Perhaps that loud fan is generating enough gentle white noise for you. A quote from the below article states: "Some people benefit from white noise, or fans. M

Perhaps that loud fan is generating enough gentle white noise for you. A quote from the below article states: "Some people benefit from white noise, or fans. Make sure you have effective blinds, or earplugs, if they help. It's all about reducing distractions and sending a message to your brain about your safety." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/dont-sleep-longer-ndash-sleep-smarter-1994018.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/... Interestingly, as I was doing my "research" (well, just some web searches really), I came across studies that claimed white noise can impair brain development in sleeping baby rats: "When baby rats listened to white noise for prolonged periods of time, a part of the brain responsible for hearing, called the auditory cortex, didn't develop properly. However, when the noise was taken away, the young rats' brains were able to resume normal development." http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/97/white_noise_may_delay_babys_speech/index.html http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/97/white_noise_may_dela... I haven't found any articles showing whether or not this phenomenon has been tested on humans yet. I suppose one takeaway from all of this research is that we need to continue doing more research.