White noise for studying: set up a steady fan sound

A steady fan sound can work as background noise while you study, mainly to cover up sounds around you. Research doesn't show that white noise improves studying for most people, so treat it as something to test on yourself. This guide covers a simple setup: pick one sound, set the volume low, and use a timer for each study block.

What the research says

The studies below are lab experiments on specific attention and memory tasks. None of them tested a fan, and none measured studying for an exam. Background sound is not a treatment for anything.

White and pink noise and attention tasks. Nigg and colleagues pooled randomized lab studies (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2024). For children and college-age adults with ADHD or high ADHD symptoms (13 studies, 335 participants), white and pink noise gave a small benefit on attention tasks (g = 0.249). In the non-ADHD comparison groups of those studies (11 studies, 335 participants), the effect was negative (g = -0.212). The authors concluded the benefit applies to people with ADHD or high ADHD symptoms, "but not for non-ADHD individuals".

Background speech hurts verbal memory tasks. Leist and colleagues tested 81 children and 80 adults on remembering the order of items shown on a screen (Memory & Cognition, 2023). In the verbal version of the task, both groups did worse with changing speech sounds than with one syllable repeated or with silence. In the spatial version, speech made no difference. A 2024 study by Radun and colleagues had 30 participants do memory tasks in two conditions: speech at 50 dB and quiet at 33 dB (a steady background noise). Accuracy on the serial recall task was lower during speech, and participants found it more annoying and rated the workload higher.

What that adds up to. Background speech, even when people are told to ignore it, is a documented problem for verbal memory tasks. Nobody has shown in these studies that a fan sound fixes it, because the studies didn't test fans. Whether a fan covers the voices around you is something to check by ear.

Set up a steady fan sound

This part is practical advice, not a finding from the studies.

1. Choose one sound and keep it. A sound that changes a lot draws your attention. A steady hum is easier to stop noticing.
2. Keep the volume low. Start at the lowest level that covers what bothers you, then raise it a little only if needed.
3. Run it for a study block with a timer. A timer ends the sound when the block is over, so you're not left with background noise you stopped noticing.
4. Compare one session with and without it. Same task, same time of day. If the sound makes your work worse, turn it off.
5. Match the sound to the task. If reading new material feels harder with sound on, try it only for review.

Using Fan Noise

Fan Noise plays five recordings of fans on iPhone. It doesn't generate white, pink or brown noise, so its sounds differ from the noise in the studies above (more in is a fan white noise). For true white noise on iPhone, see white noise on iPhone.

1. Pick a sound. On the Sounds tab, tap "Change sound". Classic Ceiling Fan, Modern Tower Fan and Window Box Fan are free. Industrial Fan and Quiet Breeze are Premium.
2. Set the volume with the slider on the player, then press the play button.
3. Pick a fade-out and start the timer. The "Fade-out" menu sets how long the sound takes to taper at the end: 30 seconds, 1, 2 or 5 minutes. Then tap 15m, 30m, 1h or 2h. The timer is labeled "Sleep timer" in the app. It works the same for a study block, because it simply stops the sound after the time you chose.
4. Lock your phone if you want. The sound keeps playing, with play and pause on the Lock Screen.

Sounds are stored in the app, so they work offline. There are no ads and no account. A phone call pauses the sound, because iOS interrupts audio for calls.

This guide shares published research for general information. It isn't medical advice and it doesn't diagnose or treat any condition, including ADHD or sleep problems.