Rain sounds
A real recording of gentle, steady spring rain. Turn the tone down for rain heard from indoors.
Timer
A 2-minute recording played in random overlapping segments, the way the app plays it, so you won't hear a loop. Start with your volume low. Keep this tab open.
About this sound
This is a field recording of gentle, steady spring rain falling in a city: a dense, even patter with no thunder. Turn the Tone control down and it sounds like rain heard from indoors.
We took almost 8 minutes from the middle of the original, removed the low rumble below 60 Hz and set it to the same loudness as every other sound. The app never plays the file as a loop: it picks random stretches of about half a minute, each from the part heard longest ago, joins them with 4-second crossfades and lets the volume drift very slightly. The player on this page does the same with a 2-minute excerpt.
How people use it
Rain works as a sleep sound because it is steady and broadband, and carries nothing your brain needs to follow. What wakes people is a sudden jump above the background, so a recording with no loops, close drips or cracks of thunder is the point here.
Keep the speaker away from your pillow and the volume low. If you only need help falling asleep, a sleep timer with a slow fade is enough. Under rain, a little brown noise fills the low end (that is the app's Rainy Night mix).
Questions
Why do rain sounds help people sleep?
Rain is steady, covers a wide range of frequencies and has no pattern to follow, so it masks other noises without drawing attention. The research is thin, and nobody has shown that rain beats other steady sounds.
Will it loop?
Not audibly. Random stretches of the recording are joined with long crossfades, and each part comes back only after most of the others have played.
Should rain sounds play all night?
Either is fine for most adults. A timer with a slow fade, or turning the sound down after you fall asleep, keeps the night quieter.
Mix it with
Get rain on your phone
Nightwool is coming to iPhone and Android. One e-mail when it launches, then we delete the list.