Like many children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Jake Sussman struggled in elementary school, especially in areas that required quiet concentration, like reading.
“I’m very sensitive to sound, so the smallest noises can be distracting,” says the now-30-year-old, who was diagnosed in sixth grade. “Silence is sometimes loud for me.”
After the diagnosis, Sussman’s parents switched him to a school that specialized in helping students with learning differences. His mom also started playing brown noise to help him relax or fall asleep, after she read that low-frequency (lo-fi), deep rumbling sounds—like heavy machinery or strong rainfall—can soothe those with ADHD.
Research into the effects of sound on brain activity, especially when it comes to promoting rest and focus, has come a long way in recent years. While experts are confident that a link exists, there is still much to be discovered.
In the meantime, it’s hard to know what kind of music will have what kind of effect on what kind of person—but the existing research does suggest the impact can be especially profound on those with ADHD or some ADHD-like symptoms.
Unconventional music with unconventional effects
Sussman’s ability to focus dramatically improved in college when he started working while listening to very specific sounds. He explains that lyrics, tempo changes, and track changes can pull his focus—meaning that conventional music often proves distracting.
“I found if you combine movie score music with some brown noise in the background, I can lock in for hours,” he says. “The beat of it helps me work in a rhythm, and I need to have this internal rhythm as I’m focusing. Otherwise I’m going to stop whatever I’m doing.”
In 2019, Sussman founded Superpower Mentors, which pairs young people who have ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning differences with successful adults who have similar interests and neurological conditions. “I literally built a company with movie scores in the background,” he says.
Sussman’s sibling even made him a playlist to help him focus, titled “Movie Scores for Better Test Scores.” But Sussman isn’t the only one who’s benefiting from it. In fact, that playlist now has more than 13,000 subscribers.
“He’s using a form of self-stimulation to sustain his attention, and movie scores are in that category of lo-fi; it’s a genre of music that accidentally checks all the boxes for focus music,” explains Kevin Woods, the director of science for the music-based productivity app Brain.FM. “In the case of movie scores, that’s functionally deliberate; it’s meant not to grab your attention.”
Woods began studying auditory neuroscience while pursuing a PhD in neurobiology and behavior at Harvard University, but he says that he was initially skeptical of the connection between sound and focus. That is until he began running large-scale experiments online, first as an academic and later for Brain.FM.
“Most music is made to grab your attention. And if you’re a great music producer, your job is to make things bright and punchy to make people sit up and turn their head—which is bad if you’re trying to work,” he says. “We make music that is suited for that purpose.”
“A fidget spinner for the auditory system”
The research into why sound can be such a powerful focus tool has uncovered several possible explanations, some of which may be occurring in tandem.
For example, those with ADHD or attention issues can be more easily interrupted by subtle sounds, making non-distracting background noise an effective shield against minor auditory distractions.
“The ADHD brain needs more stimulation to function best, which is why you see things like fidgeting and bouncing the leg; that’s the brain trying to self-stimulate so it can pay attention,” Woods says. “Braim.FM is a fidget spinner for the auditory system that lets you do things with your hands at the same time, while providing extra stimulation so the brain can focus.”
Woods explains that focus requires a certain balance of stimulation: Too much creates anxiety, and too little leads to boredom. Both can break focus.
“The set point is different for ADHD brains, such that you need to add stimulation to the system to get the ADHD brain to the peak of that curve,” he says. “Using the auditory system to drive rhythmic brain activity has been done for a couple of decades, but the stimuli used to do that was always extremely boring. You can’t listen to a truck backing up all day.”
Brain.FM seeks to apply the same concept to more engaging musical content, created by in-house composers and neuroscientists. The platform’s original tracks—which are “super-duper long,” according to Woods—layer rhythms that correspond to brain wave patterns with repetitive soundscape designed to fade into the background. The result is lengthy tracks that seem well suited for an after-hours club, cocktail lounge, massage parlor, or hotel elevator.
Tracks are organized into categories like “deep work,” “motivation,” “creativity,” “learning,” and “light work,” with an added “ADHD Mode” optimized for brains that need the extra stimulation.
It “turned out to work really well on the half of the population that was more ADHD-like,” Woods explains. “People that had more symptoms—even if they weren’t even close to being clinically diagnosed—were helped” by listening to the tracks.
Taking a scientific approach
Research into the effects of certain sounds on focus is promising, but far from complete. Part of the challenge is that it can be difficult for individuals to find a personal auditory answer to their concentration challenges.
“This effect, as we see in the research, varies wildly from person to person,” says licensed psychologist Andrew Kahn, the associate director of expertise and strategic design for the neurodiversity nonprofit Understood.org. “Some people need a certain frequency of noise at a certain volume for a certain time, and other people need a much different one.”
Whether it’s movie scores, apps, brown noise, or something else entirely, Kahn says that finding the right background sound can be a game changer, especially for those with ADHD.
That’s proven true for the ADHD-diagnosed clinician, who says music has had “a really significant effect” for him personally, as well as for many of his clients, who range from children to adult professionals. The key, Kahn says, is taking a scientific approach.
“Anytime you’re experimenting with a technique, it’s really important to see how you are feeling before you start. Then select a stimulus—let’s say brown noise—for a period of time, and then set a reminder to check on your progress,” he says. “So three times today I’m trying brown noise, then I’ll try [shallower, more subtle] pink noise three times tomorrow. And you can get some really good data if you do that over the course of a week.”
Unlike many solutions for addressing attention needs—like medication, therapy, or exercise—this one benefits from being low-stakes and easy to implement on your own.
“Using white noise, music, and playlists has so little negative potential outcome, that trying them seems like a really wise thing to do. It can’t hurt,” Kahn says. “I’m excited to see what people do, and what research they can generate.”