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It even works while sleeping, as white noise blocks out sudden noises with its steady background of consistent noise. And Harvard Business Review suggests white noise in the office environment can help mask that most distracting sound of all: conversations you're not supposed to be hearing. Another study in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience discovered that white noise slightly improved recall. In a study of children with ADHD, researchers found that white noise boosted the cognition of the subjects. White noise has been shown to improve both memory and concentration.
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Technically speaking, white noise is the combination of all the frequencies of sound humans can hear and perceived, put together at a similar level. You've probably heard of "white noise"-ambient, low-level noise which can sound similar to the whooshing of a fan, the constant fall of rain, or cascading waves in the ocean. In other words, working at the end of an airport runway won’t improve your creativity, but some light ambient noise will. We are almost always surrounded by distracting buzzes, beeps, and conversations-and we need background noise to drown it out.Ī study in the Journal of Consumer Research concluded that, while high levels of noise impair thinking, a consistent, low level of ambient noise can increase creativity. Most of us don’t work in silence at monasteries or on desert islands.
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