Health Conditions / Neurological Health / ADHD

Dr. Nigg explains that the idea that brown noise can help people with ADHD focus aligns with other research on something called optimal arousal theory. Basically, he says, the theory posits that “the reason it’s hard for people with ADHD to pay attention is that they’re not alert enough.” By this logic, then, their brains need a certain amount of extra stimulation compared to folks without ADHD to rouse into “interested” mode. “What the brown noise is supposed to be doing is subtly raising that arousal, thus making people with ADHD more alert and more focused,” he says.There’s also some science that suggests brown noise could help anyone—not just people with ADHD—stay focused. A second scientific concept, “stochastic resonance,” has also been cited in existing research to support the idea that white or brown noise can, perhaps counterintuitively, help a person’s brain muffle diversions in order to concentrate on one thing.Dr. Nigg explains it using an example: Imagine your significant other is talking to you, but you can’t process what they’re saying to you because your TV is blaring. “White noise would solve that problem, according to stochastic resonance theory, by amplifying the signal relative to the noise,” he says. (The amplified signal, in this instance, is your partner’s speech.) “Your brain takes advantage of the noise, making it easier for you to muffle what you’re trying to ignore”—the TV sounds—“instead of what you’re trying to attend to.” That weighted-blanket-on-my-brain feeling just might be stochastic resonance at work.Can brown noise be harmful?Dr. Kraus says that unwanted noise can do more harm than good when it comes to how the brain processes sound. She’s previously written about what she calls the disruptive biological consequences of external noise, pointing, in part, to research on its negative impact on children’s reading comprehension. But Dr. Kraus is referring to rackets that come and go sporadically, such as car alarms, not the steady thrum of a sound like brown noise.What’s more, “our brains are not all the same,” Dr. Nigg adds, meaning, we don’t all respond to certain sounds in the same way—a point that Dr. Kraus agrees with. Going back to that optimal arousal theory, brown noise might be a gift to someone whose brain needs a dash of extra stimulation, while someone who has zero problems sitting down to concentrate may find it distracting.Of course, blasting any sound into your ears at top volume around the clock isn’t advisable. Like some other ADHD coping strategies I’ve tried, brown noise may become less effective over time. “I imagine if you used it every day, all day, the effect could gradually wear off,” Dr. Nigg says, because your brain may get too used to that particular stimulation. It’s a tool, not a one-stop productivity solution.So why, according to me and the many equally convinced #ADHDsquad TikTokers populating my feed, does brown noise seem to work better than white noise for focus? Why did my nose wrinkle in distaste when my YouTube loop autoplayed into a much-tinnier new white noise “song” that I enjoyed much less? “It may be a placebo,” Dr. Nigg offers. “Everyone’s saying it works better, so it works better.”In any case, Dr. Nigg believes that brown noise is reasonably safe to listen to, and if it works for you, it works. “The evidence happens to be very good,” he says. “But even if the evidence was poor, why not do it if it helps you and there’s no meaningful risk?”For me, this possible placebo is delivering results: I’m returning texts within 24 hours and hitting writing deadlines on time (ahem). The whole reason that digital ADHD communities exist on TikTok, Reddit, and elsewhere online is because the behaviors that put each of us on the path to diagnosis can strain every aspect of our lives—from relationships to academic and professional performance—and we’re looking for tools to relieve some of that pressure. I’m gonna bump that brown noise while I’m working for as long as it keeps pushing me forward. Just let me clean a little and google a few things first.Related:

Anyone who has had tight muscles or a muscle spasm knows how uncomfortable and limiting these experiences can be. But when you have spasticity, which causes tight muscles and uncontrollable contractions, your pain is more than a temporary annoyance. Spasticity happens when all of your muscles contract at once, and is generally caused by injuries or neurological conditions, according to the Cleveland Clinic.Interested in learning more about what causes spasticity, as well as how it affects people with neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis, stroke, and cerebral palsy? Here’s what you need to know:What causes spasticity and why does it affect people with neurological conditions?First, a primer on your nervous system: Your brain and spinal cord have nerve pathways that your brain uses to send and receive signals via neurons, or nerve cells, in order to communicate with the rest of your body, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. This messaging allows you to do things like wave hello to someone or kick a ball. When everything runs as it should, your muscle movements are controlled, meaning some of your muscles tighten or contract, while other muscles relax, all of which plays a role in your range of motion and mobility.Spasticity usually occurs when the nerve pathways in your brain or spinal cord that help control muscle movement are damaged, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This malfunction can happen due to physical trauma, neurological conditions, or other forms of disease that can damage this area of the body, causing multiple muscles to contract at the same time, making them very tight.That’s because there’s a delicate balance of neurotransmitters, or chemical signals, in your body, and they work together to make sure your muscles are contracting and relaxing in tandem to produce smooth, steady muscle movements, Natalie Diaz, M.D., a neurologist at the Pacific Movements Disorder Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, tells SELF. If the parts of your nervous system that are responsible for movement become damaged, that balance is thrown off. The result: A bunch of muscles that shouldn’t contract when you go to do something actually do contract, causing spasticity, or disrupted muscle movement patterns.Usually, damage in the cerebral cortex or in the brainstem (the part of the brain that connects the brain and the spinal cord) causes spasticity, but researchers still don’t fully understand why spasticity occurs.Some experts theorize that spasticity happens because your body is attempting to recover function previously controlled by damaged areas by making new nerve connections—but these new connections don’t work well, Robin Cohen, M.D., physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at Northwestern Medicine Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital, tells SELF.Spasticity isn’t the same as a muscle twitch, medically known as myoclonus. A twitch happens when your muscles unexpectedly contract or relax, causing them to jerk. Most muscle twitches are nothing to worry about and happen when your body suddenly releases motor neurons (the ones responsible for movement) to a specific muscle, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. This can be set off by stress, anxiety, and fatigue, though it’s not totally clear why a twitch happens in the first place.What neurological conditions cause spasticity?As we mentioned, spasticity happens because of nerve damage, which is commonly associated with a number of health conditions. Some common neurological disorders that can lead to spasticity include: