Meditation practices vary in how they treat sound. Some traditions favor silence outright; plenty of people who practice on their own, in rooms that are never fully quiet, add a steady background sound instead of sitting against traffic, a building's hum, or a housemate down the hall.
Beach waves, or something steadier
This page opens on the Relax mix: beach waves, a real recording from Punta Allen in Quintana Roo, Mexico, with green noise low underneath. The surf rises and falls slowly, with no sudden sounds in it. If you'd rather have something with no movement at all, green noise on its own is one tap away, and so are brown and white. Play it through a speaker rather than headphones, and let the length you choose mark the length of a sitting.
Listen safely
This is a sound, played back through whatever speaker or headphones you already own. It doesn't diagnose, measure, or promise anything about how you sleep, focus, or feel — it's just noise and a handful of real recordings, mixed the way you like them.
Keep the volume low enough that you'd still notice a smoke alarm, a phone ringing, or someone at the door. If you fall asleep in headphones, choose a volume and a pair you'd be comfortable wearing all night, and a session length that ends when you'd want the sound to stop.
If you use this near a baby, keep the speaker several feet from the crib, never inside or clipped to it, and keep the volume low — the same care you'd take with any sound machine in a nursery.
If your relationship with sound, or with sleep, feels difficult rather than simply restless, a doctor or audiologist is the right person to talk to. This is a mixer, not a clinician.
Do people usually meditate with sound playing, or in silence?
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Both are common, and neither is more correct than the other. Some traditions and teachers favor silence specifically; plenty of people who practice on their own, especially somewhere that's never fully quiet, add a steady background sound instead of trying to meditate against traffic, a neighbor, or a building's own hum.
Why does this page open on beach waves and green noise?
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Beach waves is a real recording of surf at Punta Allen, in Quintana Roo, Mexico. It rises and falls slowly, with no sudden sounds in it, and green noise sits quietly underneath as an even floor. If you'd rather have no movement at all, green noise on its own is one tap away, and so are night wetland, brown noise and white noise.
Can the sound last as long as my sitting?
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The Relax mix is set to thirty minutes, and you can choose fifteen, sixty or ninety instead. When the time is up the sound fades out on its own, so the end of the sound can mark the end of a sitting, if you'd like it to.
What volume works best for this?
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Quiet enough to sit in the background of your attention rather than in front of it — closer to the volume of a very light breeze than to anything you'd call loud. If you notice yourself listening to the sound itself rather than past it, it's probably set a little high.
Does this page claim any effect on stress or mood?
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No. This page describes a way some people set up background sound around a meditation practice. What a practice itself does for you is a much bigger question than a noise color can answer, and this page isn't trying to answer it.