February 15, 2026
Waterfall or wake-up call?
Pink noise reduces REM sleep and may harm sleep quality
Pink noise might wreck dream sleep; commenters cry “trash” and reach for earplugs
TLDR: A new study says pink noise may cut dream sleep, while earplugs help against traffic and plane noise. Commenters are split: some call the research flawed “trash,” others are ditching sleep apps and switching to earplugs or brown noise—because losing dream time could mess with mood and memory.
Pink noise—those soothing “waterfall” sounds—just got dragged. A University of Pennsylvania study says playing it at night can cut dream sleep (REM) by nearly 19 minutes, while earplugs did a much better job shielding sleep from traffic and airplane noise. Cue the chaos: the internet’s sleep-aid faithful and skeptics went to war.
The hottest take? “HARKing!” One commenter accused the study of Hypothesizing After Results are Known, claiming the experiment compared noise to silence yet blasted pink noise anyway. Another was even spicier: “This study had no controls… Meaningless trash.” Meanwhile, calmer voices admitted they’d rethink their bedtime soundtrack, with one swapping to lower, rumblier brown noise that “doesn’t fry the brain.” And yes, someone helpfully reminded us: pink noise really does sound like a waterfall (link).
Numbers that made people spit out their chamomile: aircraft noise reduced the deepest, body-repairing sleep by about 23 minutes; earplugs pulled that back. Combine planes plus pink noise? Both dream sleep and deep sleep tanked, and people felt more awake at night.
Meme-lovers dunked on the “Big Noise” industry—remember, white-noise videos rack up hundreds of millions of views—while earplug fans strutted like they just won the sleep Olympics. The community split: is noise a bedtime hero or a sneaky sleep thief? The only consensus: nobody wants less dream time.
Key Points
- •Study from the University of Pennsylvania, published in Sleep, found pink noise at 50 dB reduced REM sleep by ~19 minutes per night.
- •Aircraft noise reduced deep (N3) sleep by ~23 minutes; earplugs largely prevented this reduction.
- •Combining pink noise with aircraft noise shortened both deep and REM sleep and increased time awake by 15 minutes versus control nights.
- •Participants reported lighter sleep, more awakenings, and worse overall sleep quality with aircraft or pink noise unless earplugs were used.
- •Researchers urge more study of broadband noise sleep aids, noting widespread usage on platforms like Spotify and YouTube.