Brown noise for tinnitus at night.

02:40

Dimma: Brown Noise for Sleep plays brown, white, pink and green sounds, 13 colours in all, made live on your iPhone. This guide is about one use of it: ringing ears at night.

Why sound helps the night feel quieter

In a silent bedroom there is nothing else for your ears to hear, so a ringing you barely notice by day can fill the room. A steady background sound gives your ears something else to rest on.

This is sound enrichment, often called masking. It does not treat tinnitus, and Dimma does not claim to.

Brown, pink or white?

White noise has the same energy at every pitch. It is a bright hiss. Pink noise rolls off the top and sounds softer and more even. Brown noise rolls off more, so it is deep and warm, like distant wind.

For sleep, brown is the one many people leave on all night, because it has the least hiss. For ringing there is a catch: brown sits low, and tinnitus is often a high tone. If brown feels good but the ringing still pokes through, try a brighter colour.

• Brown

  Deep and warm. Most people sleep here.
  Sleep
• Pink

  Soft and even, a little brighter than brown.
  Sleep
• White

  The classic hush for a loud room.
  Room
• Green

  Centred where the ringing lives.
  Ringing
• Blue

  Bright and airy, for high-pitched ringing.
  Ringing

Just below the ringing

The rule is simple. Set the level just below the ringing, not over it. Loud sound for long periods can harm hearing, whatever the source. A speaker on the nightstand is kinder than earbuds for a whole night.

Shape it to your own tone

Dimma has a control called Ringing relief. It quietens one narrow pitch in the sound. Slide it until your own ringing feels covered. Bass, brightness and swell are in plain words, with no dB and no Hz to learn.

All night, with no hour cap

The worst moment is when the sound stops at two in the morning and the ringing is back. In Dimma all night is the default, and nothing caps the sound. After a call or a text it fades back in by itself.

If you want it to stop, timers run from 15 minutes to 2 hours, or stop at your own sunrise. The fade lasts from 9 seconds to 5 minutes, so the silence never wakes you. Every colour is made live on the phone. Nothing loops, nothing downloads, and it works offline.

When to see someone

Dimma is a sound machine, not a medical device. If your tinnitus is new, changes, is in one ear only, or comes with hearing loss or dizziness, see a doctor or an audiologist. They can check your hearing and talk you through your options.

No ads · No account · No tracking · No hour cap