White noise for babies: what it is and how it works

He babies sleep, especially in the first months of life when it is more fragmented, can be a real headache for parents. One of the most popular methods of helping little ones get calm down and get to sleep more easily is the White noise.

What is white noise and what is it for?

He White noise It is a sound that contains all the frequencies audible by the human being that exist and, in addition, all of them with the same amplitude or power, in a harmonic and without any sound standing out above another.

That is, it is a type of sound that fill in the silencebut it remains in the background so as not to attract attention and it is for this reason that (at a low intensity) it is nice and relaxing to the human ear.

Examples of white noise are the sound of a untuned televisionthat of a dryera vaccum cleanerthe rainthe waves…

The use of white noise became popular after a study published in 1990 in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood Trusted Source which pointed out that it could be useful for sleep in newborns: Two groups of 20 newborns between 2 and 7 days old were compared and found that 80% of those who heard white noise fell asleep within 5 minutes, compared to 25% of those who did not hear any sound.

Benefits of white noise:

The main benefit of white noise for babies is that, as has been seen in some studies, it can help them fall asleep and reduce awakenings nocturnal In addition, it can also be useful for calm, reduce crying and help sleep to the colicky children.

However, and despite the positive experiences of many familiesthere are not many scientific studies on the benefits of white noise in babies and that is why the Clinical Practice Guide on Sleep Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence in Primary Care of the Ministry of Health indicates that, for now, “there is not enough evidence on efficacy and safety to recommend the use of white noise for the treatment of pediatric insomnia.”

White noise to put babies to sleep: how it works

There are several explanations for why white noise may be useful as a technique to soothe or help babies sleep:

One of them is that white noise hides the noises of the house (for example, the one that older siblings do) and makes it difficult for the baby to wake up at hear sudden sounds.Another explanation is that white noise can mask the baby’s own sounds. In this way, the baby stops hearing himself if he cries and, therefore, stops doing it. It is also speculated that white noise reminds babies of the sounds they heard when they were in the womb from their mother and that is why they find it relaxing.

How should white noise be used?

In recent years, the Internet has proliferated videos with white noise and there is even Applications for smartphones and specifically designed machines for use with babies.

Whichever device you use, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that the volume does not exceed 50 decibels (a noise level similar to that of a quiet dishwasher) and that the appliance emitting the white noise is 2 meters from the crib.

Disadvantages of white noise

Some pediatricians and sleep specialists recommend that the children’s sleep is natural, without conditionsand warn that constantly using white noise to make babies fall asleep it can cause them a kind of dependency and make them later unable to sleep without listening to it.

Also, some white noise devices can exceed recommended sound limits. This is the warning from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which in a 2014 study analyzed 14 devices of this type designed especially for babies and concluded that regular exposure to sounds that exceed the recommended 50 decibels can be harmful to hearing and increase the risk of language development problems.