Best White Noise Machines for Babies

Infants often find it challenging to achieve deep, restful sleep as they haven’t yet learned the art of sleeping soundly. Several common reasons contribute to their restlessness, including feelings of hunger, the discomfort of wet … Read more

Written by:

Derek

Last Updated: Tue, December 10, 2024

Infants often find it challenging to achieve deep, restful sleep as they haven’t yet learned the art of sleeping soundly. Several common reasons contribute to their restlessness, including feelings of hunger, the discomfort of wet diapers, the temperature of their room, and their overall surroundings. They require regular feedings, diaper changes, cuddling, and protection to stay serene. In the absence of these, parents often need to help their babies feel sleepy, which can be through establishing a sleep schedule or employing sleep training techniques like using devices that play lullabies, signaling it’s time to rest. In these scenarios, White Noise Machines for babies prove to be extremely useful.

It is important to gather more information before using any White Noise Machine to induce sleep among babies, and here’s what you need to know to understand it better.

Why Consider Using Sound Machines for Your Baby?

The white noise that the sleep machine emits serves to mask the other sound or noises that may naturally occur from the environment. Whether disruptive or not, this could hinder anyone from having a good sleep. The specific sound coming from a sleeping machine could be used to help reinforce the background regardless of environmental noises.

White noise is like a home to a baby because the womb has a deafening loud sound. And when they are born, it is uncomfortably quiet. The baby white noise mimics the sound supportive of a newborn’s needs. Studies have suggested that a baby whose age is less than one year should have loud white noise when they sleep because it is an effective and inexpensive sleep aid, as well as agreeable to implement.

Parents should always consider the sleeping hours needed by babies. The improper sleep or the lack thereof among infants causes them to be fussy, disagreeable, hyperactive, and behaviorally fluctuate. Furthermore, there are set of guidelines and recommendations for sleeping hours relevant to babies age group:

Newborns should sleep up to 18 hours per day
1 – 2 months can sleep 4-5 hours straight
3 – 6 months should sleep at night with a range of 8-9 hours plus short daytime naps
6 – 12 months should have a total of 14 hours of sleep with 2-3 naps during the day.

It should alarm parents if their child is not able to get the recommended sleep that they need as stipulated in the above-enumerated total of sleeping hours. That is why; using a sleep machine could help parents suffice the sleeping needs of their babies. When using the white noise, however, special considerations and specifications of the product must be considered. It includes the volume of the white sound and the duration of its use. Babies shouldn’t be subjected to white noise for far too long a period or in a manner too loud. There are underlying pros and cons for its usage and knowing it will be helpful indeed.

How Do White Noise Affects Your Babies

……When using a sleep noise for babies, these are the following benefits that you could anticipate for your baby. These are the proven and tested advantages that white noise could offer but not limited to the following:

Reduction of stress to babies

Babies get easily stressed when they are in an uncomfortable environment. They get irritated of the people surrounding them, and they get tired and weary. It is for this reason that white noise becomes handy in the creation of safe spaces for babies. It will block out the simulations that cause them to be weary by the minute.

Shush the baby

While letting a baby cry is healthy to an extent, persistent crying is harmful. The white noise machine produces a shushing sound for the baby that calms him or her down. Parents are correct in using this sound because the music is similar to the whooshing sound made by blood flowing through the arteries around the uterus.

Using white noise shush sound to calm babies needs to be louder than baby’s cry so that it could penetrate above his call. However, sustaining a shushing sound is challenging. So, the use of a white noise machine can be an outsource sound to help you support the music if you feel dizzy or uncomfortable.

Assist babies to sleep tightly

If you could observe, your baby will get awake after 20 minutes of nap. It is because babies have sleep arousals that are usually about 20-45 minutes. The moment a baby hits his sleeping arousal at the 20-minute mark, the baby gets a hard time to fall back into a deeper sleep, thus, leaving the nap over. With the use of white noise, it can help babies maneuver their sleep arousal to get longer. At the same time, it can block the sound they hear, any disruptive noise that can interfere with their naps and night sleep.

Lowers the risk of SIDS

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS is an unexplained death among babies usually during a night of sleep. The chances of losing a baby from SIDS is high as it becomes common. Some studies suggest how the use of a white noise machine is a smart move to reduce the risk of SIDS. There are two contending reasons for this: the fan circulates the air, and it generates white noise. SIDS occurs when the sleep state of a baby becomes an active sleep.

Reminders in Using the White Noise Machine for the First Time

Upon finally deciding to use a white noise machine and have bought one for your baby, the proper and rightful use of the device should be followed to withdraw the baby from any unlikely circumstance. Thus, the following are the suggested procedure upon using it:

Turn on the white noise machine to start. Ideally, when using it for the first time, it should work at the lowest volume. Do not exceed the maximum decibel level. The hospital nurseries usually suggest a limit of 50 A-weighted dB for infants.
Place the white noise machine near the crib. Do not put it inside the crib because any item inside can be hazardous for babies. Remember that it is seriously a bad idea to put the machine next to a child. It is advised to distance the device 7 feet or 200 cm away from the baby’s crib.
Make sure to play a variety of sounds because babies react to different music they hear. If possible, lower rhythmic should be used with no loops. Failure to do so can have an opposite intended effect to babies because it might arouse them to full wakefulness or being restless.

The point of using the white noise machine is to give babies a chance to put themselves into a tight sleep and sleep-train them after all. If you have used it other than its recommended usage and purpose, it may not be practical to the needs of the baby. Thus, it could be neither helpful in the long run for deep slumber.

Know more about the Advantages and Disadvantages of using these products

The doctors have made a significant consensus on how a low-pitched type of white noise can provide the most sleep-boosting benefits for babies and sleep-deprived parents. The use of white noise may induce sleep to your baby, but it is essential to take a look at both pros and cons before you decide to make this as a tool for your baby’s sleep.

Advantages

Babies may fall asleep better and faster with white noise as the background.
White noise can block disruptive noise which could affect the sleeping time of babies.
Some white noise sound mimics the heartbeat of a mother which is comforting for newborns.

Disadvantages

Potential development problems which include language and speech.
Increased potential of hearing problems if the parent exceeds the recommended decibel upon sleeping.
It may cause auditory processing problems because of the soothing sound which may impair the development in the hearing centers of the brain.
Babies might be reliant on white noise as a sleeping prop and will sooner find it difficult to sleep without it.
Some babies become irritated with white noise.

Safety and Precautions

White noise is quite safe for a baby as long as it not overdone but precautionarily used. It is necessary not to play your sound machine too loud for the baby. As the cons of the product suggest, do not use it in a prolonged period and without any breaks.

Furthermore, these are the tips for safe use of white noise sleep machines:

– Place the device away from your baby, as mentioned in the proper usage of the sleeping device towards babies while sleeping.

– Never put the machine in the cot or even attach it to the cot rail.

– Play a sound on the lowest volume with a short duration of time, if possible.

– Turn off the device once your baby has fallen asleep.

– To make sure that your baby will not get dependent on the white noise machine, weaning off can be possible by turning the volume down a little every night until you will not use the sound at all while the baby is sleeping.

– Select the right white noise for your baby.

The given tips are likely to prevent babies from any adverse circumstance which may occur while using the white noise machine. At the same time, it serves as a guide for parents to moderately use the machine and prevent the cons from happening. Thus, once you have built the condition for sleep towards for the baby, it is easier for him or her to maintain a sound sleep in the long run or after several usages of the white noise machine.