How Sound Masking Works

I spoke with a man last week and I could just hear the weariness in his voice. He said that since moving to a new city for a job, the bustling city sounds outside his apartment kept him from sleeping well. He tried everything from heavy curtains to white noise machines and earplugs, but nothing helped. He then asked something I hear quite frequently: "How is a headband supposed to do what a machine couldn't?"

The mistake he and many others make is thinking that sound masking is really about blocking noise. They think it's like building a wall between them and the honking horn outside, but you can't really stop a sound wave from traveling through a wall. Actually, it's really about changing how your brain reacts to a noise. Picture a library for example. Every whisper or cough sounds amplified. This leaves your brain on high alert, waiting for the next unexpected spike in volume. That's what's keeping you from falling asleep.

With SleepPhones® headphones, we essentially level that landscape. We're not trying to create total silence as that's almost impossible and not conducive to sleep. Instead, we use a steady, consistent layer of soothing, relaxing audio that acts as a blanket. When that blanket is draped over you, sudden, sharp sounds like a car horn, dog bark, or slamming door get lost in the background and cannot pierce through.

The real benefit isn't just the relaxing sounds themselves, but that they stop your startle response. Your brain stops dreading the next disruption because the next disruption is already buried. We intentionally designed SleepPhones® headphones to gently rest over your ears too, enveloping you in that comfortable audio blanket. At SleepPhones® HQ, our purpose is to make the world quiet and comfortable enough for you to sleep.

Find more answers on our "Frequently Asked Questions" page.