Tips For Using Sound Machines and White Noise in Your Baby’s Room (part 2)
Sound machines have become a ubiquitous component of baby bedrooms. But remember that there are reasons to question whether white noise is a good idea in our kids’ rooms. We assume it helps our children sleep, but it’s not always true – and in some cases it might be unhealthy.
In our first post on sound machines, we explore the science and dispel myths about white noise. Here, in part 2, we have practical tips for using sound machines in a developmentally appropriate and healthy way:
Using White Noise and Sound Machines
1. Keep the volume low, 50 decibels or lower, and at least 7 feet from your baby’s head. We use the Decibel X app. It’s easy to measure how loud your sound machine is this way.
2. Choose a natural sound with some variation, like a babbling brook, rain or soft ocean waves. Research shows that continuous, monotonous white noise can compromise the development of the auditory region of the brain and ultimately impair hearing and language acquisition.
3. Try pink or brown noise, instead of white. These use lower frequencies and are more soothing to most babies.
4. If you’re using a sound machine as a “sound screen” (the way we sometimes do in therapy offices,” place it outside baby’s bedroom door. This creates a protective wall of sound that can muffle loud, abrupt noises from your home without having the sound machine inside baby’s bedroom.
5. Make sure it runs all night. In order to support your baby turning to their natural ability to fall back to sleep when they wake during the night, it helps if their environment stays the same as at bedtime, so they aren’t alerted by the change. Follow the safety tip (#1 above) at all times.
6. Avoid using sound machines during waking hours. It’s essential for babies’ brains to absorb and learn all the nuanced vibrations of the world, such as speech, music, birds chirping and so on.
7. Consider lowering the volume even more, or phasing out sound machines if your baby is 5 months or older.
8. If you're currently working on independent sleep using the Sleep Wave and you’re still using a sound machine, keep using it until your baby is consistently self-soothing to sleep and then gradually phase it out.
Use yourself as a gauge. Would you like sleeping with the noise in your baby’s room? If it’s too loud, static, or irritating for you, it’s probably not a good sound for your baby. If you do like the sound, measure the decibels or just gradually lower the volume and see how it goes. Eventually, you can consider a simple, quiet room. Remember, sometimes less is more – especially when it comes to our cozy sleeping place.
[Need help setting your baby on the path to independent sleep (if they’re 0-4 months) or supporting your baby or little kid to sleep through the night? Check out The Happy Sleeper online classes].