Hearing music and voices in white noise

When I sleep, I usually keep some kind of a noisemaker on, such as a fan, heater, or other white noise to help drown out the city sounds. I've always heard "strange" sounds with these noises, but have always just attributed it largely to my imagination. I'm not sure how exactly how to describe these strange sounds if you've never heard them, but it's basically like hearing a distant voice or song with white noise, but if you were to turn off the white noise it would stop, so of course logic tells you it's all in your head. Sometimes it sounds like music, other times it just sounds like faded voices, and there are even times when it sounds like a static AM or ham radio.

The past couple nights, however, have been extremely vivid music. They occur when I'm drifting off but also as I'm waking up, right in that moment between consciousness and sleep, so that i'm still able to easily recall it. It's not uncommon for me to have music in my dreams and wake up with a song in my head (In fact, sometimes I even write my own songs in my sleep). But this was different simply because of how real it sounded. I honestly believed I was hearing a radio at a fairly loud volume (and of course I was not).

I searched google and found similar experiences that were referred to as Auditory Hallucinations and Ear Music Syndrome, which more or less say that the ear canal tries to turn unrecognizable sounds into something familiar - such as songs or voices. I guess in all likelihood, this would be the most plausible, but I cannot emphasize enough how vivid the sounds can be...enough to make me question my own sanity

Has anyone else come across anything similar to this?

a reply to: cleverhans

A bystander asked an equestrian sculptor how he did it. The sculptor replied, 'I just chip away everything that doesn't look like a horse.'

Korg.

a reply to: cleverhans

I get that too. It just started recently, only at night when all else is quiet, and the gas furnace comes on. Voices that are muffled, music that's muffled..

it's really weird.
I guess I can blame it on getting older?

I'd wager it was one of two things.

Either you are "hearing things"....

Or it is an auditory form of Pareidolia.


Either way, I wouldn't think there's much to be concerned with. That is, unless you start actually listening to what is being said. Acting on it.


But, it could make one cool as hell "concept album" if you decided to try to actually use the music you're hearing as inspiration behind making your own



-NF

a reply to: snowspirit

Yeah, the voices are very muffled, i can never make out actual words.
And getting older probably isn't helping my cause.

a reply to: nullafides

That is, unless you start actually listening to what is being said. Acting on it.

Well it did tell me to build a baseball field in my cornfield, j/k

As for music, I've actually heard it's common for artists to come up with songs in their sleep, so maybe I'll write down the next time it happens.

I had that same thing for about 6 months I could hear music then it stopped about a month ago. my wife keeps a small fan on at night, for the noise, personally I hate it I prefer complete silence when I sleep.
maybe it was just the fan but she still uses the fan and I haven't heard any music for about a month.
I thought maybe the brass bed frame was picking up radio signals or something.
sometimes it was loud enough that I thought a neighbor had their radio on loud, but when I got up to check the music stopped.

just another one of lifes little mysteries I suppose.

I've posted here about the same phenomenon. I experience it often. Sometimes it sounds like voices on a radio, sometimes I hear various forms of music. I feared that I was developing a form of mental illness until I did a little research.
Apparently many people experience this.

a reply to: cleverhans
cleverhans - I have written-it-off, as has been suggested, to auditory pareidolia.
This has been going, for me, for at least 15 years.
Often, it has come in the form of 'choruses'... At other times, chants, conversation/s, musical riffs, etc...and, always in a looping pattern.
Have you ever looked into "white noise", to determine how it is constructed?
I have wondered if the "designers/manufacturers" didn't layer hundreds/thousands of recordings together to create the effect...and our mind, when the ear is positioned appropriately settles-on or singles-out these 'tracks'.
Most often, I can reposition my head/ears, and the disturbing phenomena will dissipate (though - if I return to the original position - it will return, as well).
I don't think you have anything to worry about...

a reply to: cleverhans



I'd imagine it has something to do with theta brain waves, as this is where you are in a relaxed state.

I keep a notepad ready for just these times.



-NF

Ok. I hear this too at my sisters house in AZ. It comes from her air conditioner.

I hear radio DJs and music. I can never understand what is being said. It sounds like a music radio station with breaks and intros.

Here's what I like to think it is.

Since we hear these noises through electronic devices, maybe its working at a frequency that is picking up things from another demention. And in this demention, they speak a different language.

I think it works very much like those spirit boxes. Where I've seen people use to talk to the dead.

But unlike the spirit boxes which uses multiple radio frequencies, an air conditioner or a fan is only using one consistant very low toned one. This very low tone is one that only some of us are actually capable to hear it.

Well, that's what I like to think it is.

a reply to: cleverhans

I used to have an issue where I played too much warcraft 3. Everyday. IT got to the point I would hear swords clashing and guys calling out..

Besides that I've noticed with my vision since it's gotten worse now, that my brain just assumes certain words are certain words. I might see fly instead of fry. So early I somehow read celebrity jumps out of the flyfan and into the fire. Not that it made sense so I looked again and was like oh..

So there are those 2 things..

But then sometimes my brain will make up music out of nowhere. It will even seem to have a source. I sometimes assumed someone through the wall was playing music. Now this music was so perfect and so "loud" that It HAD to be on somehwere, but it wasn't.

I later through experiences I can't talk about here, discovered it's a natural thing your subconscious can do. It can make entire environments, and situations, and textures, sounds, all these things appear and you are inside these things. It's called dreaming of course.

It can happen when you are awake, but only if your consciousness is relaxed enough to let your subconscious take over, but awake enough to not be dreaming. My subconscious had an entire symphony in it one time, and It was like surround sound, and I don't know any symphonies, or I thought I didn't, but somewhere in my brain, there are symphonies on standby..

White noise only makes it easier for a more conscious mind to hear things. But the more subconscious control, the less is needed for whole worlds to come into being.

a reply to: WanDash

Have you ever looked into "white noise", to determine how it is constructed?
I have wondered if the "designers/manufacturers" didn't layer hundreds/thousands of recordings together to create the effect...and our mind, when the ear is positioned appropriately settles-on or singles-out these 'tracks'.

That's a good point, sometimes I use white noise apps on my phone, and i have no idea how they construct the noise. But then I still hear it even with the fan.

I would guess sound matrixing. I hear the same things all the time. I guess we just make sense of the jumbled sound by our brains making it into sounds that we are used to hearing.



a reply to: cleverhans

a reply to: BerenstEiner

Since we hear these noises through electronic devices, maybe its working at a frequency that is picking up things from another demention. And in this demention, they speak a different language.

I think it works very much like those spirit boxes. Where I've seen people use to talk to the dead.

Are you talking about EVP? I'm not too familiar with it, but i think the difference is that i'm not using any special device to listen, just my ears.

originally posted by: cleverhans
a reply to: BerenstEiner

Since we hear these noises through electronic devices, maybe its working at a frequency that is picking up things from another demention. And in this demention, they speak a different language.

I think it works very much like those spirit boxes. Where I've seen people use to talk to the dead.

Are you talking about EVP? I'm not too familiar with it, but i think the difference is that i'm not using any special device to listen, just my ears.

Exactly. You are not using special devices. Its just a fan or an air conditioner. It runs at one frequency. That's why its consistant.

I guess those things that the ghost people record are evps. But instead of just using a recorder, the device they use is more like a radio scanner.

I have had this my entire life. I actually thought that everybody gets it. If ya wanna shut it off, just turn on a song. I also get "earworms" where a song will play in the background, either something i have recently listened to, or something from the past, or, from songs i made up and practiced a lot.

To get original music, there needs to be a rhythmic source. I was imagining the coolest guitars while driving through Florida, with the windows down; and, focusing on the patterns in the wind.

I used to write poems to the cadence.

Back in the Eighties, I was hitch-hiking with a pal.
We were given a lift in an old truck, which had quite a loud diesel engine noise.
At constant motorway speeds, I could hear a song... very quietly, and I presumed that the trucks radio was on, but turned down really low.
I turned my head to hear it better... and eventually determined that it was "The Reflex" by Duran Duran.
Not being a particularly big fan of that song, I just sat back and ignored it, carrying on with our journey and sparse chit-chat until I suddenly noticed that the SAME SONG was still playing some 20 minutes later??

Quizzically, I turned my head again to confirm that it was definitely playing and IT WAS.
My friend noticed me turning to listen and asked "Can you hear that too?"
"What can you hear?" I asked,
"Music" says he
"Ahhh but what music?" I ask
"Not sure... can't quite remember the name of the song..."
So, I start softly singing along and he says "THAT'S IT!!! It's been bugging me for about 20 minutes now!"

We checked with the driver, but his radio wasn't even on.

The same song continued for ages... presumably just as a result of the frequencies and repetitive nature of the engine noises???

But I always thought it was quite bizarre that we had both separately been hearing the exact same song.... far longer than the song would ever have lasted on the radio.

a reply to: cleverhans

Hey cleverhans!

I hear it too!
I always assumed that the electronics were somehow picking up other radio station signals, and just kinda wrote it off.

My sight and hearing aren't as good as they used to be, but my sense of taste and smell have increased noticeably. Sometimes I'm the only one who hears the music/talking...and I've never heard a song clearly (like Gordi did).

Great thread! S&F
jacygirl

a reply to: cleverhans

Great thread, I too hear music & voices. I always wondered
if other people did or not as I never asked anyone.

Here's something you DON'T want & that is Morse Code
going on continuously in one ear for 3 yrs. Some one at
a MUFON meeting told me I was in control & suggested
for me to tell them to turn it down or turn it off. I did
& it stopped & never returned.

I do have the code written done some where, not sure
as it's packed away. Some day I will look it up to see if
it meant anything.

Cheers
Ektar