why do we find the sound of the rain soothing but can’t sleep if there’s a tap dripping?
In: Other
Often a drip seems like it is regular, but it is often just irregular enough to be annoying. Rain creates a white noise-type effect, like a fan.
rainfall is randomized, and produces what’s called a broadband sound: a sound which has lots of different frequencies, or pitches, in it.
a dripping faucet is generally pretty regular, like a ticking clock, and each drop creates a sound that is more narrowband: it has fewer frequencies, sometimes even to the point of being a discernible musical note. it also has a single discernible moment when the sound happens.
put all that together and what you get is that the dripping faucet grabs your attention several different ways, and when your attention is focused on something, you can’t sleep because your brain is like “i’m working on something here! can’t sleep until we’re done with it!”
the rain has no features to latch onto, and in fact its broadband nature means it masks other intermittent sounds which might otherwise catch your attention. by giving you nothing to pay attention to, the rain allows your brain to relax and drift off.
It’s the different sounds.
The sound of rain is usually associated with you hearing the rain drops on a surface in between you and the weather. Things like roofs, tents, cars, and trains. It’s a cozy protected feeling hearing the bad weather while being dry and protected.
The individual drop into a sink or still vessel if water reverberates like an echo inside a structure. The water is inside and the thought of water being in the house could ruin the cozy feeling.
Because we are paying for that water! There are water fountains in Japan that are designed to drip, but it’s okay because it’s not a leaky faucet.
Latest Answers