What Does White Noise Sound Like and How Does It Help Babies Sleep?
When it comes to settling fussy babies and helping them sleep, white noise is pretty magical. White noise helps turn on your baby’s innate calming reflex, or their built-in “reset button” to calm crying and bring on sleep. But…what is white noise? Will you know it when you hear it?
White light is an equal mix of every color (i.e., all the frequency of light) and white noise is the sum total of all the frequencies the human ear can distinguish mashed together at the exact same intensity. The consistent staticky din of white noise creates a blanket of sound that not only masks other sounds…which can help babies, toddlers, everyone, fall asleep and stay asleep.
Difference between White Noise, Pink Noise and Brown Noise
It can even distract infants, so they pay less attention to mild internal discomforts, like some teething or mild hunger, further bolstering ZZZs. Think about it like this: When two people are talking at once, you can usually distinguish one voice and tune into what that person is saying. Now imagine everyone in the world talking at once. Your brain simply can’t pick out each voice…they blur together.
Research has shown that white noise can help 80% of infants fall asleep in just 5 minutes. Plus, the soothing sound significantly decreases the duration of crying and increases sleep in colicky babies, according to research in the Journal of Clinical Nursing. The icing on the cake: The American Academy of Pediatrics even recommends white noise to help improve Baby sleep.
This, of course, is why white noise (aka shushing) is an essential element of the incredibly helpful 5 S’s for soothing little ones.
White Noise vs. Other Sounds
Essentially, pink noise is a “cousin” to white noise. In brown noise the rumbles are dialed up even more and the high pitch ones dramatically lessened.
People tend to be a little fast and loose with the term “white noise machine,” but many of the bazillion white noise machines and apps feature sounds that aren’t white noise at all. White noise is not chirping birds, or crashing waves, or whale songs, or lullabies. White noise is a steady mix of rhythmic or continuous shushy sound. And the best white white noise to help babies sleep mimics the loud rumbly sounds they heard in the womb.
How to Use White Noise Effectively
The best volume for white noise depends if your baby is upset or not. If your little one is calm, tune your white noise machine to fall between about 57 decibels (the level of a whisper) and about 68 decibels (the level of singing a lullaby). But if your baby is crying, white noise needs to nearly match their volume in order to turn on their calming reflex.
While the decibel scale can be a little confusing, SNOO is not! It can be…if you’re using the right white noise sounds, like our pediatrician-designed SNOO sounds download. At the same time, white noise through a phone speaker sounds more hissy, which can sometimes be irritating to the listener. But keep in mind that phones release microwave radiation, so you need to put your phone on airplane mode if you place it near your baby.
When a portable white noise machine is needed, consider SNOObie, which features the same effective white noise sounds babies love in SNOO, plus a few extras. To start, simply play white noise in the background 30 to 60 minutes before your baby’s bedtime routine. After a short while, white noise will start to signal to Baby that their sleepytime is just moments away. This continues to work beautifully even after your baby’s calming reflex slowly disappears by 3 to 4 months.
Disclaimer: The information on our site is NOT medical advice for any specific person or condition. It is only meant as general information.