Even sounds that are just somewhat bothersome during the daytime might become a problem at night, particularly if they are sudden. Noises can somewhat awaken you even if you don’t fully awaken, interfering with your sleep cycles.

It’s no secret that I love white noise a lot! For myself, for infants, for everybody! White noise in general raises a lot of questions, though, like most things in life. Therefore, we’ll discuss the following in this blog:

What does baby white noise mean?
Are white noise machines effective sleep aids?
How can white noise aid with infant sleep?
How safe are white noise machines?
White noise for lulling babies to sleep: benefits and drawbacks
Which white noise setting is ideal for infants?
When to cease the white noise?
What does baby white noise mean?

It is identical to every other white noise. All of the different sound frequencies are combined to create white noise. White noise is like 20,000 different tones playing simultaneously.

There are numerous varieties, ranging from various hues of sound (brown, pink, orange, etc.) to noises that resemble a dishwasher, hoover, fan, or even rain, ocean waves, or a rainforest.

In essence, the noise generator will produce a sound that drowns out other noises, preventing outside noise from waking you up.

Are white noise machines effective sleep aids?

The whole point of employing white noise is that the noise’s unexpected arrival awakens you up, not the noise itself. This is concealed, providing our brain with the advantage of a more stable environment.

Because our brains continue to analyse sensory data while we sleep, white noise reduces the patterns or abrupt shifts in external noises that our brain may otherwise pick up on.

Can white noise aid in sleep then? Sure, why not!

There are a wide variety of potential sleep-robbing noise sources, including household items like appliances, televisions, dogs, and other people as well as outdoor noises like storms, traffic, and metropolitan metropolis noise.
Interesting fact: «This research is finding that noise events produce arousals at relatively low exposure levels, and regardless of the noise source (air, road, and rail traffic, neighbours, church bells), and environment» (home, laboratory, hospital).

The likelihood that nighttime noise is linked to cardiovascular illness and stroke in the elderly is supported by new epidemiological studies, which add to the body of research previously available. Together, these investigations point to the possibility that nighttime noise exposure may have a greater impact on the development of cardiovascular disease than daytime noise exposure.

How white noise promotes infant sleep?

Your unborn child grows accustomed to all the noises our bodies make while they are inside you, such as the sounds of our digestive system or the placenta’s rushing blood. White noise is soothing to babies since it is known to them.

Because of this, when babies are born into an environment with a range of sound levels, the quietness can be unsettling, and not the other way around, make it difficult for them to settle. It’s a fun fact that your womb typically has a decibel level of 80 or thereabouts.

Do you recall your first ultrasound, when the whooshing sound could be heard as soon as the wand was placed on your belly? This is what your baby is listening to constantly, if you can imagine it amplified.

A grumpy, confused infant who prefers to fall asleep in the car or at a loud party rather than their peaceful and still nursery may result when they join the world of stillness, whispers, and tiptoes as opposed to the very loud sound level of the womb. This is why white noise can help you sleep. The Snoo was invented by Dr. Harvey Karp, and his five S’s are based on them.

According to his idea, your baby’s instinct to calm down is triggered by the 5 S’s: swaddle, side, shh (loudly), suck (pacifier/breast), and swing (motion). You would employ these by matching the intensity of the sobbing with your white noise/shh and movements until they began to relax. After that, you gradually reduce your movement and volume until they are relaxed or asleep.

How safe are white noise machines?

It’s crucial to gauge the white noise machine’s decibel output; you can do this for free by downloading an app to your phone and using it in their bedroom. I like to use dB metre or Decibel X as they give consistent measurements. In hospital nurseries, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a noise level for infants of 50 dBA.

The National Resource Center recommended this in 1999, and it has nothing to do with safeguarding a baby’s hearing.
With the primary goal of «preserving a major chunk of each hour for infant sleep,» it was designed for neonatal intensive care units, or NICUs. Sleep is essential for preterm babies, and loud noises shock and annoy NICU babies more than they annoy healthy full-term babies, therefore the restriction is primarily there to aid in premature babies’ ability to get more rest.

That’s ironic because, of course, parents use white noise generators to help babies sleep better. Even though it examined the possibility that strong NICU noise could injure premature newborns’ ears, the 1999 study came to the predictable conclusion that such effects «have not been consistently shown.»

How loud is white noise for babies? The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the United States has established an exposure safety limit for workers of 85 dB over eight-hour periods.

For comparison, the sound level associated with mild rainfall is 50 decibels, average conversation is 60 decibels, a hoover cleaner sounds like 70 decibels, and blenders and blow dryers sound like 80 to 90 dB.

Check out this chart for additional comparisons

Sound doesn’t begin to promote sleep until it reaches 60 to 65 dB, according to Dr. Harvey Karp, founder of Happiest Baby on the Block and inventor of the Snoo. A sound machine should be placed seven feet away from your child’s bed, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

This advice comes from a study that revealed baby-specific white noise machines registered at decibel levels beyond the «recommended» level when put within a foot of the baby’s sleeping area. Thus, may white noise harm hearing? Don’t, however, play white noise for eight hours straight right next to your child’s head at maximum volume. Does white noise have a volume limit? Yes, that is exactly why we measure decibels!

Because it varies somewhat from person to person and some people are more sensitive than others, noise can have a negative affect on sleep. One study discovered that people’s capacity to endure noise is influenced by their brain rhythms.

But is white noise dangerous? merely if it is too close or too loud. A good rule of thumb is to check it whenever you move the machine around the room or go somewhere so that you can be sure of how loud the white noise machine is in your child’s sleeping area (for example, place your phone with the app open in the child’s bed or crib, turn on the sound machine, and measure the decibel level at the location where they will be hearing the sound).

White noise has not been the subject of many studies, but this is what we do know:
It was discovered in a 2009 study that rats’ neurons changed in how they responded to stimuli when exposed to 80 decibels of white noise for eight hours a day for two weeks during the crucial period in their hearing development. However, the researchers did not examine inner-ear function or other facets of behaviour or cognition, so it is unclear what this means.

According to an another study, rats’ hearing got compromised after being subjected to broadband noise at 100 or 110 dB for eight hours a day for five days, but not when they were exposed to 90 decibels. According to Chang, «Babies learn through absorbing human speech sounds,» the studies mentioned above also touch on the potential for a language delay.

Speech sounds may take longer to acquire when they are weakened by computers or TVs. Audiologist Frederick Ruffen from the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, New York, states: «The intriguing thing about this is that white noise delays the maturing of the brain. The critical period is lengthened though once the noise is silenced. The brain can mature at a later time.»

While limiting white noise exposure in babies may be crucial, according to Ruffen, parents should likely be more concerned about loud, recurring noises like loud music, horn honking, traffic noise, and construction equipment.

According to him, this kind of noise harms hearing by causing auditory neurons to overgrow. Furthermore, when the brain is exposed to these kinds of noise, unlike with white noise, the critical period is not prolonged. According to Ruffen, once damage has been caused by these kinds of sounds, it is probably irreversible.

According to the researchers, there are a variety of potential neural effects on the central auditory system, but a few of them include a decrease in neural inhibition (the capacity to filter unimportant information), an increase in the processing time needed by the brain to deal with changing signals, and less accurate cortical representations (how information is represented in the brain).

In light of the theories they are advancing, it is significant to keep in mind that the aforementioned researchers are working on commercial technology they claim can have positive effects on cognitive processes.
White noise itself doesn’t appear to be associated with worse outcomes, at least not according to any direct evidence given by the authors in the review or elsewhere.

There is a need for more study because there are so many advantages to using white noise; everything needs to be thoroughly investigated so that parents can decide securely how to use it for their baby. White noise as a baby sleep aid: Benefits and Disadvantages. Utilizing white noise has so many advantages! Here is a list of benefits:

According to this study, employing white noise for 5 minutes caused 80% of babies to go asleep.
Memory enhancements were seen when «pink» noise, an alternative to white noise, was used.

It can block out household noises that might keep the baby up in the early morning or throughout the night (essential if you share a room!).

This study sought to determine «whether, during sleep, the brain responds differently to various stimuli as a function of their relevance. Evidence from behaviour and electrophysiology is in favour of this theory. Young women are awakened by their children’ tiniest movements, for instance, but some auditory stimuli, independent of their intensity, produce more awakenings than others.

has been shown to speed up the transition between sleep cycles, shorten the time needed to fall asleep, and lengthen the time spent getting restorative sleep.

advantages if you experience insomnia (decreases the time it takes to fall asleep)

Infants become anxious when they are stimulated by lights, faces, and excitement. By obstructing stimulus when they need to sleep, white noise produces a secure environment.

Baby naps last between 20 and 45 minutes until they awaken from their sleep. White noise can assist a baby negotiate these arousals and enjoy a longer snooze by masking sounds like siblings or the doorbell. Since white noise resembles the womb, it is incredibly relaxing for babies! It’s a fantastic sleep association that’s beneficial to incorporate into any sleep pattern while sleep-training.

Being a sleep association, it can help parents get through their infant’s sleep regressions or, if you and your partner share a room, it might even help baby sleep through the night.

You can combine white noise and a nightlight, such on the Lectrofan Kinder, when switching from a cot to a toddler bed.

It’s not always a bad thing when we talk about something developing a dependency. Whether they have other sleep associations or if you use something like a lovey, your child should still be able to fall asleep without it.
Without it, they might have trouble falling asleep or sleep less soundly. Without it, they might even find it difficult to fall asleep at night or take as long a nap.

It is acceptable to occasionally go without it while still getting the benefits of better sleep if it is not something they will have to do on a frequent basis.

This is just an additional (positive) sleep association that can be incorporated into a routine to let kids know that it is time to go to bed when they hear it.

Which white noise setting is ideal for infants?

It is best to select white noise machines with non-repeating fan and white noise sounds that are dynamically generated by an algorithm to produce truly random sounds.

Some white noise generators and smartphone apps use looping sound clips to awaken your brain, whereas others use real fans that can’t be made loud enough to drown out noise. Therefor, those aren’t the best by sleeping.

Your sleep won’t become better since your brain will start to notice a pattern and get more stimulated, waking you up more frequently! The lectrofan from Sound of Sleep or a dohm from Yoga Sleep are your best options out of the many on the market.

There are even portable ones that can be used in the car (securely, rather than as a projectile in your infant’s car seat), which can assist in converting the car seat hater into a car seat lover! It could be the secret to a restful snooze when combined with a drive down the motorway.

Speaking of being on the go, it is useful to have when moving around and sleeping in strange places! It makes it a secure place for them to sleep by simulating their home environment.

Because when we perform our biological safety check, our environment is the same or has not changed, we can simply go back to sleep, having constant white noise playing throughout the night can reduce your need to intervene for night wakings!

We would have a harder time falling asleep again and your child would signal (likely very loudly, almost in a panic) for you to come aid them as opposed to sleeping in one way, with sound, and waking up in the other without it.

In addition to natural sounds like the ocean, rain, storm, rainforest, etc., there are several «colours» of white noise. The majority of those are going to be produced in a way that loops or has a pattern that might make it harder for you to sleep.

So you should go with whatever makes you wake up feeling the most rested and does not hurt your ears!

You can always try out several noises on YouTube until you find the one that feels most comfortable to you, at which point you can either buy a machine that plays that sound (instead of trying out a bunch of devices) or choose a machine that has a tonne of different sound options to choose from!

Interesting fact: White noise has been demonstrated to minimise the effects of tinnitus symptoms (ringing in the ears)
When to cease the white noise?

If you don’t want to, you can continue utilising white noise for babies. If necessary, you can easily stop using it by turning it off at night. To do this, just reduce the volume a little each night.

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t advise turning it off quickly (like after a 30 or 45 minute timer). For better sleep, it’s recommended to either leave it on whole night or not at all.

If you have a white noise machine that is plugged in, it is advantageous to have a backup that runs on batteries in case the power goes out or they need to sleep somewhere else.

Also, if you have really noisy kids or dogs running around the house, you might use the backup as a «additional» white noise machine outside of a sensitive child’s room. A cat napper can become a long napper by using white noise and sleeping with their door closed (for fire safety)!

LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT INFLANT WHITE NOISE

A wonderful aid for calming a fussy baby is infant white noise. As a sleep cue, it is a fantastic addition to your nap and bedtime routines. It makes travelling and sleeping in strange places really simple.

Of course, always make wise choices and apply it safely (measure the decibel levels and keep it far enough away that it is comfortable for you and your baby). You can be confident that incorporating white noise for your baby, older child, or even yourself is a great idea!

Even if your child sleeps well, it can improve sleep, which is always a good thing, especially if they are under four months old.

And here’s a pro tip: if your baby is particularly fussy at that time, don’t be afraid to turn up the white noise for a little while to help calm them down even more. It’s perfectly acceptable and effective!

References

How Much the Eye Tells the Brain
White, fat and blind — Economy and evolution in caves
Noise: A Hazard for the Fetus and Newborn
Noise Pollution: Neonatal Aspects
Infant Sleep Machines and Hazardous Sound Pressure Levels
Reducing Noise in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Listen up: Excessive noise is a public health issue