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.
Endless · Offline · No loops
Wake up gently.
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
Mixes
Pick what you need. One tap to start, change anything and save it as your own.
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. Add rain or a drone underneath with Mix.
Fine-tune the rhythm and sound
Ready
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.
Sound while you work
25:00Focus · 1 of 4
Noise generator
Any color of noise, from deep brown to bright violet — and everything in between.
Brown noise
Spectrum · 20 Hz – 20 kHz
Calm
Gentle tones to settle into: singing bowls, a slow warm drone, wind chimes tuned so every note fits.
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.
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?
Step 1 · Volume
Play the reference tone and set your volume so it's clear but comfortable. Leave it there.
Step 2 · Listen
8,000Hz
Your result
8k12k16k20k
A rough guide, not a diagnosis. Your phone, headphones and even this browser can cut the highest tones. Worried about your hearing? See an audiologist.
More ear tests
Check your headphones, find the deepest bass your setup can play, or play any pitch you like.
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.
200Hz
Your setup plays down to
Tone generator
Any pitch, 20 Hz – 20 kHz
Hz
Start quiet: high tones and square waves get tiring fast.
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.
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.
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.
Questions
Does it work without internet?
Yes. After the first visit the whole app is stored on your device. Sounds are calculated live by your phone or computer, so nothing streams — you can play brown noise for ten hours in airplane mode.
Do the sounds loop?
No. Each one is built sample by sample from random numbers and filters, so it never repeats and has no seams. Ocean waves arrive at random, rain never plays the same drop twice. On iPhone, when the screen locks, playback switches to a long seamless recording of your exact mix, because iOS pauses live audio in the background.
Can I keep it playing with the screen off?
Yes, on Android, iPhone and computers. Start the sound, then lock your phone. Tip: install the app to your home screen for the most reliable background playback.
How loud should it be?
Quieter than you think: about the level of a soft conversation, or a little lower. Every sound here is loudness-matched, so switching between them won't make you jump.
Is the hearing test accurate?
It's a quick check of the highest pitch you can hear through your own device. Phones, headphones and browsers can cut the very top frequencies, so treat it as a fun estimate, not a diagnosis.
Do you collect any data?
Only anonymous counts — how many visits, which sounds get played, how many people finish the hearing test — so we know what to make next. No cookies, nothing that identifies you, nothing sold or shared, and it runs on our own server. If your browser sends "Do Not Track", nothing is counted at all.
Can it wake me up?
Yes. Under Timer & alarm, set a time: your sleep sound plays until then, fades, and a dawn chorus, singing bowls or a music box rise slowly over two and a half minutes, so you surface instead of jolting awake. Keep the page open with the sound playing, and keep your phone alarm as a backup.
Is it free?
Yes. No ads, no sign-up. If you like it, subscribe to the YouTube channel — new tests and 10-hour sounds every week.