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There is a TV ad for an app called Calm (ad features a short segment of "brown noise."

I find the brown noise to be intensely irritating; it sounds like loud static.

Yeah those noises basically are like TV static. Some people find them soothing, some irritating. You can also have auditory illusion while listening to those because your brain is trying to find patterns in the sound, never happened to me though.
But if those sounds don’t disturb you they are a great way to drown out outside noises.

I have a set of Anker bluetooth headphones - at about $80.00, in my opinion they are about 80% as good as Bose sets costing three or more times as much.

I found a website called "A Soft Murmur" which is free to use, and generates VERY high quality 'white noise' - wind, waves, storms, etc and you can mix them. I have my own particular set of sounds, which transmit wirelessly with no issues to the headset I'm wearing to bed.

With the combination of large, soft earcups, noise cancellation, plus the whispering sussurus of that site - I don't hear any external sounds.

I wish I could sleep with headphones on. Do you have trouble hearing your alarm in the morning?

I use the included app “Background Sounds” on my iPhone through a Bluetooth speaker. Accessibility—>Audio/Visual. I like “Dark Noise” or “Rain”.

Prepare for a multi-part answer! :)

So... I rarely fall asleep with them on. Usually, I seem to sense when I'm really falling asleep for real, and peel them off.

About 95% of the time, my eyes "flap" open 30-60 mins ahead of my intended wake-up time. Alarm is almost superfluous, BUT I use a count-down timer which has a pretty piercing beep which I can easily hear in the rare event I still have the headphones on.

I'm also fortunate enough to not have a regular job - I'm a freelance IT tech, so I can schedule my first appointments for 10:00am, which gives me 5+ hrs after my intended wake up time of 5:00am. Also - the vast majority of my clients are pretty laid-back and would be understanding if I accidentally oversleep and run late - but that hasn't even happened yet.

Didn’t know that feature existed on iPhone!

I see, makes sense :)

I've created a 30 minutes long mp3 of brown noise using Audacity (freeware on pc) which I play on my phone when I can't fall asleep.

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Brown noise, not to be confused with the brown note.

I made about 3 brown noises before I got to this comment

I use an Alexa skill that plays different relaxing sounds. The fan sound blocks all the annoying noises from my neighbors on a Friday night.

I got confused and thought we were going to weaponize it against our neighbours.

Don't waste $20 or $30 on a cheap one... this is to help you sleep. get this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HD0ELFK

Idk why brown noise made me laugh so hard. I didn’t know that was a thing.

I just use a fan. Much more natural sounding imo

I also use one, but it doesn’t get loud enough

Ah, I guess your neighbors/street noise must be much worse than mine, sorry to hear that :/

Thanks, it’s better now, there’s hope!

The last time this was posted an audio engineer replied and actually explained the differences between white, brown, and pink noises.

Maybe since you reposted the OP you can also dig up that reply and post it because it was more interesting.

Make it their problem.

Brown noise machine? Just eat beans

How is this the only comment with the real solution? Get local authorities and/or the landlord to enforce noise violations. Stop the problem at its source

i cant sleep without a cheap box fan on