Does white noise help for baby's sleep?
What is white noise?
Babies love white noise as it is a very familiar sound to children. Before birth, the baby spent all his time in the soothing hum of human life. Your beating heart, the sound of blood rushing through your body, and the rhythm of each inhalation and exhalation created a soothing cacophony, somewhat reminiscent of the roar of a vacuum.
In comparison, "rustling" sounds in the womb range from 70 to 91 decibels, while the sound of a vacuum cleaner is typically 70 to 80 decibels. In other words, the uterus is not a quiet place!
Why does white noise help baby sleep?
White noise machines create a calming, womb-like environment that soothes babies as they feel comfortable and safe, encouraging them to stop crying and fall asleep faster.
White noise machines also help kids sleep longer. But it's not magic at all! Babies have a 20-minute sleep cycle, and as they transition from deep to light sleep, they wake up more often and become restless, which leads to premature cessation of sleep.
White noise can help turn off your child's built-in 20-minute alarm, drowning out strangers. If the baby begins to wake up, the soothing hum of the white noise generator can be a source of comfort, prompting him to fall back into a deep sleep.
What is the best white noise to help baby's sleep?
First, these are familiar sounds. Being in the mother's stomach, the baby heard the beating of the mother's heart and other monotonous repetitive sounds for all 9 months. And secondly, a monotonous unstructured sound stream relaxes the nervous system.
- Rain: peaceful and soothing for babies and parents.
- Strong hair dryer: soothes fussy babies
- Fast and energetic white noise: the best sound for the crankiest babies
- Train: soothing heartbeat-like rhythm
- Shush: Accurately mimics what experienced parents do to calm the fuss.
Safety regulations:
Don't play white noise too loudly. The optimal volume level at a child's ear is about 50 decibels - about the noise level of running water from a tap.
Don't place the white noise source too close to the child, the recommended distance from the child's head is 1-1.5 meters.
Don't use household appliances such as a hair dryer, vacuum cleaner to generate white noise, it can be dangerous.
Don't leave white noise on all night, turn it off when you go to bed yourself.
Don't turn on white noise while awake, it is important for the child to clearly hear the sounds around him.
Benefits of white noise for newborns
Helps the child to calm down. If the child cries for a long time, and the mother cannot calm him down either with motion sickness or breastfeeding, and cannot distract him in any way, then turning on white noise can help. Many mothers tell stories of how children suddenly calmed down when they entered the bathroom, where water was running from the faucet.
Accelerates sleep. This was confirmed by studies, when the majority of newborns were able to fall asleep to white noise within five minutes, while in the control group, without the use of noise, only 25 percent of babies fell asleep in the same time.
Improves the quality and depth of sleep. When using white noise, a newborn does not wake up every 20 minutes, which mothers often complain about. The problem of fragmentation of sleep is being solved, it becomes longer, the baby sleeps better.
Helps to mask extraneous sounds. This is especially familiar to mothers who already have grown-up children who interfere with their younger ones falling asleep with their games. Repairs at the neighbors, loud noises from the street or guests in the next room - all this also does not allow the newborn to fall asleep peacefully. Turning on white noise will mask these sounds and help solve the problem.
Helps mom to relax and unwind. With better quality sleep with white noise, mom has more time for herself to do household chores or just relax. In addition, the woman herself is likely to fall asleep easier under such noise after a hard day.