“This is an innovative, simple and safe non-medication approach that may help improve brain health,” said senior author Professor Phyllis Zee.

The study, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, involved 13 people between the ages of 60-84 – an age group highly susceptible to poor quality sleep and memory loss.

She added that pink noise is a potential tool for “enhancing memory in older populations and attenuating normal age-related memory decline”.

The results back earlier findings in China, when researchers at Peking University studied 40 sleepers and discovered pink noise resulted in “significant enhancement” in “stable sleep time”.

Previous research in young adults has also found that their memory improved at school after being played short, loud bursts of pink noise.

It’s worth noting that the pink noise played in the sleep studies was spaced out to sync with brain waves and prevent the brain from getting used to the noise and blocking it out – which is also where high-tech sound machines claim to help.

Images: iStock

Why pink noise could be the answer to your sleep woes