Last night, following two restless nights caused primarily by NASCAR seeming to run down 66 (we abut the highway through a tiny forest, which is bare and reduces no noise in the winter and really, people lacking proper mufflers blast through at well over 100 late at night), I decided to do something about it.

We rocked out to brown noise (not to be confused with the brown note). ALL NIGHT LONG. What is brown noise? Well, you could click the link at the start of this paragraph… Or go with one of my quick and simple answers… It is noise with a focus on lower frequencies and a linear decline in power as frequency increases, whereas white noise is basically random and pink noise is a mix of the two (getting VERY basic here… so basic that I’m almost lying).

And I think it worked. Or it was a great placebo. Regardless, I think we might be addicted. Having gone to bed restless, I fell asleep near immediately after starting the noise and stayed that way. Note: I almost always sleep like a rock, but now and then I’ll have a week that’s off. Male period? I’m sure I have a few friends who would say I’ve been cranky of late, but I’d prefer to blame that on the recent product announcements from Google, Blackberry, Sony, and more of the usual raping of gamers from EA. If businesses would just stop SUCKING. GOSH. I digress… It’s just my period.

The tool used was the SimplyNoise app based on my knowledge of their site (a friend linked to it a while back), and spending far too much time wading through poorly executed “free” crap that required in-app purchases for anything you may actually want to use. I do wonder if my iPhone is the best producer of noise as I’m sure its frequency range is cutting off on both ends, but it’s what I had near and I’m not about to setup a serious noise generating system in the bedroom. Anyway, the app is very simply designed, tasteful, and $.99. What’s a buck?

We tried all the noise types before settling on brown at a low volume oscillation. White and pink were both too harsh and seemed to do a poorer job at blocking out (I know that’s not the technically correct term) what we didn’t want to hear. Your results may vary based on your location and the ambient noise you receive. For a highway? Brown all the way. The volume oscillation provided a nice variance; after a few minutes with it disabled (default), the constance began to grate on me. Oscillation was the trick, but not at the high or medium settings after they were too fast and too harsh. Again, your mileage may vary.

Anyone else use noise? What do you use to generate it? Have any links telling me that it is a severe health risk? Talk to me.