Is White Noise Bad for You?

For years the answer was an easy no. Then, in early 2026, a sleep lab study made headlines suggesting that the sound machine on your nightstand might be costing you sleep. The honest answer now: at sensible volumes white noise is not a danger to your hearing, but continuous sound all night is not the free upgrade it was sold as either. Here is what the new research actually found, what it did not, and how to use sound in a way that stays on the right side of the evidence.

The Study Everyone Is Quoting

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, led by sleep scientist Mathias Basner, published the study in the journal SLEEP in 2026. They brought 25 healthy adults aged 21 to 41 into a sleep lab for seven nights. None of them normally slept with sound. On different nights, the researchers played recorded aircraft noise, pink noise at 50 decibels (roughly the level of moderate rain), both together, or aircraft noise with earplugs in.

Three results stood out.

• Pink noise alone reduced REM sleep. On a quiet night, participants got about 118 minutes of REM. With pink noise playing all night, that fell to about 99.5 minutes, a drop of nearly 20 minutes.
• Pink noise did not rescue sleep from the aircraft noise. The aircraft noise cut deep sleep by around 23 minutes. Adding pink noise on top barely helped, and time spent awake actually went up.
• Earplugs did. With earplugs in, deep sleep and REM stayed close to the quiet-night levels, and participants felt noticeably better the next morning.

REM is the stage linked to emotional processing and memory, so the headlines were not unreasonable. But the details matter.

What It Does Not Show

• These were people new to sound. Nobody in the study used noise to sleep. The authors say themselves that they cannot tell whether the REM drop is lasting or simply what happens before people adjust, and seven nights is not long enough to find out.
• It was one small study. Twenty-five young, healthy adults in a lab. It says nothing yet about people with racing thoughts, tinnitus, or a snoring partner, who are the ones most likely to reach for sound in the first place.
• The sound ran all night at a fixed level. It did not test lower volumes on their own or a timer that stops once you are asleep.

So the fair reading is not "white noise is harmful". It is that continuous sound has a possible cost, and that it should earn its place rather than being on by default.

The Evidence on the Other Side

Other research points the other way, especially where noise is the actual problem. A small 2021 study in Sleep Medicine found that people sleeping in loud New York City bedrooms fell asleep about 38% faster with white noise playing. A 2025 meta-analysis of 12 randomised trials, covering 1,301 people and including patients on hospital wards, found that white noise improved sleep quality in both adults and infants, with the size of the benefit varying from group to group.

Against that, a 2021 systematic review of 38 studies rated the overall evidence for continuous noise as a sleep aid as very low in quality. Put together, the picture is consistent: sound can genuinely help specific people in specific situations, particularly noisy ones. It is not a universal sleep improver, and our own guide says the same: how white noise helps you fall asleep faster.

Can White Noise Damage Your Hearing?

At the volumes people actually sleep with, no. The World Health Organization's safe listening guidance for adults is an average of around 80 decibels for up to 40 hours a week, and a sleep sound played at a comfortable level sits far below that.

The hearing risk comes from volume, not from white noise as such. Some machines can go surprisingly loud, and anything pushed through earbuds for eight hours adds up quickly: is it bad to sleep with earbuds in?

What About Babies and Children?

This is where more caution makes sense. A 2014 study in Pediatrics tested 14 infant sleep machines at full volume and found that all of them exceeded 50 decibels at 30 centimetres, the noise limit recommended for hospital nurseries, and three went above 85 decibels. A 2024 scoping review on white noise and childhood development found no large, long-term studies in children, and urged care over volume and duration, partly because animal research at much louder levels has shown effects on the developing auditory system. The Penn researchers also suggested extra caution for children.

None of that shows harm from a quiet machine used sensibly. The practical advice from the 2014 researchers is simple: keep the volume low, put the machine across the room rather than next to the cot, and do not run it around the clock. More on sounds for little ones here: the best sleep sounds for babies and toddlers.

How to Use Sound Sensibly

• Use it for a reason. If you sleep well in a quiet room, you do not need sound. It earns its place when something specific keeps you awake: noise, racing thoughts, tinnitus, a partner's breathing.
• Choose the lowest level that works. Just loud enough that small noises stop standing out. Quieter is gentler on your sleep and your ears.
• Use a timer if you only need help falling asleep. Thirty to sixty minutes covers most people, and means the sound is gone for the rest of the night. Run it all night only if noise wakes you later on, which we cover in why you wake up at 3 AM.
• For loud, intermittent noise, consider earplugs. Against aircraft noise in the Penn study, earplugs protected sleep where pink noise did not: is it bad to sleep with earplugs?
• Match the sound to the problem. Different noise colours suit different jobs: brown noise vs white noise vs pink noise.
• Think about who else is listening. A room machine plays to everyone in the room all night, including a partner who never asked for it. Here is the alternative, trade-offs included: if white noise fills the room. And if it has become a nightly argument: how to use white noise when your partner hates it.

How Lullabar Fits

The Lullabar is a pillow speaker. It slides under your pillowcase, and the sound travels through the pillow fill to the ear resting on it. Several of its features line up with the sensible-use list above.

• A timer on the device. 30, 60, or 120 minutes, so the sound stops once you are asleep instead of running all night by default.
• Close to your ear, so it can stay quiet. A source a few centimetres away needs far less volume than a machine across the room to do the same job.
• At sleep volume, your partner hears nothing. Only your pillow carries it, so they are not exposed to your sound all night.
• All night when you need it. 10+ hours of battery for nights when noise really is the problem. 11 nature sounds are built in, and white or pink noise streams from your phone if that is what you prefer.

The honest limit: it is still sound, and it does not sidestep the questions the Penn study raised. If you sleep fine in silence, you do not need it. And if your problem is loud, intermittent noise, earplugs may do more.

How sound through a pillow works: what pillow conduction audio actually is.

Common Questions

"Is it bad to sleep with white noise every night?"

Not dangerous, but not automatically helpful either. A 2026 lab study found continuous pink noise reduced REM sleep in people who were new to it, though it could not tell whether they would adjust over time. If sound genuinely helps you, keep it low and consider a timer. If you sleep well without it, there is no need to start.

"Can white noise damage your hearing?"

Not at normal sleep volumes. The WHO's safe listening guidance for adults is an average of around 80 decibels for up to 40 hours a week, far above a comfortable sleep sound. The risk comes from very loud machines or earbuds turned up high, not from white noise itself.

"Does white noise reduce REM sleep?"

In one 2026 study of 25 adults new to sleeping with sound, pink noise played all night at 50 decibels reduced REM sleep by nearly 20 minutes. It was a small, short study, and the authors could not tell whether the effect would last once people adjusted. It is a reason to use sound deliberately rather than by default.

"Is pink noise better than white noise?"

Pink noise sounds softer to most people because it has less high-pitched hiss, and it was the sound used in the 2026 REM study. There is no strong evidence that either is safer. Choose the one you find easiest to ignore and keep it quiet.

"Is white noise safe for babies?"

Used carefully, it can be. Some infant sleep machines can reach unsafe levels at full volume, so keep the volume low, place the machine across the room rather than beside the cot, and avoid running it around the clock. There are no large long-term studies in children yet, which is why researchers urge extra care.

The Bottom Line

White noise is not bad for your hearing at sensible volumes. What the newest research questions is the habit of running sound all night by default, and the one study that tested it found a real, if uncertain, cost to REM sleep.

So use sound when it solves a problem, keep it as quiet as it can be, let a timer switch it off when you only need help drifting off, and be more careful with children.

Try the Lullabar for 30 nights and use sound on your terms.