Short Stuff: Colorful Noises | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm. Josh Clark and this is Charles W. Chuck. Bryant and Jerry's there. She doesn't. have a sound associated with her because. she's already listening to sound. Uh and. this is short stuff. Yeah, we're we're. doing one on the different color noises, you know, white noise, brown noise, pink. noise. And Jerry literally just said, "Hey, I'm listening to brown noise right. now." which I've never heard of anyone.

just. listening to noise unless they were. trying to sleep or, you know, at a place. where they were trying to block out. other noise. But I think Jerry just said. it like helped her uh relax or something. or concentrate, focus, what she say. I. think she said, "Yeah, kind of the same. thing I said, but in with a different. word." I used to I used to try it too um. during work. It it it is supposed to. help you focus and at the very least. drown out other noises, but it just. didn't take with me, at least at first.

At least for working. I get it. You do. like ambient music now, don't you? Yes. Yeah. But I get it for sleep for sure, which is what most people use it for. Jerry's an odd duck. Yeah. And I have. been on record before. I'm a brown nose. adherent. Uh brown no uh noise. Did know. apparently. Did I almost say brown nose? Yeah, I think you did say brown nose. uh it can also be called red nose or red. noise which I didn't know but uh brown. noise as I've demonstrated on the show.

if this is white. noise this is brown noise. and this is pink noise. uh brown noise is deeper uh has lower. frequencies it's got more bass um. minimalizes that higher frequency and I. didn't really know this but apparently. you can liken some of these to uh sounds. in nature. Um and apparently brown noise. is more akin to like a river rapid or a. heavy rainfall or thunder. Yes. Distant.

thunder, rumbling thunder even. Yeah. Yeah. So obviously that's very alluring. Everybody likes those sounds. So brown. noise makes sense. And because there's. also white noise and pink noise, you. think brown noise is just named after. the color brown. Like for some reason. maybe it evoked the color brown in the. person who named it. wrong. There was a. scientist named Robert Brown from. Scotland who in the very early 1800s um. was looking at pollen grains through his.

microscope and saw them basically. dancing around and he said this is not. possible because pollen is not alive and. he had no idea what this was. But he he. published his paper so that future. generations could solve it. And. apparently no less than Albert Einstein. took it on and found this this was an. excellent um demonstration of atomic. particles interacting and basically. moving ultimately these pollen grains. along. And the reason that it's named.

after Robert Brown, brown noise is. because he tried to figure out how to. quantify these random movements. Right. Yeah. And this is a part like I don't. know this is way above my scientific pay. grade so I'm not sure how you go about. this but he devised this mathematical. formula to predict the movements of the. pollen and used that to generate an. electronic sound and that was brown. noise. Yeah. Well other people who came.

used his formula to generate sound. I. don't understand it either, but yeah. But so the the sound of brown noise is. literally the the formula for the sound. of pollen moving, which is just kooky to. think about. It is. But it's it's pretty. cool, too. I just think it's good good. fact of the show, I think. Yeah. I mean, it's all math, so technically you could. use math to translate into other kinds. of math, I'm guessing. But just the idea. of Yeah. figuring out how random. movements can turn into into sound is.

just I love that stuff. Yeah. Me, too. Um, let's talk about this offline, Chuck, while we take a break. All right. [Music]. Well, we just had a great conversation. about brown noise uh offline, but now.

we're going to talk about white noise. uh the higher cousin to brown noise. Um. obviously uh it does have a range. It's. not like it's just high frequency, but. um it's not as bass heavy. Um they have. the lows in there. They have the the. mids and the highs. Um but white noise. is used uh aside from just sleeping a. lot of times with like noise cancelling. headphones and stuff. Um masking other. sounds. Uh this one is akin naturally to. like a light rain or a gentle breeze. through the trees. Sounds kind of nice.

too. Mhm. One of the coolest things I. learned ever is that in Kyoto, Japan, there is a um the sound of wind blowing. through bamboo in this one park is a. protected heritage site. Like the sound. itself is protected as a world heritage. Yeah. And I think I remember talking. about that game I played Ghost of. Sashima. Uh I think that's what it's. called. It was the sort of feudal. Japanese warrior uh PS4 game that I.

played. The the sounds in that game. Oh. yeah, it's a gorgeous game, but the. sounds of the wind blowing through the. poppy fields and through the bamboo. forest, like you could tell it was a. thing that they really wanted to capture. and they did. So that's cool. I think. you're confusing that with Cubert. Yeah. Dying. Dying. Uh all right. What about pink. noise? Pink noise is a little different. It's kind of like the compromise between. white noise and brown noise because the.

white noise includes all frequencies. A. lot of people are like, I don't like. those high frequencies, especially when. I'm trying to sleep. But I'm not down. with just nothing but the low bass heavy. stuff. Give me some mid-range and maybe. accentuate the lower and higher things a. little bit, but not too much. And if you. do that kind of stuff, you have pink. noise. Yeah. And you know, I just. realized I have my app here. I might as. well figure out what pink noise sounds. like because I wasn't exactly sure. So,

we can just play this if that's all. right with you. Yeah, go ahead. So, that's pink. Yeah, that's white. I Yeah, I. could That does sound like ocean waves. That's brown. Okay. But my app has a. bunch of other colors and I'm not sure. if this is like uh Hey, let's just go. crazy. But there's also purple noise, blue noise. Which app are you talking. about? Dwellspring. No, no, no. This is. a different one. But uh yeah, our our.

friend actually developed a a white. noise app, right? Yeah. It's called. Dwellspring. The guy who created our. website, Brandon Reed, friend of the. show and just friend in general, and. also one time uh world record holder, Guinness record holder of the 400 meter. piggyback. Man, what a dude. Yeah, he. created just a worldclass um sound. generator app. And in addition to all. this the different colored noises, he. also has things like um a box fan, the. airplane cabin sound. That's the one I.

use on my app, but I forgot Brandon had. his. I'm going to switch over just to. support. Yeah, it's really great. I. mean, like it's a really good app. The. one that got me was crackling fireplace. in a thunderstorm. Oh, buddy. That is niche. Yeah, exactly. So, that just put me to sleep thinking. about it. Go check out Dwellspring. It's. it it really is a good app. Um, and I. think it's everywhere you can get apps. I'm sure it is. Uh, nice work, Brandon. So, back to the noises, like as far as. which one is best for sleep. There have.

been some very middling studies over the. years. Uh, we'll mention a few of them, but the problem with these is, you know, in 2017, they were like, "Hey, let's get. eight people in here and watch them. sleep." Uh, or the one in 2016, they got. 16 people. Um, there's just never a lot. of folks, you know. Um, I guess, you. know, bed space is probably not the. easiest thing to do unless people are. doing this at home. But at Oxford in. 2017, they got those eight people and. they said that they fell asleep 40%. faster listening to white noise, but.

their overall sleep was about the same. Okay. But still falling asleep, not. being able to fall asleep is a a part of. um insomnia. Not not being get back to. sleep is another part of it, too. So, yeah. I I mean I would I would say. that's great. Um a year before somebody. decided that they wanted to see how uh. how much better you could recall. vocabulary words if you slept using pink. noise. Yeah. And I guess there was they. they found that 16 young adults who.

slept with pink noise had slightly. improved recollection of vocabulary. words. So they were like and uh pickle. whereas the other the control group. couldn't ever remember pickle. They were. like uh the green thing that was a. cucumber once. They're like man I should. have slept with pink noise. Uh there was. a study in 2017 from Northwestern of 13. older adults and they said pink noise. provided deeper sleep overall and.

improved again ability to recall words. And again that word was pickle. That's. right. There was a study in Iran. This. is probably the most robust of all of. them. They looked at 60 elderly coronary. patients. And they said half of you are. going to sleep with white noise. The. other half are not going to have white. noise, but all of you are in a hospital. And if you've ever tried to sleep in a. hospital, it should be illegal the the. sounds that they have because your sleep. just deteriorates the longer you're in.

the hospital. It's awful. Yumi took care. of her brother when he was in the. hospital for like three weeks. She would. stay there overnight. It's tough. She. would, in addition to just all the. beings and the beeps and all that stuff, the nurses come in and they're just. like, "Hey, how's it going? It's time. for your blood pressure." Like, and it's. 3:00 in the morning. And that happens. every like, you know, there's something. that wakes you up every 20 minutes. And. it's just so nuts that hospitals are. just so aloof about that when we all. know how important sleep is. And then.

that and then nutrition in hospitals is. abysmal as well. I should say American. hospitals. Yeah. I just wanted to go off. on that because it is something that. that should be fixed and remedyed. No, it it's it's tough if you've ever had to. be at a hospital for a long time. supporting somebody or just, you know, being the patient. It is hard to sleep. The beds are not great and they're. always throwing on those fluorescent. lights right when you're dozing off. It'd be like going to get your tires. changed at Sears and they keep tacks all. over the floor.

you know, like they're they're trying to. they're just sabotaging themselves and. doing what they're supposed to be doing, which is healing. Yeah, that's a good point. And we should. say the results of the study in the. control group, uh, they found the. quality of sleep degraded as they. obviously spent multiple nights there. with all those beeps and and you know, let me check your blood blood pressures. happening. M um once they had the ones. who had the white noise um their quality. of sleep remained basically the same. throughout their stay. So it did not.

degrade over time. Yeah, not bad. Great. Yeah, for sure. I mean like just put a. white noise generator in every single. room or give every patient dwellspring. Yeah, exactly. Or you know there there. there's that app. There's other apps. There are um standalone sound machines. uh that you can get. you know, this is. just a little thing that you put beside. your bed uh or maybe Jerry has beside. her desk at work so she can sleep on the. job. And then as far as like how to use. it, like that's up to you. Um depending.

on what noise does best for you, try. different ones out. Uh the volume, try. some different ones out. I find that I. get my very best sort of put me to sleep. stuff when I run it through an actual. speaker uh instead of just through my my. phone speaker. Um because that you get. some more deep bass resonance. Oh yeah. Um and and my napping trick is I will. put a pillow over my head and face and. stick that phone under there with me and.

it creates this sort of uh echoey not. echoey but like a just sort of a it. traps the sound. It's like a cavern of. sound and that really gets me out. That. and three shots of rum. Yeah. Yeah. You. know the afternoon rum. Uh you got. anything else, man? I got nothing else. I think that was very nice of you. You. gave some great advice to people who. have trouble sleeping, which my heart. goes out to people like that for sure. Yeah. Uh yeah, I guess I mean short. stuff is out.

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