of blood circulation in the womb, that is, to white noise. As follows from the example, the sound of water calmed the baby and made it easier for him to fall asleep. Under what circumstances is it possible to listen to white noise? At the reception, new mothers talk about the impact of noise not only on children, but also on mothers - they believe that noise makes it possible to calm down, not jump at every rustle, and sleep peacefully.
During studies conducted by American scientists, it was found that monotonous, measured noise (for example, a fan running quietly at night) helps reduce the incidence of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) by up to 70%!

How white noise works when falling asleep.

1. Noise helps you relax.

The little one can relax and fall asleep safely. Sometimes a child really wants to sleep, but he is unable to concentrate directly on falling asleep and this makes him capricious. In this case, the noise will just help calm him down and send him to sleep. It is important that at this time the noise level does not exceed the threshold of 50 dB. If the sounds of rushing water are comfortable for the mother, then they will also be comfortable for the child.

2. Noise increases sleep duration.

Typically, a newborn's sleep time is somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes. And before the deep sleep phase (5 to 10 minutes) there can sometimes be an unexpected awakening. This can be avoided by having white noise. “Fragile sleep” occurs more often in children than in adults. In this regard, white noise will serve as a kind of “guard” for children’s sensitive sleep.

3. Noise distracts from other sounds

Sometimes it is very difficult for a mother to create suitable conditions for a child’s quiet time, especially if there are many other children and adults at home. White noise will serve as a distraction from unnecessary sounds and will help set the baby up for sleep. The sniffling of other sleeping children, older children getting ready for school and other unnecessary sounds can be veiled with the help of white noise and preserve the baby's light sleep. Even playing all night long, white noise will not cause discomfort.
Before accepting miracle noise as an assistant, you need to understand exactly what effect you want to get. If for a one-time motion sickness of a newborn, you can use a fan or hair dryer. If you want your child to sleep peacefully throughout the night, then you can lose "White noise" every night from our website, after adding it to your bookmarks.

White noise in the lives of adults.

Various studies have shown the beneficial effects of white noise on adults. With its help, attentiveness increases, creative thinking develops, and it also becomes possible to overcome insomnia. Experts also claim that with the help of certain manipulations, white noise can tone the brain. And with the right add-ons, noise can quickly restore brain activity during overwork, stress and illness. White noise produces a calming effect. Indispensable for relaxation and meditation sessions.

Tip: you can turn on several different sounds at once, thereby obtaining a unique white noise that will suit your child.

Happy listening!

Silence today is a valuable commodity. And for residents of megacities it is a completely unaffordable luxury. But such a desired ideal silence does not please, but deafens. The absence of any sounds prevents you from relaxing in the same way as the roar of the highway outside the window. That is why the idea arose to replace one noise with another, white. How does it work? Why does it help some people relax and irritate others? And why does white noise help meditation but harm relationships? Knowledge about how the brain works and attention to your body will help you get rid of one stress factor - continuous, all-consuming noise.

What is white noise?

White noise is artificial noise in which sound waves of different frequencies are distributed evenly and sound at the same volume. For example, it can be heard if you turn on the TV without an antenna. The gray-white “blizzard” on the screen will be accompanied by classic white noise.

White noise is one of the most non-traumatic. Here are 3 reasons that make it comfortable for the human ear:

• All frequencies that a person can distinguish evenly distributed. So that nothing irritates the ear.
• Has the property absorb all other sound waves. Therefore, your spouse’s snoring or colleagues’ conversations at work seem less loud.
• The overall effect is that, against the background of the general sound cacophony, a monotonous “sh-sh-sh-sh” seems nice, soothing.

There are white noise of man-made and natural origin. Technogenic– these are the classic sounds of a working vacuum cleaner, air conditioner, hair dryer. To avoid constantly running electrical appliances, there are artificial white noise generators. In nature no such sources exist. The sound of a waterfall, the rustling of leaves, the rustle of rain - these monotonous sounds can only approximately be called “white”.

White noise has a therapeutic effect and is recommended to be used for migraines. For many, it helps them concentrate at the same time. And lovers of mysticism use this sound to communicate with the other world. There is no scientific evidence for such effects. The research is carried out by physicists and mathematicians, but has nothing to do with it.

The effect of white noise on humans.

Sound torture, which was used back in Ancient China, was considered the most cruel. And being in a chamber called a “music box” split the most persistent intelligence officers. It's not all about the sound, but about its volume, frequency and intermittency.

• The volume or intensity of sound in densely populated cities sometimes exceeds the noise of production. And it often becomes a cause of stress.
• High-frequency sounds are very poorly perceived by our brain and cause mental disorder.
• Intermittent, but not rhythmic noises constantly keep the brain in tense anticipation: when will the next note be heard.

Classic white noise is perceived as a cross between annoying sounds and absolute silence. But it affects different people differently. It calms some people, irritates others. It's not the noise itself, but the work of our internal organs, electrophysiological signals of skeletal muscles, and the interaction of neurons (transmitters of sound stimulation). When external and internal vibrations do not coincide too much, balance is lost and the desired relaxation is replaced by irritation.

Application of white noise in life.

Many people use special noise generators, and pediatricians recommend playing hissing melodies to help babies sleep peacefully. For better concentration, students are advised to listen to monotonous sound while preparing for exams. To understand this effect, each case should be considered separately.

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White noise for kids.

Surprisingly, babies are more affected by man-made sounds. Mothers on forums actively share stories about how a child calms down to the hum of a running hair dryer or vacuum cleaner. The Internet is full of videos recording monotonous hissing, and “Machines for putting babies to sleep” have been on sale for a long time. The calming effect of “noisemakers” is simply explained: the child gets used to monotonous sounds in the womb, so they calm the baby even after birth.

But pediatricians are not as optimistic as sellers of miracle sleep devices. Parents often try to drown out extraneous sounds with a noisemaker and set it at high volume. This may affect the baby's hearing. In addition, infancy is the period of formation of auditory images. Constant exposure to monotonous sound may change brain function. Therefore, the mother’s lullaby is recognized as a much more effective method, and the duration of the use of noise is better limited to a short period.

White noise for meditation.

"White noise" of the TV.

The buzz of big cities is both annoying and addictive. This may be why many of us turn on the TV as soon as we walk in the door. They work, communicate, eat with a constant television background. If we ignore the constant “mumbling”, this does not mean that our organs and our brain do not notice it. It has been proven that such irritants take away some of the mental energy and concentration, add fatigue and absent-mindedness.

Our hearing works even during sleep. Any sound causes pressure on the eardrum, movement of the auditory nerve, transmission of impulses to the brain through neural channels. During sleep, with the TV on, a person’s hearing aid works continuously, but the brain does not rest. Constant fatigue has a negative impact on the functioning of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This in turn has a bad effect on.

No matter how calming white noise may be, it’s still not worth listening to endlessly.. It is not for nothing that modern scientists compare noise to a drug. After all, sound signals are addictive, changing the brain chemically, structurally and functionally. To relax the brain, doctors advise giving yourself days (or at least hours) of silence - a kind of detox program for noise addicts. To do this, you should find an acoustic comfort zone for yourself. The simplest thing is not to turn on any unnecessary sources of noise in your home. Even white ones.

conclusions

• White noise is the everyday noise that is most comfortable to the human ear.
• For every argument about its benefits, there is an equally plausible counterargument.
• Before installing a “fall asleep machine” at your newborn’s crib, you should learn more about its characteristics and make sure it is safe for the child.
• The ideal music for meditation is the one that resonates with your feelings.

Characteristic “snow” on the TV screen, accompanied by white noise when there is no signal

In nature and technology, “pure” white noise (that is, white noise having the same spectral power at all frequencies) does not occur (due to the fact that such a signal would have infinite power), however, any noise whose spectral density is the same (or slightly different) in the frequency range under consideration.

Statistical properties

The term "white noise" is usually applied to a signal that has an autocorrelation function, mathematically described by the Dirac delta function across all dimensions of the multidimensional space in which the signal is considered. Signals with this property can be considered as white noise. This statistical property is fundamental for signals of this type.

The fact that white noise is uncorrelated in time (or in any other argument) does not determine its values ​​in the time (or any other argument considered) domain. The sets received by the signal can be arbitrary up to the main statistical property (however, the constant component of such a signal must be equal to zero). For example, a sequence of symbols 1 and −1 multiplied by a sequence of delta functions following the symbol frequency will be white noise only if the sequence of symbols is uncorrelated. Signals that have a continuous distribution (such as a normal distribution) can also be white noise.

Discrete white noise is simply a sequence of independent (that is, statistically unrelated to each other) numbers. Using the Visual C++ pseudorandom number generator, discrete white noise can be obtained as follows:

x [ i ] = 2 * ((rand () / ((double ) RAND_MAX )) - 0.5 )

In this case, x is an array of discrete white noise (without zero frequency component) having a uniform distribution from −1 to 1.

It is sometimes mistakenly assumed that Gaussian noise (that is, noise with a Gaussian distribution of its values ​​- see normal distribution) is equivalent to white noise. However, these concepts are not equivalent. Gaussian noise assumes the distribution of signal values ​​as a normal distribution, whereas the term "white" refers to the correlation of a signal at two different points in time (this correlation is independent of the distribution of noise values). White noise can have any distribution - both Gaussian and Poisson, Cauchy, etc. Gaussian white noise as a model is well suited for the mathematical description of many natural processes (see Additive white Gaussian noise).

Colored noise

Applications

White noise has many applications in physics and technology. One of them is in architectural acoustics. In order to mask unwanted noise in the interior spaces of buildings, low-power stationary white noise is generated.

Recently, many pediatricians have been recommending the use of white noise sounds to calm babies and help them sleep well; it is assumed that in the uterus the baby constantly heard white noise: the beating of the mother’s heart, the work of the stomach, the sound of blood in the vessels. [ ] .

White noise is used to measure the frequency characteristics of various linear dynamic systems, such as amplifiers, electronic filters, discrete control systems, etc. When white noise is applied to the input of such a system, the output is a signal that is the system's response to the applied stimulus. Due to the fact that the complex frequency response of a linear system is the ratio of the Fourier transform of the output signal to the Fourier transform of the input signal, obtaining this characteristic mathematically is quite simple, and for all frequencies for which the input signal can be considered white noise.

Many random number generators (both software and hardware) use white noise to generate random numbers and random sequences.

In the Linux operating system, the speaker-test console command, which generates white or pink noise, is used to test headphones/speakers.

Mathematical review

Random number vector

Random number vector w (\displaystyle \mathbf (w) ) is a sequence of white noise samples when its average value μ w (\displaystyle \mu _(w)) and autocorrelation matrix R w w (\displaystyle R_(ww)) satisfy the following equalities:

That is, it is a vector of random numbers with zero mean, the autocorrelation matrix of which is a diagonal matrix with variances along the main diagonal.

White random process (white noise)

Time-continuous random process w (t) (\displaystyle w(t)), Where t ∈ R (\displaystyle t\in \mathbb (R) ), is white noise if and only if its mathematical expectation and autocorrelation function satisfy the following equalities, respectively:

If the value σ 2 (\displaystyle \sigma ^(2)) does not depend on time, then the random process is stationary white noise, if it depends on time - non-stationary white noise

Do you know what white noise is? Have you ever felt its effects? What is the benefit of white noise, and is there such a thing in principle?

I’ll try to answer these questions now!

So, white noise is stationary noise, the spectral components of which are evenly distributed over the entire range of frequencies involved, as Wikipedia tells us. In other words, this is broadband radiation consisting of all wavelengths of approximately the same intensity or the maximum possible spectrum of such different wavelengths.

It got its name by analogy with white light - an effect observed in the visible part of sunlight: if all the colors of the visible spectrum of light are mixed, they will give white color.

In the audible frequency range, an example of white noise is the sound of a waterfall.

In continuation of such a scientific metaphor!

There is also the concept of colored noise: noise of different colors. And among all their diversity, three types of noise are of greatest importance: white noise, brown noise and pink noise.

All three main types of noise are common:

Where different factors are randomly mixed, a White noise- it can be heard, for example, by tuning an old radio to a wave that has no radio stations. Another example is thermal noise in semiconductors. It is created by chaotic vibrations of atoms and with high amplification it is quite audible in any sound-reproducing device. The origin of white noise is clear - it's just a game of chance.

Brown noise. At low frequencies, noise has more energy than at high frequencies. Acoustic brown (or red) noise is heard as muffled compared to white or pink noise. Its color is not related to the brown color of the light corresponding to it. Brown - from the word Brown, Brownian movement. To the ear, brown noise is perceived as “warmer” than white noise. It is also widespread in nature, and this is not surprising - after all, it is generated by random walk. For example, it corresponds to sea waves and, naturally, Brownian motion of particles.

Pink noise, despite its unclear origin, is extremely common. It first attracted attention when physicists noticed that some semiconductor devices were making a strange noise. In addition to the usual thermal white noise, they found the presence of noise that had more low and very low frequencies. It turned out that the power of this noise is inversely proportional to its frequency and this relationship is true even for frequencies of thousandths of a hertz. This means that some processes lasting several days or more take place in semiconductors, which generate this noise. It was called "flicker noise", which is now another name for pink noise. Examples: the distant noise of a waterfall (since high-frequency components of sound are attenuated in the air more than low-frequency ones), the sound of a flying helicopter, this noise is also found, for example, in heart rhythms, in graphs of electrical activity of the brain, in the electromagnetic radiation of cosmic bodies.

I would also like to highlight green noise- noise of the natural environment. The spectrum is similar to that of pink noise with a “spike” around 500 Hz. Green noise also denotes the mid-frequencies of white noise.

How does colored noise affect a person?

As you probably already guessed - in different ways! Of course, all this is individual. Taste and color... as they say! But many have noticed that this noise helps to concentrate if there is a noisy environment around, helps to distract from any thoughts, relax, fall asleep, calm a crying child and even relieve a headache!

I found these interesting characteristics on one English-language site:

White noise(at all frequencies) is an effective masker of extraneous noise because it covers a wide range of the "spectrum". It's great for reading, studying, and any other activity that requires concentration.

Pink noise(a mixture of high and low frequencies) will help relieve stress and cope with tension. It creates a therapeutic environment that relaxes your mind and body.

Brown noise(uses low sound frequencies) helps improve sleep, masks tinnitus, and reduces headaches. It will also help calm your children and animals.

Here's an interesting video! Skeptics should think about it)))

Of course, everything is individual. And, probably, one should not hope for the miraculous effect of these sounds one hundred percent. Try it, see what suits you, but don’t overdo it! Noises... sounds of nature... All this is good! But sometimes it’s better to go out into nature (and almost everyone can do this once a week!).