Effect of Pink Noise on Sleep Quality of College Students

Purpose: Sleep is very important to modern people. Recently, various noises that help with sleep have been introduced. The present study attempted to analyze a positive effect of pink noise and sleep quality on college students with high stress regarding career and future employment. Methods: A total of 120 students with normal hearing were participated and randomly divided into three different pink noise types, which were sound of rain, sound of waves, and heart sound. They were asked to listen to the pink noise for an hour before going to sleep for 3 days. Korean version of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI-K) was measured twice, before and after the experiment, to compare the subjects’ sleep quality after exposure to pink noise with their sleep quality in the everyday sleep environment. Results: With pink noise exposure, the PSQI-K scores were decreased from 5.94 to 2.85. In addition, there were significant differences in three sub-categories of the PSQI-K, i.e., subjective sleep quality, sleep disturbances, and daytime dysfunction with and without sleep-inducing noise. However, there was no statistically significant difference in PSQI-K scores between groups according to the three types of pink noise. Conclusion: Based on the current results, pink noise helped them sleep better although they are being exposed for a very short period. Since the current study collected data only from healthy college students, following research should be conducted to determine the effects of pink noise on sleep disorders.