Outside my apartment’s living room during work hours, there’s a regular cacophony: revving motorcycles, emergency sirens, honking horns. I love working from home, but a quiet oasis it is not.
That's when I seek restorative, calm bliss from an unlikely source: YouTube.
The age of being extremely online has produced many unusual meditative practices. Many of us apparently enjoy singing bowl TikToks. Others prefer Spotify's spa-like sounds, or their "deep focus" study playlists.
But lately I've come to see YouTube as the most effective option. The world's largest video service has hundreds, if not thousands, of channels claiming to offer white noise and calming music. Nearly all have accompanying images with equally soothing zen vibes, even the AI generated ones.
The variety of options is astounding and eclectic, far more so than any white noise machine. To list just five: Birds chirping, waves crashing, gentle electronica beats, the calming engine noise of 24th-century spaceships, the sounds of the DisneyWorld monorail snaking around theme parks. (For many of us, staying on the monorail without plunging into the world of hectic rides is the most soothing thing imaginable.)
Many of these channels run for hours on end and manage to soothe without being redundantly annoying. One plus for videos like this, in my experience: Even without the $13.99 a month YouTube premium service, these content-light channels are rarely interrupted by ads.
Take a video on the Cafe Relaxing Jazz Music channel entitled “Warm Jazz Piano Music with a Sweet Cup of Coffee.” The easy listening jazz runs for nearly two hours. Staring at the steam wafting off its coffee mug can induce a trance-like state.
More suggestions for your white noise YouTube starter kit:
View Escape takes visitors on a "journey to distant locations - particularly those in space." I can recommend the Blade Runner-esque sounds emanating from "Ambient Echoes overlooking Cyberpunk City." You may often wish to return to the channel's imagined bedrooms of spaceships with large windows. Unseen engines gently whir as planets and stars pass by.
MyTranquilitee
This beach channel features the calming sounds of gentle waves, perfect for background sounds or help with sleep. A personal favorite: The Mountains of Moorea, featuring the crystal clear waters of French Polynesia and a perfect green mountain backdrop. Take a quiet journey around the world with beach images and sounds of Anguilla, The British Virgin Islands, St. Barth, Hawaii, and Malibu.
baby.murcielaga
This odd little channel features seriously meditative music and dreamy titles like "Lost in 1983" and "back to 1991." Nevertheless there's a timelessness to these images of drenched parking lots and cloud-covered skyscrapers, which could be from anywhere in the last 60 years. There's something evocative about the expansive sounds paired with the lonely urban landscapes.
"It feels like what I lived when I wasn’t afraid of being alone, or in the dark, or in the cold, or in the open," one commenter wrote in the channel's "For Peaceful Nights" video.
Disney Parks
This channel features lots of fun content for the Disney maniac in your life, including food tours, park updates, and even POV shots of rides. It also features relaxing park-related videos including the Space Mountain Soundscape and the Journey of Water: Inspired by Moana.
We're also partial to the 4 Hours of Monorail Ambience — don't worry, the whining children and screaming parents have been excised. Please stand clear of the doors, Por favor mantengase alejado de las puertas, the monorail says simply, as you drift at a distance from the happiest place on Earth.
Severance — Music To Refine To feat. ODESZA
Plugging away at your own version of Lumon Industries? AppleTV has you covered with this "exclusive ODESZA set designed for eight hours of focus—perfect for your innie’s workday." The images chronicle the daily machinations of the hit show's innies — plugging numbers, making coffee, cleaning their spartan offices.
The electronica-infused music certainly has more fast-paced moments than the aforementioned channels, but for some, that's the perfect noise diffuser. And you can keep the music on for your transition to outie life.
