What does white noise do?

Quite often parents think that white noise is meant to calm your baby down and help them sleep. While it can be true for the babies in the 4th trimester, generally, it's not the purpose of the white noise.

Although it can help you improve the quality if your sleep in a different way.

The primary purpose of white noise is to block out other noises that can be disrupting little one's sleep. If you live on a busy road or have any other external noises, that can be disrupting you sleep, then it is worth giving white noise a go. But there are a few things you need to know in order to make the most out of it.

What external noises you should keep an eye on?

Sometimes we can be unaware of what is keeping our baby up. It could be noisy neighbours, bin collectors in the early hours of the morning, or pets. While some might be obvious (such as the bin collectors), it is also worth noting that such small things as parents alarm clock in the other room might also be enough to wake your baby up.

Why is does my baby wake up?

Noises are not the only reason babies would wake up at night. Keeping them warm and comfortable is also just as important. Why not shop our Organic Sleep clothes range to find out perfect fit.

Mistake no 1: Not using it continuously

There are a lot of products on the market which play white noise for a certain period of time (20-40 minutes). In order to be effective white noise has to be played continuously overnight, and in this case such toys are not fit for purpose. It is best to opt out for a white noise machine. A lot of them would offer a variety of sounds, but don't get side-tracked. You should use a "boring" white/pink/brown etc noise.

These machines usually also come with an option of playing the sound continuously, which would save a trip to the nursery in the middle of the night.

What white noise machine is best to buy?

There is a very big selection of those machines and they pretty much are all fit for purpose. I personally use the DreamEgg for our daughter, and they have a portable version which you can use for naps on the go if needed.

Why does it have to be continuous?

Baby sleep cycles last around 45 minutes. So if your baby fell asleep with a certain sound, they will need the same sound in order to resettle for the next sleep cycle. If the white noise switches off 20 minutes after bedtime it means by the time your baby transitions to the next cycle it will be off. Which can make them easily distressed.

Mistake no 2: Using nature sounds as white noise

A lot of parents tend to think that white noise is supposed to calm their baby. As mentioned above I think it comes through all marketing tricks, making you believe that white noise has capability to soothe your baby.

As we’ve already established the white noise is used to block out external sounds. As a result all other nature sounds are incapable of performing such a job, so it’s not going of be of any use when trying to improve sleep.

Mistake no 3: Wrong location

In order to be efficient and block the noise on its way in, white noise machine has to be placed at the source/entry point to the room. If the noise is coming from the street, place the machine on the windowsill. If the source is coming from inside (pets, TV or other household noises), best to put the machine next to the bedroom door. If you do not feel confident leaving the machine inside the bedroom, you can also opt out for placing it joust outside the bedroom door in this case.

You can run a test the volume while you are inside the room if you choose to put the machine in the nursery. While it is important to keep it at a reasonable level not to damage little ears, the white noise has to be loud enough to block out the nuisance.

Have you been making any of these mistakes?

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