EARS & WAVES

Gentle alarm clock.

Fall asleep to brown noise, rain or the ocean. At the time you choose the sound fades, and a dawn chorus rises so slowly that you surface instead of jolting awake. Set it under Timer & alarm.

Now playing Deep sleep

Why a slow alarm beats a loud one

A loud alarm yanks you out of whichever sleep stage you happened to be in, and that jolt is what leaves you groggy. A sound that starts far below hearing level and takes two and a half minutes to reach full volume gives your brain time to surface on its own.

Here the two halves are one thing: the sound you fell asleep to keeps playing all night, and at the chosen time it fades underneath the wake-up sound. Choose a dawn chorus with wind chimes, singing bowls over a soft drone, or a music box. Snooze gives you nine more minutes of your sleep sound.

Everything runs in the browser, so keep the page open with the sound playing and it rings even with the screen off. A phone can still close a background page, so keep your usual alarm as a backup for the first few nights.

Does it work with the screen off?

Yes, as long as the page stays open and the sound keeps playing: the wake-up sound is scheduled on the audio clock, not on a page timer. Install the app to your home screen for the most reliable background playback.

What if I set a sleep timer as well?

The timer fades your sleep sound out when you like, and the alarm still rings at its time. On Android it is safer to let the sound play through the night, because a silent page can be put to sleep by the system.

Is it a replacement for my phone alarm?

Treat it as the gentle one. Keep your phone alarm as a backup, set a few minutes later, until you trust it on your device.

Mixes

Pick what you need. One tap to start, change anything and save it as your own.

Focus timer

Work in waves.

The Pomodoro rhythm: focus with calm sound in your ears, then take a real break. A soft bell marks every change, so you never watch the clock. Every fourth break is a long one.

25:00Focus · 1 of 4

Sound while you work

Breathe

Slow your breathing down.

Follow the circle and the sound: it rises as you breathe in and falls as you breathe out. Choose a rhythm, or set your own, and pick what plays underneath.

Ready

Sound while you breathe

Noise generator

Any color of noise, from deep brown to bright violet — and everything in between.

Brown noise
Spectrum · 20 Hz – 20 kHz

Sound science

The colors of noise

Same randomness, different tilt. Each color shifts energy between low and high pitches — here is what that sounds like.

White

0 dB / octave

Equal energy at every frequency. Because we hear in octaves, it sounds bright and hissy — the classic "TV static".

Pink

−3 dB / octave

Equal energy in every octave, so it sounds even to the ear. Steady rain, rustling leaves. A favorite for focus.

Brown

−6 dB / octave

Deep and warm, like a distant waterfall or a plane cabin. Masks voices and traffic without any hiss.

Grey

Equal-loudness curve

Shaped around how our hearing works, so every pitch seems equally loud. Balanced and soft.

Blue

+3 dB / octave

The mirror of pink: more treble than bass. Airy, crisp, like a light spray.

Violet

+6 dB / octave

Mostly treble, like hissing water. Sometimes used to mask high-pitched ringing.

Calm

Gentle tones to settle into: singing bowls, a slow warm drone, wind chimes tuned so every note fits.

Frequencies

Famous tones on pages of their own: hear them side by side, with honest facts.

Sound phenomena

How sound bends, shifts, rings and fools the ear, and why space is silent: hear it for yourself.

Nature

Rooms & travel

Animals & countryside

A purring cat, whales and dolphins, a nightingale in the dark, cowbells on a summer pasture. Wonderful in stereo.

For babies

Womb sounds are what a baby heard for nine months: a deep rush of blood flow, and the heartbeat.

Hearing and speaker tests

Check your ears, headphones and speakers, each test on a page of its own with a live picture.

Ear Age · 60 seconds

Test your ears.

Our ears lose the highest pitches first, and it starts early. Find the highest tone you can still hear and see the typical age for it.

  • Headphones on, quiet room
  • Set a comfortable volume on the 1 kHz tone
  • Don't turn it up when a tone disappears — that's the point
20,000Hz

Can you still hear it?

Hearing age test →

More ear tests

Check your headphones, find the deepest bass your setup can play, or play any pitch you like.

Headphones check

Left & right

Each ear should get its own side. It matters for 8D, binaural beats and every stereo sound here.

Headphones on, then tap a side.

Bass test

How low can you go?

Deep tones from 200 Hz down to 20 Hz, the bottom of human hearing. Mostly it tests your speakers or headphones.

Tone generator

Any pitch, 20 Hz – 20 kHz

Hz

Start quiet: high tones and square waves get tiring fast.

Take it to bed

An app without the app store.

Add Ears & Waves to your home screen and it opens like any app — full screen, with its own icon. Everything it needs is saved on your device, so it keeps playing on a plane, in a tent or with Wi-Fi off.

Preparing offline mode…
  • Works offlineNo streaming. Sound is computed on your device, forever.
  • Screen offKeeps playing with the phone locked. The timer fades it out gently.
  • PrivateNo account, no ads, no cookies. Your mixes stay on your device.
Deep sleep