How sound can hinder – or help – neurodivergent employees, entrepreneurs and creators at work

Welcome to the Unmasked Playbook

Hello, and welcome to this, the second post for the Unmasked Playbook: a group dedicated to helping neurodivergent employees, entrepreneurs, creators and other members of our community who are trying to survive and thrive in a working environment that was not designed for the way our brains process information.

I am Paul Greystoke, fiction author (under the penname PJ Greystoke), entrepreneur and father to two amazing children. I am also AuDHD and have overcome many challenges to get where I am today. I started the Unmasked Playbook to share some of the answers I have found over the years and to benefit from the collective wisdom of our ever-growing community to find solutions to conquer some of the barriers many of us still struggle with. These posts combine the most up to date psychological research with practical lived experience from our members to provide a roadmap to success in the workplace.

This week: How sound can hinder – or help – neurodivergent employees, entrepreneurs and creators at work.

“Noise is not simply a matter of volume. Control, predictability, meaning and the task in front of us can determine whether sound supports a neurodivergent brain – or consumes the very capacity needed to work.”

The sound nobody else seems to notice

Do you work happily with music filling the room and then find a quiet tapping pen almost impossible to tolerate? From the outside, that can look inconsistent. If loud sound is acceptable, why should a much quieter one be a problem?

The answer emerging from research is that volume is only one part of the experience. Whether a sound is chosen or imposed, predictable or sudden, controllable or inescapable can matter just as much. So can its meaning and the kind of work we are attempting when it occurs.

For neurodivergent people like me, this is not merely about preference. Background speech, ringing telephones, music selected by somebody else, machinery, footsteps, a neighbour’s mid-day DIY, or the overlapping sounds of an open-plan office can compete for the same limited cognitive resources needed to remember, speak, decide and create. The work may still get done, but at a greater cost.

“Noise does not merely interrupt concentration. Sometimes it removes access to the part of the brain that knew what it was trying to do.”

That cost matters wherever work happens: in an office or school, behind a shop counter, inside a vehicle, at a kitchen table, in a studio or at a cafe. Even working alone or for yourself does not necessarily mean you have control of the environment around you.

When sound becomes cognitive load

Research into open-plan offices repeatedly identifies irrelevant speech, chatter and telephones as major sources of distraction. A 2023 review found that these sounds were among the most commonly reported problems in shared offices, affecting concentration, comfort and perceived productivity. It is important to note here that this is not exclusive to neurodivergent workers; background speech can disrupt working memory for almost anyone. But the consequences may be especially significant for people who already find filtering competing information difficult.

Autism and ADHD should not be collapsed into one explanation. Autism research points towards differences across several stages of auditory processing, including the difficulty some autistic people experience separating one voice from surrounding sound. ADHD research more often focuses on attentional control, inhibition and working memory: hearing the sound is not necessarily the problem; preventing it from capturing the attention may be.

Neither account is complete. Studies vary, individuals vary, and unfortunately for me, AuDHD has very little dedicated auditory research of its own. What we can say safely is that unwanted sound can consume processing capacity. Once that capacity is occupied, reading becomes harder, instructions disappear, speech may become less accessible and returning to an interrupted task takes additional effort, or in some cases can be impossible.

The importance of the task came through clearly in one community discussion. Chris (not his real name) described being unable to take in conversation while driving, even if the subject was fascinating. That is a useful reminder that sound tolerance cannot be separated from cognitive demand. Driving already requires continual visual scanning, decisions and motor responses; adding conversation may push some people beyond their available processing capacity. In safety-critical situations, the right strategy may be to reduce conversation and audio rather than trying harder to divide attention.

WHAT MAY HELP
Do not begin by asking whether you are “too sensitive.” Begin with the task. For one working week, note the sound, what you were doing, what happened to your performance and how long it took to recover. Patterns are often more useful than a single label. Employers can support this by treating concentration problems as an environmental-design question, not a character judgement.

Why control changes the experience

Longstanding experimental work on stress shows that unpredictable and uncontrollable noise produces greater strain than sound people can anticipate or stop. Even believing that escape is available can reduce the effect. This helps explain why self-selected music may be regulating while somebody else’s much quieter sound becomes unbearable.

Control is not simply an on-off switch. It includes knowing when a sound will begin, how long it will last, whether we can lower it, whether we are allowed to move, and whether asking for change will bring social consequences. An employee may technically be able to request a quieter desk yet fear being considered difficult. A home worker may own the room but have no control over neighbours, children, traffic or construction.

WHAT MAY HELP
Increase predictability even when noise cannot be removed. Give advance warning of alarm tests, construction, machinery or unusually busy periods. Agree quiet focus blocks. Allow someone to move before overload rather than after it. For solo workers, create a backup location or a short list of tasks that can still be completed when the preferred sound environment is unavailable.

ADHD: when more sound can mean more focus

Silence is often assumed to be the ideal condition for concentration. For some people with ADHD, it is not. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of 13 studies involving 335 children and young adults found a small improvement in laboratory task performance when participants with ADHD or elevated attention difficulties heard white or pink noise. Participants without ADHD showed a small decline.

This finding is promising, but it is not a universal prescription. The studies were largely conducted with young people in controlled tasks, not adults completing a working day. One possible explanation is called stochastic resonance. In plain English, this is the idea that a small amount of background noise may sometimes make a weak brain signal easier to register. It remains a theory and has been challenged by newer research. I’ll keep you informed as this research progresses.

What do white, pink and brown noise actually mean?

The colour names sound scientific, but the basic idea is straightforward. They describe how a continuous sound spreads its energy across low and high pitches. They do not describe different treatments, and a colour that helps one person may irritate or overwhelm another.

White noise: contains energy across the full range of audible pitches. Because our ears notice its higher frequencies strongly, it usually sounds like a bright hiss: radio static, a fan or steady shower spray. It can cover changing background sounds, but some people find it sharp or tiring.

Pink noise: reduces the energy as the pitch rises, giving more weight to the lower frequencies than white noise. It often sounds softer and more balanced, rather like steady rain, wind through trees or a distant waterfall. Pink noise has been studied alongside white noise in ADHD research, but the average benefit found was small and does not predict what any one adult will experience.

This research into pink noise did make me wonder though: some adult sound preferences may also have their roots in childhood. A child who repeatedly turns to the sound of rain, a fan, wind in the trees or another steady background sound during sleep, concentration or distress may gradually associate that soundscape with safety and regulation. What began as an instinctive or learned childhood coping strategy can therefore remain useful in adult working life, even if the person has never consciously identified it as such. There is a Christmas album my grandmother and parents used to play when I was a child. Hearing it now as an adult has a calming effect, can help reduce overwhelm and enable me to refocus on the task in hand.

Brown noise: places still more emphasis on low frequencies, producing a deeper rumble that may resemble heavy rainfall, distant thunder or the sound inside an aircraft. The name comes from Brownian motion, a scientific term for random movement; it is not a reference to the colour brown. It is popular in ADHD communities, but direct evidence for its effect on attention is currently much weaker than the online claims suggest.

Blue and violet noise: emphasise higher frequencies and therefore sound brighter, thinner and sharper than white noise. They are less commonly used for concentration and may be uncomfortable for people who are sensitive to high-pitched sound.

Grey noise: is shaped to compensate roughly for the way human hearing notices some pitches more easily than others. The aim is for the range to feel more evenly loud, although the result varies between recordings, headphones and individual hearing.

Green noise: does not have one widely agreed scientific definition. Online, the label is usually applied to nature-like sound with a strong middle-frequency range. Two tracks both called green noise may therefore sound quite different.

These descriptions are useful starting points, not precise promises about how a particular video or app will sound. What works for one may be considered intrusive to another. Experiment and see what works for you.

Speakers, headphones, recording methods and volume all change the experience too. Nature sounds and ambient music may perform a similar masking or regulating role, but they are not automatically examples of a particular noise colour. I can find the natural sound of rain lightly tapping my window soothing, but will often find the same sound when recorded rather irritating.

Music presents a similarly individual picture. A 2024 Communications Biology study found that music containing particular rapid amplitude modulations – very fast, deliberate rises and falls in volume – supported sustained attention differently depending on a listener’s attentional difficulties. That does not mean one engineered playlist will work for everyone. Familiarity, preference, stimulation level and task type all matter.

One finding is more dependable: lyrics tend to interfere with language-heavy work. Controlled research published in 2023 found that music with lyrics hindered verbal and visual memory and reading comprehension, while instrumental lo-fi music produced no credible improvement or impairment. A soundtrack that supports repetitive admin and office sounds may therefore obstruct writing, editing or reading.

What members of The Unmasked Playbook use in practice

I have replaced the names of our members with made up ones in this section to protect their identity and prevent any unwanted and accelerated rise to fame and stardom.

David Daniels (not his real name) uses the Calm app to play ambient music through noise-cancelling headphones and finds almost all other noise obstructive when he is concentrating. The combination matters: the headphones reduce unpredictable external input while the chosen track supplies a steady, controlled soundscape. It is not simply a matter of adding music; it is replacing unwanted sound with something predictable.

Mark Milner, a sonic artist and audio technician, gravitates towards modulated brown and pink noise, low- to mid-bass frequencies and slowly shifting drone music, usually with little speech or singing. This fits the task-based evidence better than searching for a universal playlist: low-frequency sound may feel less sharp, sparse vocals reduce competition with language, and gradual modulation can offer stimulation without abrupt interruption. These are personal observations, not proof that the same sounds will regulate everyone.

Susan Sorbet uses nature sounds such as rain, wind and water washing over pebbles. She also sometimes protects demanding concentration work for the night, when both the soundscape and the social demands are calmer. If changing hours is possible, timing can be as important as the audio itself. A reliable quiet period may reduce the amount of filtering the brain must perform before any chosen sound is added.

Susan also described regulating one sense through another: using rosemary or peppermint scent and holding a thumb stone, textured crystal or fir cone. This expands the idea of a sound menu into a sensory menu. A stable tactile object may give attention somewhere predictable to settle, while a chosen scent can become a grounding cue. These should be treated as individual experiments, not treatments. Strong fragrances can trigger headaches, asthma, allergies or sensory distress in other people, so scent is best kept personal and used only where it is safe and permitted.

Some members favour music labelled 432 Hz or 528 Hz. Research into frequency-specific music is emerging but claims of unique healing or attention-enhancing properties currently run ahead of the evidence. A 2026 study found that listening to music at these frequencies produced different measurable changes in the students’ bodies but did not improve their performance on an attention test.

If a particular track helps, use it; the useful features may include its tempo, timbre, repetition, familiarity and personal associations as well as its tuning. Judge it by its effect on the task and on your nervous system.

TRY A TASK-BASED EXPERIMENT
Test three conditions on the same kind of task: quiet, instrumental music and one steady noise colour at a comfortable volume. Compare the quality of the work, not only how productive you felt. If the sound causes discomfort, ringing, increased agitation or makes it harder to notice something important, stop or lower it. Keep lyrics away from reading and writing until you know they do not interfere. Use sound as an optional working tool, never as a replacement for established ADHD treatment or professional advice.

Autism: when ordinary sound becomes overload

For many autistic workers, the central problem is not insufficient stimulation but excessive, layered or unpredictable input. No individual sound needs to be particularly loud. Conversations, ventilation, footsteps, printers, telephone alerts and movement can combine until the environment demands more processing than is available.

At that point, the effect is not limited to annoyance. Concentration may collapse. Speech can become harder. Irritability may rise as the nervous system attempts to protect itself. Some people withdraw or shut down; others continue to mask the distress until they reach home, where the delayed cost becomes visible. Years of teaching in a secondary school before I was diagnosed outlined this very point. I would often come home, close the curtains and block out as much sound and stimulation as possible while I lay down and tried to calm my elevated heart rate.

Noise-reducing technology is one practical response, but the direct research is still small. A study of noise-attenuating headphones in autistic children with auditory hypersensitivity found reductions in physiological signs of sympathetic activation. That supports the experience as more than a subjective preference, but it does not justify claiming that headphones are a proven solution for every autistic adult at work.

Some autistic people are also sensory-seeking or less sensitive to sound. Others may move between seeking and avoiding depending on fatigue, stress and the task. A quiet room imposed on everybody can be as unhelpful as office-wide music.

WHAT MAY HELP
Offer choices: noise-cancelling headphones, earplugs, a quieter desk, a low-stimulation room, remote or flexible hours, and advance warning of unavoidable sound. Do not insist that one adjustment suits every autistic person. Review what works, because tolerance can change with cumulative stress and burnout.

AuDHD: wanting stimulation and protection at the same time

AuDHD can create an awkward tension. The ADHD side may seek stimulation to begin or sustain a task, while the autistic side may become overwhelmed by the same input. That is not hypocrisy or inconsistency. It may simply mean that the useful level and type of stimulation has a narrow window – and that the window moves.

The sound that starts a task may not be the sound that completes it. Fast music might generate enough momentum to begin an administrative job, while instrumental ambience is better once attention has settled. Creative thinking may benefit from a moderate hum, while precise editing needs near silence.

Susan’s approach illustrates that flexibility. At times she invites predictable sound and balances it with touch or scent; when that is not enough, she uses earplugs or filtered ear devices to reduce the world around her. The aim is not to remain loyal to either stimulation or silence. It is to match the input to the task and to the capacity available on that particular day.

BUILD A SOUND MENU
Instead of searching for one perfect soundtrack, choose options by function: activation, sustained focus, verbal work, repetitive admin, emotional regulation and recovery. Include silence as one option rather than treating it as the default. On difficult days, lower the number of simultaneous inputs before lowering your expectations of yourself.

When the noise is social

While reading this research, I found myself thinking about client meetings. An hour could contain ten minutes of useful work and fifty minutes covering a dog’s name, a child’s favourite food, petrol prices, politics and almost anything except the reason we were meeting. I understood that small talk was expected, but I experienced it as something imposed upon the task.

This led me to an idea: small talk can sometimes function as social noise. It is information we did not choose, cannot easily control and are not permitted to ignore.

This is a connective insight rather than an established scientific finding. No study located for this article has tested small talk using the same experimental methods used for unwanted noise. However, adjacent research helps explain why the comparison may feel accurate.

Relevance theory suggests that conversation becomes harder when two people have different assumptions about what information matters. To the client, talking about family or petrol may not be pointless at all: it may be performing relational work by establishing warmth and trust. To the autistic professional, the meeting may have an informational purpose: define the problem, exchange what is needed and reach a decision.

Neither person is necessarily communicating badly. They are judging signal and filler by different rules. Research associated with the double empathy problem supports the broader idea that communication difficulties can arise from a mismatch between neurotypes rather than a one-sided autistic deficit.

Small talk also demands more than passive tolerance. The listener must help produce it: generate questions, display interest, monitor tone, choose the right moment to respond and judge when it is safe to return to the agenda. It can therefore become both unwanted input and compulsory performance.

The Unmasked Playbook community responses also show why one description cannot fit everybody. Rowena Right enjoys brief exchanges with dog walkers, cashiers and neighbours but finds longer small talk draining. Wilfred West tends to answer: “How are you?” literally, exposing the hidden convention that the question often asks for a ritual rather than a full report on his actual feelings. Carol Cole needs context and time before she can simply chat and may withdraw when an unstructured visit feels overwhelming or carries the fear of saying the wrong thing. Duration, purpose, predictability and the possibility of leaving all change the demand.

I recognise the value of a very short, stable script. A security guard at a shop I visit regularly and I always have exactly the same exchange. He asks whether I am all right; I say that I am and ask him the same; he replies, “Champion, man. Champion.” My daughter once observed that we seemed to get on well. We do – as well as that relationship needs to. The exchange works because it is friendly, brief and predictable. If he ever departed from the script, I am not entirely sure what I would do.

“Small talk can be the social equivalent of unwanted background noise: information you did not choose, cannot control and are not permitted to ignore.”

WHAT MAY HELP
Share an agenda and a clear finish time before meetings. Put informal conversation inside a predictable boundary rather than allowing it to occupy the entire session. Laura Lane suggested signalling another appointment at the outset (even if it is fictional); the most sustainable version is to state an honest time boundary and what the conversation must achieve. Accept written contributions before and after meetings. If scripts help, prepare an opening, a transition and a closing line, such as: “I want to make sure we cover what you need today – shall we move to the first item?” Susan learned to ask colleagues about familiar subjects such as dogs, holidays and weekends, but she was masking to avoid workplace penalties. Scripts should therefore be optional tools, not tests of warmth. Build recovery time after socially demanding meetings instead of booking them back-to-back.

Working for yourself does not remove the problem

Research on noise and neurodivergence is heavily weighted towards conventional employees. Direct peer-reviewed evidence concerning neurodivergent entrepreneurs, freelancers and creators is remarkably thin. We should be honest about that gap rather than pretending that office studies examined writers working in cafes (as I have done) or business owners taking calls from home (as I also do).

Nevertheless, the practical problem is easy to recognise. Self-employment may remove one manager while introducing neighbours, family life, public workspaces, client calls and the financial impossibility of maintaining a dedicated studio. A creator can control the playlist but not the drilling next door. More apparent freedom does not always mean more actual control.

Creative work is especially vulnerable to interruption because ideas must be held and developed across time. A sound does not only steal the seconds in which it occurs; it can break the chain connecting one thought to the next. Research on interrupted work shows that people often compensate by working faster while feeling more stressed, frustrated and time-pressured.

WHAT MAY HELP
Match location to task. Reserve the most controllable environment for writing, editing, design or complex decisions. Keep portable tasks for noisy periods: scheduling, filing, image searches or routine administration. Prepare a portable sound kit with headphones, earplugs and downloaded audio so poor connectivity does not remove your backup. Protect a short reliable focus window rather than waiting for an entire perfect day.

The hidden social cost of asking for quiet

The sound itself is only part of the burden. Neurodivergent workers may also need to decide whether asking for help will make them appear antisocial, precious, uncooperative or unprofessional. Qualitative research on workplace masking describes people suppressing visible signs of overload in order to meet expectations, with consequences for mental and physical wellbeing.

Susan’s experience makes that cost concrete. Before becoming self-employed, she says that her lack of small talk with colleagues was repeatedly identified as an area requiring development and that it affected her annual bonus. After a grievance brought no resolution, she learnt to perform interest through a script. Her account illustrates how a workplace can reward visible social conformity rather than effective cooperation. An adjustment should reduce the need to mask, not merely teach somebody to imitate the expected ritual more convincingly.

Headphones can be misread as rejection. Moving away from colleagues can be interpreted as rudeness. A request to turn down music can be treated as an attempt to control everyone else. The result is that some people endure an environment until overload becomes impossible to hide – at which point their reaction, rather than the conditions that produced it, becomes the problem.

In the UK, ACAS, the public body that provides workplace advice, explicitly lists headphones, ear defenders, earplugs, quiet workspaces and noise-cancelling headphones among possible adjustments for neurodivergent workers. It also states that a worker does not need a formal diagnosis before support or reasonable adjustments are considered. Whether any particular adjustment is legally reasonable depends on the circumstances, but asking for a discussion is not asking for special treatment.

A USEFUL WAY TO MAKE THE REQUEST
Describe the barrier, the effect on the work and the adjustment you want to test: “Background conversations make it difficult for me to retain verbal information and complete concentration-heavy work. Could I use noise-cancelling headphones during focus periods and move to a quieter space for this task? I suggest we review it after four weeks.” Employers should record the agreement and review effectiveness rather than demanding that the person repeatedly justify the same need.

Create your personal sound profile

There is no validated intervention called a personal sound profile. However, occupational therapy’s established sensory-processing frameworks support the underlying idea that people differ in what they seek, notice, tolerate and avoid. Turning that principle into a practical record can help replace vague distress with usable information.

For several days, record four things: the task, the sound environment, the effect and the recovery consequence. Divide sounds into those that regulate, activate, distract and overwhelm. Then ask what changes when the sound is chosen, predictable, meaningful or controllable.

• Regulating: sounds that settle your nervous system or help you recover.
• Activating: sounds that help you begin, transition or maintain momentum.
• Distracting: sounds that repeatedly capture attention but remain tolerable.
• Overwhelming: sounds or combinations that impair speech, thought, regulation or functioning.

The purpose is not to diagnose yourself. Misophonia, hyperacusis, phonophobia, auditory-processing difficulties, sensory overload and ordinary irritation are not interchangeable terms. If reactions are severe, painful, trigger-specific or affecting daily life beyond ordinary distraction, seek appropriate professional assessment rather than relying on a social-media checklist. As I advise my girlfriend: Google, social media and AI is your friend… until it isn’t.

TURN THE PROFILE INTO A SYSTEM
Choose one change for each category: a recovery sound, an activation playlist, protection from a common distraction and an exit plan for overload. If employed, bring the task-and-impact evidence to an adjustment conversation. If self-employed, use it to design your diary and workspace rather than repeatedly blaming yourself when the environment and task are mismatched.

What employers can change without redesigning the building

Many helpful changes are inexpensive. The strongest approach is not to guess what every autistic or ADHD employee needs, but to create options and remove unnecessary social penalties for using them.

• Allow headphones during agreed focus periods where safety and the role permit.
• Provide at least one quiet or low-stimulation space that is not treated as a punishment room.
• Offer flexible seating away from kitchens, printers, doors and high-traffic routes.
• Give advance warning of alarms, building work and unusually noisy activity.
• Reduce unnecessary audio notifications and provide written versions of important instructions.
• Protect concentration blocks and avoid scheduling demanding meetings back-to-back.
• Give meetings a clear purpose, agenda and finish time, and do not treat limited small talk as poor teamwork when necessary work communication is effective.
• Do not impose one office playlist or assume that silence suits everybody.
• Ask what helps, trial it, and review it. Needs can change with the task and cumulative load.

A neuroinclusive workplace is not one silent room with a pair of headphones in it. It is a workplace that recognises environmental control as part of how people access their abilities.

The goal is not silence. It is choice and control.

Unfortunately, current research does not support a universal sound solution. White noise helps some people and hinders others. Music can activate, regulate or interfere. Headphones can provide relief but will not redesign a hostile workplace. Silence can be restorative, distracting or oppressive depending on the person and task.

The clearest principle is agency: greater choice over what we hear, when we hear it and how we can respond. For an employee, that may mean a reasonable adjustment. For an entrepreneur, it may mean building different environments around different kinds of work. For a creator, it may mean protecting the fragile conditions in which an idea can remain alive long enough to become something.

Research tells us what tends to work. Our community tells us what actually works in real life. The Unmasked Playbook exists to bring those two forms of knowledge together.

“Neurodivergent people do not necessarily need less sensory input. We need greater control over the sensory input we receive.”

Join the conversation

What is one sound most people barely notice that you find almost impossible to work through? And what sound do you actively rely on to concentrate, create or recover? Share your experience with The Unmasked Playbook community. While your experience is not a clinical study, it may help somebody else recognise and describe a need they have spent years trying to ignore.

About The Unmasked Playbook

The Unmasked Playbook offers strategies, systems and support for neurodivergent creators, entrepreneurs and people in the workplace. Paul Greystoke is an AuDHD author, creator and founder of the community. If you have found this useful and think being part of an active neurodivergent community then join us at the Unmasked Playbook here: The Unmasked Playbook Facebook group.

Research notes and further reading

This article is educational and does not provide medical or legal advice. Research concerning neurodivergent entrepreneurs and creators remains particularly limited; where workplace findings are applied to these groups, that extension is identified as a practical inference rather than direct evidence.

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