a bit of ambient sound and for those that require silence, any small change in sound has the potential to disrupt sleep. It is much more difficult to recreate absolute silence for sleep vs. Is your child a light sleeper? For those of us that are light sleepers, white noise is a very effective tool at improving quality of sleep. We all know how loud and disruptive a newborn's cries can be so if you are planning to expand your family, keeping white noise around until your youngest is sleeping soundly at night is worth considering! You may wish to discontinue the use of white noise with your child for your own personal reasons, but ask yourself the following questions first before doing so:Īre you planning more children? Using white noise to mask internal sound can be extremely helpful. The effects of white noise have been studied for many years, and when used safely it has been shown to reduce crying in infants, improve cognitive performance, counteract symptoms of ADHD, enhance deep sleep, and so on! The short answer - never! White noise can be used safely and effectively with people of all ages - babies, toddlers, school-aged children, and even adults! Avoid the popular products that have a timer - those will work against you as baby will wake up at that 45 minute mark and wonder where that nice sound went. It needs to play for the entire nap and bedtime.
Sure, most adults would prefer to sleep in a dark room, or with a little white noise (a fan, the hum of a humidifier) but we aren't dependent on it. Just the same as they won't become 'addicted' to needing a dark room to sleep in. Your child won't become 'addicted' to white noise. Bonus: fans in baby's room has been shown to reduce the risk of SIDS. Even a box fan works perfectly if you don't want to invest in a machine. Radio static is perfect, and most white noise machines come with a 'white noise' option. It also needs to be boring - no classical music or twinkle twinkle on repeat. Not just quiet background noise, crank that baby up! You want it about as loud as if you were standing in the bathroom while someone was showering. It helps to block out the sounds from dogs barking, doorbells, older children, and whatever else is going on in the house while they are trying to sleep. White noise creates a safe place for them by helping them to block out this stimulation. Every day babies are inundated with new faces, new places, and more stimulation than they can handle.
Now imagine going from that constant deafening sound to utter silence. And it is LOUD - slightly less loud than a lawnmower. Baby is soothed by the sounds of mom's heart beating, her stomach growling, and muffled voices from the outside. We know that the trick to helping children sleep better is to re-create the conditions that they experienced in the womb, and the womb is a noisy place. White noise creates a masking effect, blocking out those sudden changes that wakes us or make it difficult to fall asleep.
When a noise wakes you or your child up in the night, it's not the noise itself that wakes you, per se, but the sudden change or inconsistencies in noise that jar you. White noise, by 'technical' definition, is a consistent noise that comes out in an equal amount at every frequency, from low to high, that a human being can hear.
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