I prefer to sleep in pitch darkness and absolute silence, which I am on the record about, but I never really get to do it. My partner can’t sleep without the TV on, I’ve never dated anyone who values the silent darkness the way I do, and I live next door to a bar that put its smoking section directly beneath my window. I have spent a lot of time, energy, and money devising workarounds that enable me to approximate my ideal sleeping conditions, even when circumstances conspire against me.
I tend to use YouTube for my white noise and sleep sounds, for a few reasons. First of all, there’s a wide variety on there and you can find a bunch of videos that run for 10 hours or more. Secondly, I used to use Spotify, but listening to eight hours of washing-machine noises every night completely destroyed my algorithm; the app would suggest box fan sounds to me in the middle of the day. I don’t even want to tell you what happened to my beloved Spotify Wrapped results.
Whether you need to drown out external noise or just quiet your own mind, these are some great channels to start with.
Cozy Sound
A lot of these channels might strike you as strange if you’re not familiar with the landscape here. Unlike when we’re looking for fitness instructors or beauty tutorials, you aren’t likely to find identifiable influencers. Instead, you find big channels run by unknown people, which is what Cozy Sound is like. Many of the channels have very few subscribers and views, and are likely AI or slop. That’s not the case with Cozy Sound, which is why I like it—and 52,000 other subscribers do, too.
You get to pick from a variety of weather-related noises. Take, for instance, the live clip the channel is running right now: “Rain touches the cabin roof, fire guards the silence, and sleep comes like a gentle tide.” For a few days at a time, the channel runs the same type of soundscapes, whether they’re blizzard sounds or rain storm sounds, on 24-hour loops, which makes this one easy to access. Along with the sounds, you get a cozy picture, like a cabin or the interior of an apartment during a rainstorm.
Relaxing White Noise
There are actually celebrity-esque creators in this space. Take, for instance, Relaxing White Noise, which has over four million subscribers.
RWN is like Cozy Sound in that it runs live videos, making access simple: You can just open the channel and it’ll start playing. There’s no guesswork or poking around on your part, which is perfect because you really don’t want to be staring at your phone or computer while you’re trying to wind down for bed.
If you’re not into whatever the live offering is at a given moment, though, you do have loads of options. RWN has not only the weather and storm sounds that are so popular, but box fans, the hissing of plain white noise, and whooshing described as “celestial noise.” The whooshing makes me feel anxious and I can’t explain that, but if you like it, good for you! I prefer box fan or washing machine noises, so I’m happy to find them here.
Ambient Worlds
RWN occasionally makes references in their video descriptions to being part of “the weird side of YouTube,” but they have nothing on Ambient Worlds, where you and one million subscribers can find immersive tracks designed to make you feel like you’re in a specific, often fictional place. Above, see the Ambient Worlds take on Lord of the Rings, for instance. If you’ve ever wanted to fall asleep pretending you’re in the Shire, boy, do I have a deal for you.
Instead of white noise or rain sounds, you get soft music with these and the tunes are usually reinterpretations of themes from movies or video games, so you’ll recognize them. From Star Wars to Elder Scrolls, you can find the intellectual property you like here and then fall asleep to it. I love LOTR, but if it’s on, I will certainly not be falling asleep; I’ll be staying up to watch it all the way through for the 267th time. Worse, if I do fall asleep, I’ll almost certainly be rudely startled awake by a battle scene. This channel allows a best-of-both-worlds situation where I can still drift off to something I know well without any issues. A word of caution, however: The clips are usually only about three hours long.
The Honest Guys
I included the Honest Guys in my roundup of best YouTube meditations, but their videos—shared with some one million subscribers—are tailored for meditating while falling asleep. It’s not noise so much as a guided walk through some deep thinking, so it’s not for everyone, but if you’re searching for a meditation to fall asleep to, try these.
You can find regular daily meditations, a selection of relatively word-free sleep sounds, and sleep-specific “guided sleep talk-downs” here. I appreciate that there’s a variety because it helps you find something that meets a number of needs and stick to it.
