Is Loam meditation app free?

Yes. Loam is free to download and free to start. Core tools like breathing exercises, journaling, daily check-ins, and streak tracking are always available at no cost. Premium unlocks the full guided session library, unlimited custom Moments, and advanced features.

What makes Loam different from Calm or Headspace?

Loam composes every session around how you feel right now — the voice, the pace, and the therapeutic approach all adapt in real time. Instead of a catalog of pre-recorded tracks, Loam generates a new meditation tailored to your current emotional state, calibrated to your experience level, and grounded in peer-reviewed research. It also ships with Sage, a wellness coach trained in Motivational Interviewing, and 15 breathing exercises with haptic-synced animations.

Is Loam safe to use alongside therapy or medication?

Yes. Loam is designed with clear clinical guardrails. Sessions never claim to diagnose or treat mental illness, never tell you to stop therapy or medication, and always defer to professional care for symptoms that warrant it. Content is constrained to evidence-based techniques (ACT, self-compassion, MBSR, somatic experiencing, CBT-I) and a carefully reviewed voice and pacing library. Meditation is a complement to care, not a replacement. If you're in crisis, please contact a local crisis line or your care provider.

What research is Loam based on?

Every therapeutic technique in Loam cites primary peer-reviewed research. Loam's breathing library is grounded in work by Balban et al. (Stanford, 2023), Zaccaro et al. (2018), and Lehrer & Gevirtz (2014). The Moment's therapeutic architecture draws on polyvagal theory (Porges), ACT (Hayes), self-compassion (Neff), MBSR (Kabat-Zinn), and somatic experiencing (Levine). A full citation library is available at /research.

Who are the voices in Loam?

Loam uses 13 research-selected voices. Each voice is chosen for the emotional state it handles best, based on polyvagal theory, ASMR research, and voice psychology — low resonant voices for grounding, warm bright voices for light moods, measured voices for heavy ones. Loam automatically picks the voice the research says will work for your current state, or you can override manually.

Does Loam work offline?

Core tools work offline, including downloaded meditations, breathing exercises, and the journal. The Moment — Loam's custom meditation composer — requires an internet connection at the moment of generation, because the session is composed on the fly. Once generated, every Moment is saved to your library and can be replayed offline without using any credits.

Does Loam have sleep stories?

Yes. Loam includes narrated sleep stories, sleep soundscapes, and wind-down rituals. The sleep content uses anti-storytelling techniques — structured to prevent the mind from latching on to narrative — based on CBT-I stimulus control research (Bootzin & Epstein, 2011).

What breathing exercises does Loam offer?

Loam offers 15 breathing techniques across beginner, intermediate, and advanced tiers, including Box Breathing (4-4-4-4), 4-7-8 Relaxation, the Physiological Sigh, Coherent (Resonance) Breathing at 5.5-5.5, Alternate Nostril, Ujjayi, Kapalbhati, and the Wim Hof method. Every technique links to the peer-reviewed research that validates it, so you can read the study if you want to.

Will I lose my streak if I miss a day?

No. Loam's streak system is explicitly wellness-first: streaks pause, they don't break. You get two streak freezes, you can mark rest days, and the app never shames you for missing a session. Anxious users are especially vulnerable to streak mechanics turning self-care into another source of pressure — Loam is designed to avoid that failure mode.

SOUNDSCAPE · NOISE

Every claim cited · Every technique peer-reviewed

Pink Noise

Name: Loam
Availability: InStock
Author: Loam

Pink noise is equal energy per octave — roughly matching the frequency distribution of natural sounds like rain and wind. A small but suggestive 2017 Northwestern study found pink noise played during slow-wave sleep boosted memory consolidation in older adults. Better-tolerated than white noise for long sessions.

Updated April 2026·4 min read

What you're listening to

A warmer, softer version of white noise. The high frequencies are rolled off, which makes pink noise closer to what your ear naturally hears in rain, wind, or distant surf. Less tinny, easier to fall asleep to, easier to leave on for hours.

Why it works

Pink noise mirrors the '1/f' spectrum of most natural environmental sounds, which is why it feels more 'natural' than white noise. The Papalambros et al. (2017) study at Northwestern found that pink-noise bursts timed to slow-wave EEG phases improved overnight memory consolidation in older adults — a small trial, but the most direct evidence yet that acoustic stimulation can shape sleep architecture.

Best for

long-duration sleep masking
memory-consolidation sleep
reading and focus
masking traffic noise

One caveat

Pink noise does not equal rain or ocean audio — the natural tracks add spectral variation and micro-events that pure pink noise lacks. For sleep, most listeners prefer rain or ocean over pure pink.

Try it in the Loam app

Pink Noise is included in Loam's soundscape library, with loop-seamless playback, an animated visualizer, and the option to layer up to five soundscapes simultaneously. Download Loam to listen.

Related soundscapes

Browse the full soundscape library, or try: White Noise, Brown Noise, Green Noise.

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