How to Safely Use White Noise for Better Sleep
White noise helps us sleep better. End of story. And using white noise now doesn’t mean your kid will never be able to sleep without it. It’s one of the simplest sleep hacks available, even for exhausted parents.
Check out five tips for white noise use, and how to avoid the common pitfalls that keep it from working.
So, how does white noise help with sleep?
As a newborn, white noise helps turn on your baby’s natural calming reflexes by mimicking the sounds of the womb. As your baby grows, it provides a consistent backdrop of sound that helps them stay asleep.
Our brains process sensory stimuli even when we’re asleep. And it’s typically the change in noise that causes sleep disturbances, not the sound itself. Background white noise masks these sudden changes, allowing our brains the more consistent environment it craves. If you share your bed or room (with a kid, pet, or adult), you’ll probably find that white noise helps your sleep quality too.
White noise muffles the sound of your cat scratching underneath the door at 4:00AM or your labradoodle barking at the nice UPS driver. It can downsize the impact of a big sibling’s tantrum (How dare you turn off Paw Patrol?). And if you have the audacity to put away dishes during nap time, it’s got your back. Life is loud and white noise makes the sleep space a little less sonically chaotic amidst all the noise.
For white noise to be most effective, and safe, we want to make sure we’re using it right. Don’t wanna mess with anyone’s hearing or accidentally annoy our kid with a grating sound, rather than help them sleep.
Here are the top four mistakes parents make when it comes to using white noise – and how you can avoid them.
Assuming Baby won’t benefit from white noise
Maybe you got lucky with an “easy” newborn, but I’m warning you – using white noise will help your older baby or toddler sleep.
Even the champion newborn sleepers start having more wake ups around 3 or 4 months due to the 4 month sleep regression. Sleep get crappy for most babies at some point, whether it’s 3 or 4 months or 8 or 9 months. This is because babies grow more alert and aware of their surroundings as they mature. And toddlers always want to party. White noise helps with FOMO. You’re less likely to think about Fluffy, and want to snuggle him, if you can’t hear him scratching under the door.
Using irregular white noise or background sound
Continuous noise (like rain or a fan) is usually more effective than birds singing, music, waves crashing, or some other irregular nature sound.
You’ll hear some parents blasting robot heart beats (no judgment if you and your baby love this). Popular wisdom says babies hear heartbeats when they’re on the inside. But researchers don’t think this is actually what babies hear in the womb–babies most likely hear a constant and deep whooshing noise in utero.
Remember that bit about the change in sound stimuli being what wakes us or causes restlessness, not the sound itself? Just because you find nature sounds more appealing than the hair dryer, when you’re awake, doesn’t mean your child will sleep better with it.
I love hearing the birds singing but my first kiddo wanted the hair dryer. Please note: we are not advising that you leave your hair dryer plugged in and on all night long. NOT SAFE. But they might want a hairdryer to calm down and then white noise for being lulled to sleep.
Not taking the time to find the “right” white noise.
Not all white noise is equal. Some white noises are as appealing as Fluffy’s claws on chalk board. Others are soothing, and can even help with relaxation and focus. And what’s misery inducing for one person can be harmonious to another.
White isn’t the only sonic hue–there’s actually a rainbow of noise colors. And which color you or your kiddo likes best is just as personal as the paint color you choose for your bedroom. Sleeping in a pink bedroom may cause you to cringe, but maybe pink noise lulls you right to sleep at night?
Pure white noise sounds like the “shh” that happens when a radio is tuned to an unused frequency. Just like white light contains all the wavelengths of the visible spectrum in equal intensity, white noise contains every sound frequency we humans can hear (~20 Hz to 20 kHz), generated randomly using equal energy.
Pink and brown noise are similar to white noise, but with more energy concentrated at either the high or low end of the sound spectrum. This makes a very subtle difference in sound, but can have a big impact on how soothing it is to little Junior.
Pink noise is like white noise with the higher frequencies turned down. It’s a “shhh” with more bass, like in a rainstorm. Some folks who hate white noise find pink noise pleasing. In fact, researchers found that sleeping with pink noise can improve memory the following day. We need more research here before we can know if the effect is replicable, long term, or applicable at all ages (the study only included young adults). But still, pretty cool and definitely gives pink noise bonus points!
Brown noise lowers the higher frequencies even more – think of a roaring waterfall.
We humans are very particular, so if you’ve avoided white noise because you don’t like white noise, give pink or brown a try. There are apps that let you mix your own sonic hue.
Determining which your baby prefers (rain, white noise machine, hairdryer, vacuum, pink noise from an app, etc) can take effort, so you may need to play around a bit in order to determine what works best for your little one. Take your time and follow your baby’s cue!
Using the wrong volume level
To soothe crying, the white noise needs to equal the intensity of the wails. A baby’s cries can top 100dB–for reference, a loud hair dryer is about 90dB. Thankfully for us parents, we will instinctively “shhh” a crying baby to match their level of crying and soothe. But when it comes to sleep, and using white noise machines as a substitute to manual “shushing,” some parents worry that the volume is too loud.
This is a valid concern. A 2014 study showed that white noise machines used for 8 continuous hours at a level of 85dB or higher may cause harm.
Fortunately, you can use white noise for sleep and not cause harm. Just check to make sure it’s lower than 85dB, or if you don’t know the decibels, make sure it’s no louder than the sound of the running water when you take a shower.
To effectively and safely use white noise for soothing, boost the volume levels based on your baby’s cries at bedtime or in the middle of the night. When your baby calms, lower the volume to about 65dB for the remainder of the night. To protect your baby’s hearing, we also recommend that you keep the white noise machine at least 7-10 feet away from their head.
Not using white noise often enough
Some parents use white noise overnight, but not for magical soothing during the day. If your baby enters a crying fit, try white noise to help with settling (especially helpful for newborns when coupled with swaddling and sucking). My first baby was partial to the hair dryer, on high. Admittedly I DO NOT miss those days.
You can also use it on roadtrips or if your baby gets fussy on the way to the grocery store. I listened to Harvey Karp’s white noise CD on a 6-hour trip to the mountains when my first was a baby. Pretty sure I had white noise nightmares after that, but at least I didn’t have any interstate roadside panic attacks from crying fits.
Or, for curious babies who can’t get through a feeding without becoming distracted, white noise keeps them on task (try going into a dark room too). Used this tactic with my first also. Wowzers. I’m realizing just how much I leaned on white noise back then. And that baby is almost 11 now and his hearing is so good that I swear he can hear me whisper from three rooms away. My second kid didn’t care about the sound machine one way or the other, but I still used it for nights and naps.
Definitely consider white (or brown or pink) noise for naps too! The continuous sound will muffle random noises. Remember: we process sensory stimuli even while sleeping, so don’t let those pets, siblings, chores or leafblowers ruin naptime.
You cannot train a baby to sleep through noises
How much noise disrupts your sleep is based on your unique temperament and sensory system.
I get this one all the time - “I don’t want to tiptoe around my house while my baby sleeps. They need to learn to sleep through the noisiness of our house.” Solidarity to you, dear parent! I feel you 100%! But, too bad for us parents, we can’t train our babies to sleep through loud noises. And this doesn’t change with practice.
How sensitive a baby is to sound stimuli is governed by their unique little temperament. For example, I kid you not that when one of my kids was two he slept through foundation work on our house that literally lifted the house and dropped it back down (safely). And loads of banging, hammering and drilling. It was construction site loud. But my other kid will wake up if a butterfly floats by his window.
Here’s a solution. Just use white noise. Or pink or brown if you prefer. You can invest in a white noise machine or just use one of many free apps. Neither of those options ideal? Grab a fan!
tl;dr
white noise helps humans sleep better (maybe dogs too?)
you can’t train someone to sleep through loud noises
try different white noises, or even pink noise, and observe your little one’s response.
make sure its below 85dB, or no louder than your shower
put the noise source at least 7 feet from your baby’s head
using white noise doesn’t mean your kid will never be able to sleep without it