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For novice parents, using white noise to stop babies crying is a very effective. Many American parents play it to help comfort their babies.
But at the same time, many remain skeptical of white noise: Is the effect of white noise really that magical? This article will examine the research on using relaxing sounds such as white noise to sooth babies. And how to make good use of white noise.
What is White Noise?
White noise is a monotonous and repetitive buzzing sound. Its power spectral density is evenly distributed in the entire frequency domain.
It means that the power of the frequency components in a sound is in the entire audible range (20～20000HZ). Simply put, it is the sound found in nature, soft, slight, and rhythmic. Such as the sound of raindrops, the croaking of frogs, waves, or the wind blowing in the woods. It is not just noise but a source of comfort for babies.
A study published by the Archives of Disease in Childhood in 1990 showed that white noise is helpful for babies’ sleep.
The researchers used 40 babies as a sample and found that 80% of the babies fell asleep within five minutes of listening to white noise.
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Why Does White Noise Helps Babies Fall Asleep?
1. White noise can mimic the noise of a mother’s uterus.
Parents may find white noise a very effective method of calming babies. Once babies are born they find themselves in a very different environment from the womb.
They may need a period of acclimation, and will often be made uneasy and irritable by the strange sounds of the “new world”. White noise can simulate the noise in the mother’s womb, allowing babies to calm down faster and fall asleep more easily. This is useful for newborn babies.
2. White noise can help shield babies from surrounding noise
In order to maintain a quiet sleeping environment, parents are often as stealthy as possible to no avail.
A knock on the door, the sound slippers, accidentally dropping something in the kitchen; it’s impossible to avoid all noises that can wake a baby. Some parents complain that their baby wakes up too easily.
This is actually the baby’s auditory alarm system, not the baby being “fussy”. Contrary to pink noise, white noise is designed to eliminate background noise and help babies sleep more soundly. In fact white noise can help regardless of age.
How Can You Correctly Use White Noise To Help Babies?
Although white noise is great, some parents also worried that white noise will have a negative impact which makes them afraid to use white noise to improve their babies’ sleep.
For example, many parents worry that the use of white noise long term will cause their baby to become dependent to the point of being unable to sleep without it.
In fact, for babies older than 4 months, it has almost no effect on reducing crying and promoting sleep. After this age, its main function is to help shield the baby from other noises.
In addition, after they have reached 1 year old, babies can easily adapt to their world and sleep without white noise.
So dependence is not an issue. As a way to help them adapt to the environment, it can reduced over time gradually.
Parents can star by lowering the volume after the baby has fallen asleep, and then over time turning it off completely.
Even still, research into white noise has occasionally shown that it can be harmful, despite helping babies fall asleep. So how can use white noise correctly?
The use of white noise should modify in terms of intensity, distance, and time.
Easy Guide to White Noise for Parents:
- Keep the noise around 50 decibels, which is normal sleeping volume. Parents can easily download an app that measures decibels on their mobile phones, in order to measure this.
- Turn it off only when their baby’s crying has calmed down (this method is not recommended for long-term use).
- Place it at a distance of 1 to 2 meters. Not right next to a baby’s crib or sleeping area.
- Use it for no more than 8 hours at a time, and shorter is better.
White Noise For Babies: Recommendations
- It should only use for children with sleeping difficulties. If your baby’s sleep is not bad, or their sleep problems are not driving you crazy. It might be best not to use white noise.
- Don’t use it as a tool to calm babies when the baby doesn’t actually need it.
- If you use a white noise machine, please use as low volume as possible. Only until the baby has fallen asleep. Don’t use it overnight.
A baby auditory system is an early warning system, and it works even when the baby sleeps.
If a certain seems out-of-place to them, it will cause their auditory system to alert and activate their brain. In other words, babies don’t suffer from insomnia just because of environmental noise, but also from sudden sound changes.
Take light as an analogy, if you use a flashlight in a dark room, everyone else can immediately see the light source.
But if the room is already very bright, you won’t immediately be aware of the light of the flashlight.
Because the original light in the room acts as a shield. In the same way, when using white noise to assist babies in sleeping, the principle of sound shielding is used.
By shielding sudden noise frequencies, instead of blocking noise entirely. This helps stop babies auditory system from alerting them, and helps promote sleep.
Try White Noise App For Babies
There are white noise websites, however, placing a laptop next to a baby’s bed is not the best solution, especially because of the blue light. White noise apps are designed to play only white noise without the disturbance of light or notifications. They are also more convenient and can be easily hidden next to a newborn’s crib.
The app ShutEye® come equipped with many white noise options as well as nature sounds and other soothing sleep aids. It also comes quipped with music, and additionally you can even mix your favorite music through custom functions.
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