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Does white noise help you focus?

By Ilia Usatov · November 2026 · 5 min read

It depends on whose brain is listening. The best summary of the research so far found that white and pink noise gave a small boost to people with ADHD or attention problems, and a small drop in performance for everyone else. So for most people, quiet is still the better default. For some, a steady hiss really does help.

What the research found

In 2024, Joel Nigg and colleagues pooled studies that tested white or pink noise while young people did attention and memory tasks. In 13 studies of children and young adults with ADHD or high levels of attention problems, noise gave a small but real improvement (an effect size of about 0.25). In 11 studies of people without those problems, the effect went the other way: noise made performance slightly worse (about −0.21).

The authors call the benefit small and describe noise as a possible low-cost, low-risk option for people with ADHD, not a treatment. The studies were mostly short lab tasks, not hours of real studying.

Where the idea came from

The idea goes back to a 2007 study by Söderlund, Sikström and Smart in Sweden. Children with ADHD remembered more with white noise in the background, while children without ADHD remembered less. A 2010 follow-up found the same split between inattentive and attentive school children.

Their explanation, the moderate brain arousal model, is that some brains need more outside stimulation to reach their best level of alertness. Background noise may provide some of it. That mechanism is still debated, and a later study from the same group questioned part of it. The behavioural result, help for some and harm for others, is what has held up.

White, pink and brown noise

All three are steady hisses with no words or melody. They differ in balance. White noise has equal energy across all frequencies, so it sounds bright, like radio static. Pink noise turns the high end down and sounds softer, like steady rain. Brown noise goes deeper still, like a distant waterfall. The meta-analysis covered white and pink noise. There is much less research on brown noise.

What all three have in common is that they don’t change. That matters, because the sound that most reliably hurts concentration is speech, where every new word pulls at your attention. There is more on that in How quiet should a room be for studying?

How to find out what works for you

• Start from quiet. For most people the research points to silence as the better default.
• Test it properly. Spend a week studying with noise and a week without, on similar work, and note how much you got done. How it feels in the moment is a poor guide.
• Keep the volume low. Noise loud enough to drown out a conversation is too loud. NIOSH’s rule of thumb is that sound is likely to be harmful if you have to raise your voice to talk to someone an arm’s length away.
• Use it against speech, not instead of quiet. If the real problem is voices next door, a steady sound may be easier to ignore than the voices. If the room is already quiet, there is nothing to cover.

Sources

1. Nigg JT, et al. Systematic review and meta-analysis: do white noise or pink noise help with task performance in youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or with elevated attention problems? Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2024;63(8):778–788. PubMed 38428577.
2. Söderlund G, Sikström S, Smart A. Listen to the noise: noise is beneficial for cognitive performance in ADHD. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 2007;48(8):840–847. PubMed 17683456.
3. Söderlund GBW, et al. The effects of background white noise on memory performance in inattentive school children. Behavioral and Brain Functions 2010;6:55. doi:10.1186/1744-9081-6-55.
4. NIOSH. Understand Noise Exposure.

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