White noise occurs in nature in a wide range of circumstances. It’s renowned as a cure for insomnia. Now, researchers at a leading sleep aid company have added another variant to their proprietary audio library: the joyful sound of fried chicken sizzling in the pan…
The concept of ‘White Noise’ first captured popular attention back in the early 1960s, when inventor James K. Buckwalter noticed the rushing sound from his bedroom window air conditioner helped his insomniac wife, Trudy, get to sleep…
Scientifically sound
The principle behind white noise has been scientifically explained and proven. This specific mix of random sounds is most famously characterised as that of a gentle rain.
When I was very young I spend many summers at the farm where my Dad’s dad grew up. It was on a small river just down stream from an old sawmill dam. Water rushed over the dam at various vol-umes most of the year filling the air with a constant, soothing ‘rush’. I’ve never slept better in my life than I did there. Not have I ever felt more at peace and content, overall…
Buckwalter and a partner patented their first white noise-generating machine back in 1963. And the concept has become part of modern culture. But that hasn’t stopped Buckwalter’s successors from exploring other kinds of allegedly-therapeutic noise. Boosters now claim pink, brown and even green noise (among others) have their specific benefits. And you can buy evlices (and sound tracks) that deliver them all.
What they cooked up….
In that tradition, sleep aid specialists Hatch have partnered with KFC to capture and bring us ‘Ken-tucky Fried Chicken Rain’. Yes…. We can now lull ourselves to sleep to the soothing, white-ish noise of gently sizzling KFC.
“At Hatch, we take pride in producing the most effective audio for sleep,” Eric Pallotta, Hatch’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), says. “When we kept seeing social media posts about the similarity between frying chicken and rain, we decided to make the absolute best version of that audio. […] And who better than the OG fried chicken experts themselves, KFC, to do it with?”
Hatch technicians actually visited KFC HQ, and recorded authentic audio samples of cooking KFC in the company’s test kitchen.
How to get it…
According to pop-food site FoodBeast, the custom sound is now available on Restore 2 smart sleep devices for those with a Hatch+ premium content subscription. Users can also access the ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken Rain’ sound track on the Hatch for Sleep and KFC YouTube channels, as well as on the Hatch for Sleep Spotify page.
My take
As intriguing as the notion of falling asleep to the sound of authentic ‘KFC Rain’ may be… I’ll just wait until the next time I’m sizzling something on my own stove, and record my own ‘custom track’ on my phone!
~ Maggie J.