Brown Noise, Pink Noise, and the Science of Sound
2026-02-14 · CyberSeals Team · 6 min read
The TikTok Miracle
Brown noise is having a moment. Search TikTok for “brown noise ADHD” and you will find over 113 million views worth of testimonials. Parents calling it a miracle. Adults with ADHD describing it as the sound of a brain finally going quiet. Videos of children falling asleep in minutes after years of struggling. The comments are filled with gratitude, relief, and the unmistakable energy of a community that feels it has found something real.
The enthusiasm is understandable. For families living with attention challenges, anything that helps is worth celebrating. But the gap between viral anecdotes and peer-reviewed evidence is wide – and in this case, it is wider than most people realize.
Because when researchers went looking for the science behind brown noise, they found something surprising: there is none.
What the Research Actually Says
In 2024, a team led by Joel Nigg at Oregon Health & Science University published the most comprehensive analysis of noise and ADHD to date. It was a systematic review and meta-analysis – the gold standard of evidence synthesis – published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP).
Nigg et al. 2024 – JAACAP Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Across 13 studies involving 335 participants, white and pink noise improved task performance in youth with elevated ADHD symptoms. The pooled effect size was g = 0.249 (p < .0001) – a small but statistically reliable benefit. – Nigg et al., Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (2024)
This is good news for white and pink noise. A small but consistent effect across multiple independent studies is exactly the kind of evidence that should inform product decisions.
But here is the critical finding that the TikTok algorithm does not surface: the meta-analysis identified zero studies on brown noise. Not inconclusive studies. Not mixed results. Zero. The 113 million views are built on extrapolation, not evidence. Brown noise is in the same family as white and pink noise – all are variations of random spectral energy – but “same family” is not the same as “same evidence.”
The Opposite Effect
The Nigg meta-analysis revealed something else that rarely makes it into viral content. White and pink noise do not help everyone. In fact, for children without ADHD, the same noise that helps their peers actively makes things worse.
g = -0.212 for Non-ADHD Controls
White and pink noise impaired task performance in children without elevated attention problems. The effect was nearly as strong in the negative direction as the benefit was in the positive direction. – Nigg et al., JAACAP (2024)
This is not a minor footnote. It means that a classroom playing white noise to “help everyone focus” is likely helping some students while simultaneously hurting others. Universal noise prescriptions get the science exactly backwards. The research shows that noise is a tool with a specific use case, not a general-purpose productivity enhancer.
Why Brown Noise Went Viral Anyway
If brown noise has no dedicated research, why does it feel so helpful to so many people? The answer probably lies in the Moderate Brain Arousal (MBA) model and in the subjective quality of the sound itself.
The Moderate Brain Arousal (MBA) Model
Proposed by Sikstrom and Soderlund, the MBA model suggests that ADHD brains operate with lower baseline dopaminergic arousal. External noise can elevate the internal signal-to-noise ratio through a mechanism called stochastic resonance – essentially, adding noise to a weak signal can make the signal easier to detect. This may explain why some individuals with attention difficulties perform better in noisy environments. – Sikstrom & Soderlund, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (2007)
Brown noise has more energy in the low frequencies than white or pink noise. It sounds deeper, fuller, more like a waterfall or distant thunder than the hiss of a television. Many people describe it as “warmer” or “more soothing.” That subjective quality matters – if a sound feels calming, a person is more likely to use it consistently, and consistent use creates the conditions for habit formation and placebo-adjacent benefits.
It is also worth noting that the stochastic resonance mechanism itself has been recently challenged. A 2024 study published in Neuropsychologia found that both random signals (like pink noise) and non-random signals (like a pure tone) reduced neural noise in ADHD participants. This suggests the benefit may not be about randomness at all, but about the presence of steady background stimulation – which would apply to brown noise as much as any other consistent sound.
The Inverted U-Curve
Even for individuals who do benefit from noise, there is no single “right” amount. The relationship between noise intensity and performance follows an inverted U-curve: too little noise provides no benefit, optimal noise improves performance, and too much noise causes impairment.
Individual Variation Dominates
Soderlund et al. (2024) found that the optimal noise level for clinical ADHD participants varies significantly between individuals. Some participants performed best at moderate noise levels while others were impaired at the same intensity. The inverted U-curve means that any fixed noise setting will be wrong for most users. – Soderlund et al., PMC (2024)
This finding has a direct practical implication: any tool that sets noise to a fixed level and calls it optimal is ignoring the most robust finding in the literature. The right noise level is personal. It varies by individual, by task, by time of day, and by current arousal state. The only way to find it is to give the user control.
What This Means for CyberSeals
Every product decision CyberSeals has made about audio was informed by this research – including the parts that are inconvenient for marketing.
Brown noise is available in CyberSeals, but it is labeled “Deep Rumble” rather than “Brown Noise for ADHD Focus.” This is not a branding choice. It is an honesty choice. There are zero peer-reviewed studies supporting brown noise specifically, and labeling it as an ADHD tool would be making a claim the evidence does not support.
Noise defaults to off. The research shows that noise impairs performance in people without elevated attention difficulties. Auto-playing noise for every user would actively harm some of them.
Binaural beats are not offered. The evidence base is weak, and there are documented risks of seizures and headaches in developing brains. When the potential downside includes neurological harm to children, “the evidence is mixed” is not good enough.
Most importantly, user control is the primary feature. The meta-analysis, the MBA model, and the inverted U-curve all converge on the same conclusion: individual variation dominates every other finding. No algorithm can predict the right audio environment for a specific child on a specific day. The child – or their parent – is the only reliable judge.
The science of noise and attention is real, promising, and more nuanced than 47-second attention spans or TikTok trends suggest. The honest summary is: white and pink noise help some children with attention difficulties, brown noise might help for similar reasons but has not been studied, the wrong noise level hurts everyone, and the only safe default is user control.
That is what CyberSeals builds on.