Larry Magid: Earbuds to help you sleep

An article on the Harvard Healthcare School website commented that pink noise can enhance deep sleep in older adults and improve cognitive performance Brown noise can also help sleep but the article cited research that white noise had little beneficial effect on sleep I had never heard of brown and pink noise but Dr Anil Rama who runs the Sleep and Brain clinic in Saratoga advised me that Pink noise is like steady rain while brown noise is like ocean waves Both can quiet a restless mind and ease you into sleep The Harvard Medicinal School article quoted Dr Sogol Javaheri saying More details is needed to determine what role pink and brown noise may play in sleep such as what volume and duration would be of the bulk benefit Javaheri disclosed For now I would not recommend pink or brown noise continuously but rather use it for a set time if it helps you fall asleep more expeditiously I ll defer to these esteemed doctors to advise on what color of noise if any might help you sleep but I can testify that my wife and I often ask our Amazon Alexa device to play ocean sounds which I now know are considered brown noise I ve also benefited from those oh-so-pink rain forest sounds but to be honest sometimes mellow music does the trick as does listening to an audio book read with a soothing voice The majority nights we just turn off the lights and go to sleep in silence If I m having trouble sleeping when traveling I might use Spotify or another music app to play ocean or rain sounds on my smartphone Earbuds for sleeping Listening to these sounds through speakers is usually fine but not if my wife who sleeps next to me wants silence So last night I wore the Soundcore Sleep A Earbuds whose tagline on the box is Fall Asleep Faster Sleep Longer When you install the earbuds in the Soundcore app you get specific additional features including access to a large audio library of soundscapes with as a large number of white pink brown and other noises as you could possibly want You also get a sleep timer and it reports sleep metrics on the app including total sleep time sleep stages your sleep positions through the night left right back and prone number of awakenings and how often you rolled over As with all sleep trackers it s up to you to figure out what to do with this information Based on what I ve learned it mostly reaffirms what the bulk of us already know such as avoiding caffeine screens and stress late in the day going to bed earlier and trying to relax more especially before bedtime There are a few other clever features including the ability to download sounds to the earbuds so you don t need to use your phone or app at night and a sleep timer that automatically turns off sounds when you fall asleep You could for example listen to a podcast or music when you get in bed and have it stop when it senses you re asleep Soundcore sells the Sleep A earbuds for but even at Amazon s price of they are not inexpensive However in addition to their sleep function they are good sounding earbuds and they fit nicely into your ears don t stick out and are quite secure Unlike my Pixel Buds which also work well for sleep these are not likely to fall out which is reassuring when you spend that much They do not have functioning noise canceling but they are snug enough to block out a lot of noise including on airplanes I find them quite content In addition to sleep you can use them to listen to music podcasts or other audio from your phone The Soundcore app also lets you adjust the controls so you decide what happens when you tap or double tap on the left or right earbud Choices include volume next previous and play pause They do not have numerous of the features you ll find in fitness trackers smart watches or even smart rings such as heart rate SpO exercise tracking or the ability to take an EKG And although they do a good job of passively blocking sound the app doesn t let you put them in transparency mode so I don t recommend them where your safety might be impinged by not being able to easily hear sounds around you Even though you can use these during the day I would not recommend them over more general-purpose earbuds except possibly on a plane or other place where the passive noise blocking or ability to play relaxing sounds might be helpful Of program there are plenty of other devices that can track your sleep including most of fitness bands and smart watches Google Nest Hub nd gen can also play soothing sounds at night and sense and account on your sleep without you having to wear a watch earbuds or anything else It sits on your nightstand and uses what Google calls low vigor radar to sense the movement of the person closest to the display It can also detect sounds like snoring and coughing as well as environmental factors such as light and temperature in the room I hope this column has been helpful but if you re reading it late at night it might be time to turn off your device or put down the paper and get several rest Larry Magid is a tech journalist and internet safety activist Contact him at larry larrymagid com