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It hums softly, sometimes for ten hours. For some it is also a hum, a rustling or a soft whistle. Sometimes the sound is described as white, sometimes as brown or pink. The videos have simple titles and appear meaningless at first glance. But their sound track is apparently having an effect. Many YouTube users offer clips like "Deep Layered Brown Noise" or "White Noise Black Screen" supposedly relief, a way out of the shimmering nervousness of everyday life. "It changed my life," it says in one of the many euphoric comments. "I can finally sleep."
There are all sorts of videos on YouTube that are supposed to help people fall asleep, from the fireplace to the rain shower to the sound of the sea. They are soundscapes that drown out other noises and thus ensure deep relaxation. But as broad and specific as the offer is: Even those videos with the difficult-to-define sound collect millions of clicks - and thousands of comments below revolve around the dream of sleep in times of overstimulation with smartphones.
The diffuse tones are also intended to help focus or concentrate while studying.
They are even used to calm babies.
The special thing about them is that they can be almost anything.
A trip, for example.
“Reminiscent of long drives, sleeping in the back seat in the middle of the night while someone else is driving.
Street lights that sweep over you and light up your eyelids, ”writes a commentator under one of the clips.
"It sounds like you're in the shower with your head right under the shower head and your hands covering your ears," comments someone else.
Lots of people have trouble sleeping
The videos are like auditory Rorschach tests; many of the commenting users remind them of moments of well-being.
For example, nights on a plane come to mind - everyone is asleep, only you are awake.
A distant rain shower or softly trickling snow in the morning.
The comments are shaped by longings: the videos become representatives for places and situations in and in which the world seemed to be in order.
Likewise, many of the brief comments made testify to insomnia.
There is a lot of talk about panic attacks, nervous states, deep restlessness, tinnitus.
Users describe that they have not had a restful sleep for weeks.
Because of stress at school, stress at work, stress from the pandemic.
A study by Deutsches Ärzteblatt last year found that one eighth of 12 to 17 year olds suffer from chronic sleep deprivation.
In 2019, the DAK found out that around a third of German schoolchildren suffer from insomnia.
The smartphone is also mentioned as a possible reason in both works.
In the late evening, many still look at their screens, scroll through timelines - they can be stressed even more.
Some of them eventually find their way to YouTube and there click on a video with the noise they find comfortable.
"We often forget to disengage ourselves"
"Videos like this have no magical effect," says Hans-Günter Weeß. He is a psychological psychotherapist and head of the sleep center at the Pfalzklinikum Klingenmünster. There are no sound waves that penetrate the brain directly and force it to sleep. Rather, it is a matter of calming irrigation - one of many ways to come to rest in the event of a stress-related lack of sleep. "It's not about the noise itself, it's about what I do with it," says Weeß. So the associations that these sounds evoke are important.
Hans-Günter Weeß also reports that sleep disorders have increased, especially among adolescents.
“We often forget how to get out of duty.
Then we are online all night, always available, «he says.
This non-stop society can cause stress.
And stress is sleep's greatest enemy.
Hans-Günter Weeß emphasizes that there is no single right remedy for insomnia.
Relaxation exercises, imaginary journeys, sedatives - different approaches can help people find their way to sleep.
So why not try to listen to the noise?
Weeß says he would recommend downloading the videos "so that they can also be heard offline."
In his experience, a smartphone that is ready to receive is not a good idea.
If the videos actually help someone to relax, the smartphone has a remarkable dual role: It may fuel insomnia - but if used consciously, it also provides the content that leads that person to sleep.
In addition to the sound, the videos may have another relaxing layer.
"If you think about it, we all sleep together - like at an overnight party," writes one commentator, making this just as tangible.
A clip like “Deep Layered Brown Noise” becomes a shared experience through all the comments, a shared coping with insomnia.
Anyone who controls popular videos like "White Noise Black Screen" knows that they will not be the first or the last to choose it.
Most users apparently have in common that it is the noises of the big city that should be drowned out: noisy neighbors, road traffic.
In the spherical noise people find sleep or at least interesting thoughts.
One comment said, "It must be pretty relaxing on the Death Star."
