In downtown some establishments (especially if they’re near warm air vents) will play the sounds of crying babies or screaming women.

That’s just fucking evil. Better than using some barely audible tone that hooks into the primal parts of our brains to make us uncomfortable and anxious (those supposedly exist), but even what you’ve said is just literally psychological warfare tactics.

Seriously, the CIA (or the equivalent) during the Korean War used to fly over vietkong areas blasting that sort of shit to disrupt sleep and demoralize them.