據美國《大眾科學》月刊網站2月17日報導，，表面看來，睡前打開白噪聲肯定是最違反直覺的主意。但是，想要睡得更香？方法很簡單：就是弄出點噪聲來，保證你一覺睡到天亮。
On its face, flipping on white noise before hitting the sack must be the most counterintuitive idea out there. Want to sleep better? Simple solution: make a bunch of noise. Sweet dreams ahoy.
有人堅稱如果不聽著電扇聲就睡不著覺，甚至還有專門的公司兜售發出適宜噪聲的裝置來幫人們獲得最好的睡眠。究竟人類的大腦和耳朵對於白噪聲有怎樣的反應呢？
And yet, not only do some people swear they can't get to sleep without a fan running, there are even companies that will sell you optimized noise-makers for helping you get the best of your bed rest. What is up with our brains and our ears?
簡而言之，白噪聲確實有益於睡眠，至少對一些人來說是這樣。
The short answer: white noise is better noise. At least for (some) sleepers.
報導介紹稱，白噪聲的技術定義是：一種持續的噪聲，其在人類可聽見的頻率範圍內均勻分布。好比你是一個演奏者，彈出一個中央C音符，頻率是261.6赫茲。白噪聲就平均分布在人耳能聽到的從低到高的所有頻率上。還是用演奏音樂來比喻，這就像是一個超大的樂團一起演奏略有差異的音符。
White noise, if you're using the technical definition, is a consistent noise that comes out evenly across all hearable frequencies. Say you're a musician. To play a middle C note, you play something that's about 261.6 hertz, the unit of frequency. White noise is just an equal amount at every frequency, from low to high, that a human being can hear. To keep the music analogy going, it's a gigantic band all playing a slightly different note.
你在夜裡被吵醒，並不是說噪聲本身把你吵醒，而是噪聲的突然變化或突然停止刺激了你。白噪聲提供了一種屏障效應，屏蔽了那些會驚擾覺輕或是正在入睡的人的突然變化。神經科學家、《通感：聽力如何塑造大腦》一書作者塞斯·霍羅威茨說：「簡單而言就是，人在睡覺時聽覺仍在繼續工作。」
When a noise wakes you up in the night, it's not the noise itself that wakes you up, per se, but the sudden change or inconsistencies in noise that jar you. White noise creates a masking effect, blocking out those sudden changes that frustrate light sleepers, or people trying to fall asleep. "The simple version is that hearing still works while you're asleep," says Seth S. Horowitz, a neuroscientist and author of The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind.
史丹福大學人類睡眠研究中心主任克利特·櫛田在發來的郵件中寫道：「這就是為什麼大多數人寧願聽著持續正壓通氣呼吸機發出的持續噪聲，也不願聽著他們伴侶高低起伏的鼾聲入睡。」
"This is why the majority of bedpartners prefer the constant white noise of a CPAP machine rather than their spouse’s crescendo-decrescendo snoring sounds," Clete A. Kushida, director of the Stanford Center for Human Sleep Research, writes in an email to Popular Science.
當然，並非所有人都需要聽著噪聲入睡。對於某些人來說，對大多數人有益的白噪聲恰恰會起到反作用，會使他們對背景聲音更敏感。
And, of course, not everyone needs that noise. In some people, the masking effect of white noise can do the exact opposite of what it does for most people--actually increasing sensitivity to underlying sounds, Horowitz says.