The little-known iPhone feature that can help you sleep – and it doesn’t cost a thing
WE’RE told to stay well away from our phones to get a good night’s sleep.
But a little-known feature on Apple devices could be the key to helping you nod off.
iPhones have a nifty selection of snooze-friendly sounds – perfect for listening to when you first hop into bed.
Users can choose from:
- Balanced noise
- Bright noise
- Dark noise
- Ocean
- Rain
- Stream
Research shows these types of sounds can help people of all ages fall asleep faster – and remain in a deep slumber.
One study found 80 per cent of newborn babies dozed off within five minutes when listening to white noise – sound that contains all frequencies across the spectrum of audible sound in equal measure.
This compared to only 25 per cent in silence.
Another report discovered adults fell asleep 38 per cent quicker when exposed to white noise.
Experts put it down to these “background” sounds – which also include brown noise, pink noise and green noise – masking others in the outside world.
A spokesperson for The Sleep Foundation said: “Unexpected noises can easily disturb sleep.
“Some people find that the neutral sound of white noise can minimise these disturbances and help them sleep better, but this may not be the case for everyone.”
Speaking to Sky News, Dr Hana Patel, a GP in London, added: “Some people find white noise helpful as the brain has something relaxing to focus on instead of the surrounding environmental noises.
“White noise can not only help some people to fall asleep, it can help them to stay asleep.”
You can specialist machines that play white noise or rain sounds, which can cost anything from £14.99 to £220.
But the “background sounds” selection on your iPhone is completely free – providing you already have one.
How to turn on iPhone Background Sounds
Go into your Settings app, then choose Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Background Sounds.
Now switch the Background Sounds toggle at the top of the page to the ON position.
Then go into Sound and choose one that you like.
You can then set a volume, and even choose whether you’d like the background noise to play during media.
That means you could have soothing rain sounds while listening to a podcast.
If you don’t want to navigate to this menu every time, you can create a shortcut.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut and then choose Background Sounds.
Now when you triple-click the side button on your iPhone, your chosen Background Sounds will play.
You can also add it as an option on your Control Centre too.
This means you can tap the ear icon to activate or deactivate Background Sounds from the Control Centre at any time.
What are the different types of noise?
MOST people have heard of white noise – but what makes it different from green, brown and pink noise?
White noise
White noise, sometimes called broadband noise, refers to a noise that contains all frequencies across the spectrum of audible sound in equal measure.
Anecdotally, people often liken it to the static that comes from an untuned radio or television.
Pink noise
Like white noise, pink noise is a broadband sound containing components from across the sound spectrum.
It features sounds within each octave, but the power of its frequencies decreases by three decibels with each higher octave.
This makes it sound lower pitched, perhaps like a waterfall.
Brown noise
Brown noise, or red noise, is similar to pink noise as it contains sounds from every octave of the sound spectrum.
What makes it different is the power behind frequencies decreases by half with each octave, meaning people perceive it as deeper.
Research has found people compare it to the sound of rainfall or a shower.
Green noise
Green noise is a little different as it’s the recording of an actual sound in nature – like soft ocean waves, rainfall, a river or waterfall.
Source: The Sleep Foundation