Rain sounds and white noise
Build a quiet mix from rain, wind, crickets and soft noise. Start with a blend or turn on a sound, and let it fade out once you’re asleep.
Start with a blend
Sounds
Rain
A real recording of rain in the Pacific Northwest, with distant traffic and a faraway siren.
Distant thunder
A low rumble far away, every half minute or so.
Wind
Soft gusts that slowly rise and fall.
Crickets
A summer-night chorus from the grass.
Ceiling fan
A soft, slow whoosh of moving air.
Singing bowl
A resonant bowl tone, struck softly every 30 to 45 seconds.
Soft noise
Brown, pink or white noise underneath everything.
How to build a mix for sleep
Start with one steady sound, like rain, the fan or soft noise, at a low volume. Once it fills the room, add one or two quieter layers, such as crickets or distant thunder. Fewer sounds usually rest better than many. Then choose a sleep timer, so everything fades out gently after you’ve drifted off.
Rain sounds or white noise?
Both are steady sounds that can make sudden noises, like traffic or a door, less noticeable. Rain has more texture: many small drops, soft and uneven, which some people find more natural to fall asleep to. White noise is completely even, with no pattern at all. Brown and pink noise sit in between: deeper and softer than white noise. You can mix any of them together.
Why steady sounds help some people rest
A quiet, even sound gives your ears something unchanging to settle into, and it softens the small noises that might otherwise catch your attention. It may help some people relax and fall asleep, but it isn’t a treatment for insomnia or any other condition, and research on noise and sleep is still limited.
How loud should it be?
Quieter than you might think: a soft murmur that covers the room’s small sounds, not something you’d have to talk over. Every sound fades in, and the main volume starts low. If you listen through headphones or earbuds for a long time, keep the volume low.
If you’re playing it for a baby, keep it low and far away: use a quiet volume, place your phone or speaker well away from the crib (never in it or on the rail), and use the sleep timer rather than playing it all night. This follows advice from a 2014 study of infant sleep machines (Hugh et al., Pediatrics).
Questions
Are these recordings?
Rain is a real recording: rain in the Pacific Northwest, with distant traffic and a faraway siren, by olsonbock623 on Freesound (Rain with distant traffic, shared freely under CC0). It downloads the first time you turn rain on, about 650 KB, and then plays from your device.
Every other sound is made by your browser, on your own device, from noise and simple tones. Those use no data at all, and keep working even if you lose your connection.
Will it keep playing when my screen locks?
On Android phones and on iPhones with iOS 17.5 or later, it should keep playing, with play and pause on the lock screen. On older iPhones the sound stops when the screen locks, so leave the screen on. Some phones’ battery savers can still close the browser in the background.
How does the sleep timer work?
Choose 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Everything fades out gently over the last minute, then stops. Choosing a different time starts the timer again from that moment.
Will I hear it loop?
Every sound repeats with no gap, blended where it joins, so there’s no click. Rain repeats every 40 seconds, so if you listen closely you may notice the faraway siren come around again. The other steady sounds repeat every 20 to 45 seconds. Thunder and the singing bowl come from much longer stretches, five or six minutes, so their pattern is very hard to notice.