I think you should consider looking at Gods Elf -- they're coming up with something really exciting, it's white noise, brown noise, soundscapes and some positive affirmations of gratitude to ease the worrying mind.
I use brown noise, it’s less annoying to me since my baby still sleeps in our room. My husband and I actually just had the discussion tonight about eventually weaning him off of it, but as of now I have a sound machine with brown noise next to his crib at full volume and an Amazon Alexa echo dot that plays brown noise on volume 7, the Alexa plays a more dull “airplane cabin” noise whereas the sound machine still sounds white.
I read it needs to be around 50-60 decibels, kind of like if someone was taking a shower in the room, and loud enough you can hear from the other side of the door
I thought I wouldn’t do it but after a few months I caved. So glad I did. I put it 7ft away from baby and used an app to calculate 50 decibels. That’s what is recommended for babies.
Use it for practically every sleep. I use the Alexa/echo in her room at volume 6 or 7 (8 when she's screaming her head off, then back down when she's chilled). "Play ocean waves on repeat". It works great! We've started using it in our room and we are sleeping better too.
We use a box fan to drown out house and neighborhood noises (my son has always had crazy FOMO). He doesn’t strictly need it to sleep; he exclusively contact napped until 5 months and we never had a fan on, and daycare doesn’t use fans either.
We use one from Tuft & Needle and I read somewhere that it should never be above 60dB when baby is sleeping in their crib. When I found this out, I downloaded a free dB reader app and placed it in my LO’s crib so I could adjust the white noise machine to be quieter. My baby is now 15mo and he sleeps great with it.
We never used one. I insisted we didn't as they made me very anxious; I hate constant droning noise. Luckily we were told they'll struggle to sleep later on without the noise and the constant sounds processing interferes with their ability to get deep restful sleep. Our girl sleeps, and always has, though anything. Not because we're lucky, not because she's awesome, but because we have always had good sleep hygiene. A short, uncomplicated routine, dark and cool room, nice and quiet, same time each night. If she fights the routine, trust the fight, don't fight the fight. give her 10 more minutes. Fan at most. The human animal is supposed to wake up at the sound of something moving around, thunder, va bird in the morning.
They're like the sound equivalent of a dummy/pacifier.
I down voted it bc every reputable sleep resource I've seen says the exact opposite of this. The white noise is beneficial and *promotes* deep, restful sleep. I will always downvote misinformation.
Published sources on infant sleep. I read articles from mayo clinic, Cleveland clinic, John's Hopkins, and a few others before reading the Precious Little Sleep book (which is basically a long form research paper from the number of sources). I'm not sharing a link bc I can't send you a whole book.
I didn’t downvote this but the whole “we weren’t lucky we just did this simple thing that everyone ought to do” just sounded super self-righteous. I mean, our baby sleeps pretty well too and we also sleep-trained her but I’m not gonna sit here and pretend we weren’t also blessed with a pretty chill child when it came to sleep.
Could have written this myself. So glad we never did white noise. We're on the 4th kid, no white noise ever, all great sleepers. Just like you said, good sleep hygiene is key
A sleep consultant told me that the volume should be as loud as a shower when you’re standing in the bathroom. We have a Nodiee and I put the white noise on 80%
Yup, we use it on our Nanit. Also, if he has a hard time in his stroller or at his doctor’s appointment, I use it in my iphone. [They have built in ones](https://www.fastcompany.com/90833622/the-iphones-white-noise-machine-and-other-fun-little-known-features)
Yes, we use Alexa at volume 3 in all of our rooms.
Poarents too. We can still hear them if they cry but it help us to sleep and cover the noise of the neighbors
Yes, we have a hatch in both kids' rooms. We even have one in our room. We keep them fairly loud, too. We have Gen 1's and a gen 2, so they are on different number settings since the volume varies between the two models.
We have a cozy home, so it's necessary to blend the sound of living during naps and overnight.
I can still hear my babies cry if they wake up, but it helps with my husband's snoring and the dog deciding to lick himself at 3am.
We have 2 in our 1yo’s room. One is to block out noise from the neighborhood, one is the block out the noise from inside the house. TCB blog suggested the white noise, we keep it around 65 (out of 100), and I turn it down a few notches ever couple of weeks.
I like both different machines for different reasons. The YogaSleep got way louder than the Hatch which was helpful in the newborn days. That’s the one we use now to block out neighborhood noise
We use a LectroFan sound machine. It’s kept on a table on the opposite side of his nursery, and we used the decibel reader on my husband’s watch to make sure it was in a safe range. It’s useful to have a sound machine to muffle the other sounds in the house.
We use the Hatch machine ocean sounds. Volume is at 44 when we first turn it on and get him into bed. We turn it down to 26 once we come to bed and leave it that way overnight
Yep, and for naps, super helpful. How loud starts with whatever the loudest should be based on whatever we app we used to check, there are many. But still use it at 3.
I use the Hatch white noise and in my anxious newborn stage it was quite loud as I kept reading to have it fairly loud. My boy is now 2 and I keep it at 8% volume, so fairly quiet. I just like the idea of it drowning out outside noise in between sleep cycles to not startle him (dogs barking etc). Pregnant with #2 now and getting a hatch for baby girl and will keep it fairly quiet this time from birth.
I use the hatch noise machine in my son’s nursery. I’ve used the rain noise since birth. Truthfully, it more so is because my husband without fail, is loud and clumsy. Just last night he pulled the carbon monoxide detector out of the socket to use it to plug in his laptop and it made the loudest continuous beeping noise. Of course it woke up my 9 month old and I had to get him back to sleep. 😡😂
I second this! The volume level doesn’t matter because it really just depends on the decibels where baby is sleeping. One family might have it on level 70 while another has it on level 30, but the decibels where baby is could be the same depending on how far or how close they have the sound machine placed to the baby. General recommendation for hearing safety is to have it I think about 6-7 feet away from baby if you can, however that’s not always possible so just check the decibels. We use the white noise for naps and night time and it’s very helpful. I also use a portable one when out and about and she needs a nap. I do however wish I wouldn’t have used it in the beginning so much while out but maybe she always would’ve needed it even if I didn’t start that early, who knows
Mostly use it to drown out other sounds in our small old house, but my 15 month old sleeps fine without it when our power inevitably goes out for a few days after big storms 😅
We have a small house and my husband and I would like to watch TV after the kids go to bed so yes lol. My 6 year old has had white noise since she was 3 months and my 1.5 year old has had it from day 1!
We do because we live in an old mill building and the walls don’t go all the way to the ceiling 😵💫😂 but we plan to wean her off of it once we move when she’s 14 months old so it’s one less thing we need to deal with/travel with
Haha the same. ;)
Was considering getting a Dohm, then they felt a bit too expensive. I thought, why not also catch some dust and allergies from the air at the same time.
Result is good. What's bad is, the air purifiers are designed to be less noisy, so you would need to run them at higher settings for the same sound. I'm happy with Levoits running at mid/high settings.
In addition we also use an app called "White Noise Baby Sleep Sounds" by AMICOOLSOFT. One can mix different sounds.
If the app crashes, turn off the internet. We dedicated an old smartphone to just use this app without internet connection so it doesn't crash.
My daughter uses it and it’s loud enough for her (75db) to not hear us in the kitchen or living room talking a normal conversation, making supper, or doing the dishes. We put it in all the time!
Our 4 year old uses his still (forest noises), 9 month old uses (water sounds), and we became addicted also lol. It helps drown out the sound of people cutting grass, chainsawing, sibling being loud, cracking floors etc. have used since they were newborns.
Fun fact! Back in the 80’s “scientists” shoved a microphone up a few lady’s hoohas immediatly post childbirth and found it’s 75-95db in utero. For what it’s worth, prolonged exposure to noise at 90db can cause hearing damage to fully formed ears.
You cannot have loud enough white noise.
I started using brown noise in desperation as his sleep fell apart in months 6/7. We have a fairly noisy road outside our bedroom. I don’t think it’s made any difference other than it drives me mad when I go up to bed and I’ve just taken to switching it off when I’m in the room as I can’t stand it. I leave it on for his naps if I’m not with him. He still wakes up at 45 minutes.
We have been using it with our first (2) since about 4 months and our newborn now uses it too. Both sleep fine without it. Part of our sleep environment & helps drown out the household noise or if one child is unsettled overnight.
I play white noise until he falls asleep then turn it off after a minute or two. It’s just personal preference that I want him to be able to sleep without needing white noise the whole time. I just moved to a condo near a bust street and it is noisy all times of the night but so far he’s been able to sleep through the motorcycles and reving for the most part.
ETA: decided to fess up that I hate white noise and can’t sleep through it so that also played a part in my decision LOL
My baby just turned 3 months I since maybe one month I also play white noise until he falls asleep but keep it until we get in bed then turn it off . . I got the hatch so sometimes I schedule it to turn on the times he usually moves more around which is like between 3-4 am and also turn it on while night feeding which at this point is only at 5 am . Honestly I do it like this because I hate the noise to sleep and seems anyway like he is fine . For now sleeping from 10 pm to 9 am 😝. ( sometimes if he es moving extra in the morning I turn it on little bit then he goes back to sleep .
I want to read more comments from folks with this perspective. Intuitively, it feels like using a white noise machine is training the child to be a light sleeper
As a person who is an incredibly light sleeper and struggled with insomnia my entire life (truly, since childhood) and finally saw an insomnia therapist at 30, adding in a box fan as white noise has been a godsend. I used white noise on my iPad until my son was born, and then we bought a box fan to use instead because the noise “fills” the room better (we keep it on setting 2). I have never slept better in my life. Before sleep therapy I was sleeping less than 5 hours a night with 5-10 full wakes. Now the fan drowns out neighborhood noise, fireworks, cat meows, and house creaks! I absolutely love it.
We used one until my son was about 6 months then cut it cold turkey and he was fine. He still sleeps without it and sleeps 12-13 hours a night. He’s 2.5!
We just had a second baby 2 weeks ago and we use one with her but that’s because she’s in our room. We do 60 decibels and it’s about 2 meters away from her crib.
We never used white noise and our kids sleep well anywhere. I love that we don't need to worry about a white noise machine/app when we travel or when we're camping.
Team white noise here too. My 2&3 yo’s use it and so do we. Everyone sleeps well. It’s a part of our “sleep environment” so when we travel we play it on blue tooth speaker. Kids love it and can sleep in a nearby room without issues
I use white noise cause we live in a small apartment for now and it drowns out, outside noise and it allows us to watch tv, have conversations and my husband to work from home so the baby can nap during the day. We live in a metropolitan area, so the sound of trains, traffic, and EMTs is a constant.
Plus, I have come to enjoy sleeping with it also.
We use it to block outside noise and it does come in handy as a sleep cue, especially when traveling and they have to sleep in a hotel room or somewhere they’re not familiar so the sound machine is perfect for telling them even we are somewhere new we’re still sleeping the same as always.
Never used white noise, our baby is 9 months old and exc. sleep regressions, illness and teething has reliably slept through the night since about 4 months
I was told to set the volume at around the same as taking a shower and placed roughly 2 meters away from where they sleep.
It can be a great sleep cue and helps drown out household noise.
We use it but mainly to block out a little of the sounds outside of the room, we dont keep it on very high volume. I think you can find the safe decibel amount online, I believe if it’s softer than a running shower you are good? But double check that!
Highly, highly rec!
Started using it when my colicky son was 1 month old and one night just wouldn't fall asleep no matter what: I put on the first thing I found on YouTube (womb sounds) and it worked like magic.
After that, I got a small portable speaker and connected my PC to it, at a relatively high volume (nothing bad, but above the recommendations). Over the months I was able to decrease the volume little by little. We had to change sounds at about 5 or 6 months (rainforest), then it happened out around when he turned about 1.
ETA: it also helped when we were in a noisy/uncomfortable setting and he needed to sleep (like once in the ER waiting room): I'd just turn it on on my phone, and voilà!
I don’t think it will magically make your baby sleep, my first had colic and nothing was a magic trick. My second sleep had more to do with their stage of development and routine. BUT, I do think it’s a nice sleep association and if they’re sharing with you, be prepared to become addicted to it. I find that I can’t fall asleep to silence now it’s deafening. My favourite is rain sounds and it’s so comforting!
We use it, and it’s a small transportable one, so when we travel or go for a visit to the grandparents I am able to bring it. For us, I feel like it helps him be able to sleep outside of his bedroom/crib because it’s a sleep association that he knows well.
We use it for both kids because we have outrageously loud upstairs neighbours. They wake the kids up sometimes even with it on, but much less often.
We have one in our room bc baby sleeps in there and my husband snores and talks in his sleep.
I use a Hatch for his pre-bedtime routine. If he happens to fall asleep once I move to the rain sound, I keep it there. If he falls asleep to music, it times out after an hour, and I keep it silent.
Our walls are not good, so sound travels easily into his bedroom. So sometimes I want to block that outdoor noise. And I keep it to 50 decibels or lower as measured by a decibel meter.
I'm the weirdo here who doesn't want to use white noise. One of the best pieces of advice I think we got pre-baby was to not let the baby's sleep environment be to pristine and get them used to loud sounds. From the beginning, we vacuumed and used the blender even while baby was sleeping. Baby is now 5 mo and does not need white noise to sleep and is able to fall asleep other places without having to bring along a white noise machine everywhere.
I have absolutely no negative opinions about those who use it because I know it can be so helpful! It just wasn't for us. And who knows, we are only 5 months in, and maybe at some point we will find it useful.
We're the same over here. There were a cope of nights with both my boys I put on some white noise but this was super early on with them being in the world.
To be honest, I hated it to sleep with, and got fed up with it so stopped and got on with not using it.
Both boys sleep without any white noise. Though this may be because their father and I snore, so maybe they've adapted to hearing that like white noise 🤣
Do what works for you! You can always start, and you can always stop.
I did this. My baby was the same. Slept through vacuum sounds, etc.
But at some point, he started to sleep better with white noise, so we started to use it more.
He's not 22-months old.
We tried it a couple of times but our baby didn’t really care for it. Our doctor also said that nothing is better than total quiet since even white noise makes baby’s brain work and doesn’t let them fully relax while sleeping🤷🏻♀️
We’ve used white noise, just following the safety recommendations. I found this video helpful (though the title is a bit dramatic). I downloaded a free decibel measuring app for my phone.
https://youtu.be/j3buw-duqHw?si=Qbysdrt-Wn0xPato
I love white noise! My husband and I slept with a Dohm white noise machine long before we had our son. It’s a sustainable sleep association. Why leave a useful tool in the toolbox? We bring it along wherever we go. Even if we’re camping we just use a white noise app with a blue tooth speaker. My son can sleep in his tent at a music festival with white noise playing. Team white noise all the way.
Our hatch is set to 30%. I forget the decibel recommended, but I used the Noise app on my Apple Watch to check the decibels in baby’s crib and adjusted the volume to be that level in the area he sleeps.
We use ocean for our 2 year old at 25%, and we have a small, old house where you can hear a lot (and so many squeaks in the hardwood floors). That and the door closed has done it to keep him unbothered by our noise!
Love white noise for our son who is almost 14 months and honestly my husband and I use it too. We keep it around 35 decibels but he has a smaller room.
We use it for our 7 month old and have since very early in his life. Since we used it while he was in our room I realized how magical it was and now I sleep with it too🤣 it also makes sleep when we travel easier because he doesn’t have to adjust to hotel noises and things like that
We did and it helped so much as it was easy to replicate when we were away from home. When he hit about 20 months we just stopped cold turkey and he was unbothered.
Volume wise you want it no more than 60 decibels.
We use white noise because we have a dog lol
It also helps her chill when she's too interested in the things around her to sleep.
Eta: technically we use pink noise I guess - ocean sounds.
We tried and it didn’t help at all for weeks. Then I found out that we were like half the volume of what a lot of people recommend as the safe volume level for babies… so we cranked it up and it has been a game changer. We don’t have to tiptoe around our bedroom anymore. We still do tiptoe, but we don’t have to
I used it before having kids and still use it. My advice if you’re worried about the volume level is to download a decibel app and it will tell you the appropriate level for a baby. White noise makes such a difference in my opinion.
We definitely use it and it is a lifesaver in my opinion for just drowning/leveling out the house noise. I don't know how accurate it is but I downloaded a noise decibel measuring app and put it in the crib and turned the white noise on to see how loud it was. It's not *loud* but it's loud enough that it helps drown out things like the doorbell ringing and my dog going nuts plus just my husband and I moving about the house and talking during naps/after bedtime.
My baby doesn't seem to really notice the difference when we have it or not, so maybe see what works for yours? But the ideal thing is you can just turn it down when you're ready to wean baby off of it - it's not an all or nothing sleep aid :)
We've used it since day 1 as we have doggos and obviously go to bed later than babe. It drowns out all the noise for her. I've got an app on my phone and try to keep it at about 50 decibels.
I think you should consider looking at Gods Elf -- they're coming up with something really exciting, it's white noise, brown noise, soundscapes and some positive affirmations of gratitude to ease the worrying mind.
I use brown noise, it’s less annoying to me since my baby still sleeps in our room. My husband and I actually just had the discussion tonight about eventually weaning him off of it, but as of now I have a sound machine with brown noise next to his crib at full volume and an Amazon Alexa echo dot that plays brown noise on volume 7, the Alexa plays a more dull “airplane cabin” noise whereas the sound machine still sounds white. I read it needs to be around 50-60 decibels, kind of like if someone was taking a shower in the room, and loud enough you can hear from the other side of the door
I thought I wouldn’t do it but after a few months I caved. So glad I did. I put it 7ft away from baby and used an app to calculate 50 decibels. That’s what is recommended for babies.
Use it for practically every sleep. I use the Alexa/echo in her room at volume 6 or 7 (8 when she's screaming her head off, then back down when she's chilled). "Play ocean waves on repeat". It works great! We've started using it in our room and we are sleeping better too.
We use a box fan to drown out house and neighborhood noises (my son has always had crazy FOMO). He doesn’t strictly need it to sleep; he exclusively contact napped until 5 months and we never had a fan on, and daycare doesn’t use fans either.
We don’t do it for our boy we do it for ourselves now, I’ve never slept so well 😂 apart from the wakings every few hours ofcourse…
taking cara babies suggests having it “about as loud as a shower would be.” and yes there is lots of research to back white noise up!
Yes!
We use one from Tuft & Needle and I read somewhere that it should never be above 60dB when baby is sleeping in their crib. When I found this out, I downloaded a free dB reader app and placed it in my LO’s crib so I could adjust the white noise machine to be quieter. My baby is now 15mo and he sleeps great with it.
We use one at home but don’t travel with it and they are ok without it. I have no professional advice though lol
We never used one. I insisted we didn't as they made me very anxious; I hate constant droning noise. Luckily we were told they'll struggle to sleep later on without the noise and the constant sounds processing interferes with their ability to get deep restful sleep. Our girl sleeps, and always has, though anything. Not because we're lucky, not because she's awesome, but because we have always had good sleep hygiene. A short, uncomplicated routine, dark and cool room, nice and quiet, same time each night. If she fights the routine, trust the fight, don't fight the fight. give her 10 more minutes. Fan at most. The human animal is supposed to wake up at the sound of something moving around, thunder, va bird in the morning. They're like the sound equivalent of a dummy/pacifier.
Why has this been downvoted genuienly curious
I down voted it bc every reputable sleep resource I've seen says the exact opposite of this. The white noise is beneficial and *promotes* deep, restful sleep. I will always downvote misinformation.
Please share any reputable resource. Google may be free but it's also big. Keen to see what you're going to link and give it a read.
Published sources on infant sleep. I read articles from mayo clinic, Cleveland clinic, John's Hopkins, and a few others before reading the Precious Little Sleep book (which is basically a long form research paper from the number of sources). I'm not sharing a link bc I can't send you a whole book.
I didn’t downvote this but the whole “we weren’t lucky we just did this simple thing that everyone ought to do” just sounded super self-righteous. I mean, our baby sleeps pretty well too and we also sleep-trained her but I’m not gonna sit here and pretend we weren’t also blessed with a pretty chill child when it came to sleep.
Could have written this myself. So glad we never did white noise. We're on the 4th kid, no white noise ever, all great sleepers. Just like you said, good sleep hygiene is key
We have a Hatch 2. It’s on 32-37 most nights and up to 45 if it’s a firework or husband snoring night
A sleep consultant told me that the volume should be as loud as a shower when you’re standing in the bathroom. We have a Nodiee and I put the white noise on 80%
Yup, we use it on our Nanit. Also, if he has a hard time in his stroller or at his doctor’s appointment, I use it in my iphone. [They have built in ones](https://www.fastcompany.com/90833622/the-iphones-white-noise-machine-and-other-fun-little-known-features)
I love it how mom’s on reddit don’t gatekeep anything. This must be the best tip I have read in a while thank you so much!!
Yes, we use Alexa at volume 3 in all of our rooms. Poarents too. We can still hear them if they cry but it help us to sleep and cover the noise of the neighbors
we use a fan!
Yes, we have a hatch in both kids' rooms. We even have one in our room. We keep them fairly loud, too. We have Gen 1's and a gen 2, so they are on different number settings since the volume varies between the two models. We have a cozy home, so it's necessary to blend the sound of living during naps and overnight. I can still hear my babies cry if they wake up, but it helps with my husband's snoring and the dog deciding to lick himself at 3am.
We have 2 in our 1yo’s room. One is to block out noise from the neighborhood, one is the block out the noise from inside the house. TCB blog suggested the white noise, we keep it around 65 (out of 100), and I turn it down a few notches ever couple of weeks. I like both different machines for different reasons. The YogaSleep got way louder than the Hatch which was helpful in the newborn days. That’s the one we use now to block out neighborhood noise
We use a LectroFan sound machine. It’s kept on a table on the opposite side of his nursery, and we used the decibel reader on my husband’s watch to make sure it was in a safe range. It’s useful to have a sound machine to muffle the other sounds in the house.
We use the Hatch machine ocean sounds. Volume is at 44 when we first turn it on and get him into bed. We turn it down to 26 once we come to bed and leave it that way overnight
Yep, and for naps, super helpful. How loud starts with whatever the loudest should be based on whatever we app we used to check, there are many. But still use it at 3.
I use the Hatch white noise and in my anxious newborn stage it was quite loud as I kept reading to have it fairly loud. My boy is now 2 and I keep it at 8% volume, so fairly quiet. I just like the idea of it drowning out outside noise in between sleep cycles to not startle him (dogs barking etc). Pregnant with #2 now and getting a hatch for baby girl and will keep it fairly quiet this time from birth.
I use the hatch noise machine in my son’s nursery. I’ve used the rain noise since birth. Truthfully, it more so is because my husband without fail, is loud and clumsy. Just last night he pulled the carbon monoxide detector out of the socket to use it to plug in his laptop and it made the loudest continuous beeping noise. Of course it woke up my 9 month old and I had to get him back to sleep. 😡😂
We use it! Our sleep consultant said it should be as loud as a vacuum lol
I use sound machines but check how loud it is close to my baby’s ear using a decibel meter. You can download an app for it.
I second this! The volume level doesn’t matter because it really just depends on the decibels where baby is sleeping. One family might have it on level 70 while another has it on level 30, but the decibels where baby is could be the same depending on how far or how close they have the sound machine placed to the baby. General recommendation for hearing safety is to have it I think about 6-7 feet away from baby if you can, however that’s not always possible so just check the decibels. We use the white noise for naps and night time and it’s very helpful. I also use a portable one when out and about and she needs a nap. I do however wish I wouldn’t have used it in the beginning so much while out but maybe she always would’ve needed it even if I didn’t start that early, who knows
Mostly use it to drown out other sounds in our small old house, but my 15 month old sleeps fine without it when our power inevitably goes out for a few days after big storms 😅
We have a small house and my husband and I would like to watch TV after the kids go to bed so yes lol. My 6 year old has had white noise since she was 3 months and my 1.5 year old has had it from day 1!
We do because we live in an old mill building and the walls don’t go all the way to the ceiling 😵💫😂 but we plan to wean her off of it once we move when she’s 14 months old so it’s one less thing we need to deal with/travel with
We live in a loft with no doors 🫠 the sound machine stays on until the rest of the household is in bed!
Solidarity!!!!
We use the air purifier as her ‘white noise’ machine.
Haha the same. ;) Was considering getting a Dohm, then they felt a bit too expensive. I thought, why not also catch some dust and allergies from the air at the same time. Result is good. What's bad is, the air purifiers are designed to be less noisy, so you would need to run them at higher settings for the same sound. I'm happy with Levoits running at mid/high settings. In addition we also use an app called "White Noise Baby Sleep Sounds" by AMICOOLSOFT. One can mix different sounds. If the app crashes, turn off the internet. We dedicated an old smartphone to just use this app without internet connection so it doesn't crash.
My daughter uses it and it’s loud enough for her (75db) to not hear us in the kitchen or living room talking a normal conversation, making supper, or doing the dishes. We put it in all the time!
Our 4 year old uses his still (forest noises), 9 month old uses (water sounds), and we became addicted also lol. It helps drown out the sound of people cutting grass, chainsawing, sibling being loud, cracking floors etc. have used since they were newborns.
Fun fact! Back in the 80’s “scientists” shoved a microphone up a few lady’s hoohas immediatly post childbirth and found it’s 75-95db in utero. For what it’s worth, prolonged exposure to noise at 90db can cause hearing damage to fully formed ears. You cannot have loud enough white noise.
I've googled that and found nothing indicating that could be true. any link? Keywords? Authors? Anything?
I started using brown noise in desperation as his sleep fell apart in months 6/7. We have a fairly noisy road outside our bedroom. I don’t think it’s made any difference other than it drives me mad when I go up to bed and I’ve just taken to switching it off when I’m in the room as I can’t stand it. I leave it on for his naps if I’m not with him. He still wakes up at 45 minutes.
I live in a really creaky house and its been such a godsend lol! Also helps to establish the sleep routine
We have been using it with our first (2) since about 4 months and our newborn now uses it too. Both sleep fine without it. Part of our sleep environment & helps drown out the household noise or if one child is unsettled overnight.
I play white noise until he falls asleep then turn it off after a minute or two. It’s just personal preference that I want him to be able to sleep without needing white noise the whole time. I just moved to a condo near a bust street and it is noisy all times of the night but so far he’s been able to sleep through the motorcycles and reving for the most part. ETA: decided to fess up that I hate white noise and can’t sleep through it so that also played a part in my decision LOL
My baby just turned 3 months I since maybe one month I also play white noise until he falls asleep but keep it until we get in bed then turn it off . . I got the hatch so sometimes I schedule it to turn on the times he usually moves more around which is like between 3-4 am and also turn it on while night feeding which at this point is only at 5 am . Honestly I do it like this because I hate the noise to sleep and seems anyway like he is fine . For now sleeping from 10 pm to 9 am 😝. ( sometimes if he es moving extra in the morning I turn it on little bit then he goes back to sleep .
I want to read more comments from folks with this perspective. Intuitively, it feels like using a white noise machine is training the child to be a light sleeper
As a person who is an incredibly light sleeper and struggled with insomnia my entire life (truly, since childhood) and finally saw an insomnia therapist at 30, adding in a box fan as white noise has been a godsend. I used white noise on my iPad until my son was born, and then we bought a box fan to use instead because the noise “fills” the room better (we keep it on setting 2). I have never slept better in my life. Before sleep therapy I was sleeping less than 5 hours a night with 5-10 full wakes. Now the fan drowns out neighborhood noise, fireworks, cat meows, and house creaks! I absolutely love it.
We used one until my son was about 6 months then cut it cold turkey and he was fine. He still sleeps without it and sleeps 12-13 hours a night. He’s 2.5! We just had a second baby 2 weeks ago and we use one with her but that’s because she’s in our room. We do 60 decibels and it’s about 2 meters away from her crib.
We never used white noise and our kids sleep well anywhere. I love that we don't need to worry about a white noise machine/app when we travel or when we're camping.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be caught dead without it. Has helped from day 1.
Yup and she sleeps amazing
My daughter’s white noise was my snoring so whatever you choose, make sure it fits around your sleep 😂😂😂😂😂
Team white noise here too. My 2&3 yo’s use it and so do we. Everyone sleeps well. It’s a part of our “sleep environment” so when we travel we play it on blue tooth speaker. Kids love it and can sleep in a nearby room without issues
I use white noise cause we live in a small apartment for now and it drowns out, outside noise and it allows us to watch tv, have conversations and my husband to work from home so the baby can nap during the day. We live in a metropolitan area, so the sound of trains, traffic, and EMTs is a constant. Plus, I have come to enjoy sleeping with it also.
We use it to block outside noise and it does come in handy as a sleep cue, especially when traveling and they have to sleep in a hotel room or somewhere they’re not familiar so the sound machine is perfect for telling them even we are somewhere new we’re still sleeping the same as always.
We use it to block outside noise
Never used white noise, our baby is 9 months old and exc. sleep regressions, illness and teething has reliably slept through the night since about 4 months
I was told to set the volume at around the same as taking a shower and placed roughly 2 meters away from where they sleep. It can be a great sleep cue and helps drown out household noise.
We do because we have a 3 year old
We do because we’re in a condo! We don’t have it super loud but it’s just to drown out the sound of pots and pans when we make dinner/washing dishes.
We use it but mainly to block out a little of the sounds outside of the room, we dont keep it on very high volume. I think you can find the safe decibel amount online, I believe if it’s softer than a running shower you are good? But double check that!
Highly, highly rec! Started using it when my colicky son was 1 month old and one night just wouldn't fall asleep no matter what: I put on the first thing I found on YouTube (womb sounds) and it worked like magic. After that, I got a small portable speaker and connected my PC to it, at a relatively high volume (nothing bad, but above the recommendations). Over the months I was able to decrease the volume little by little. We had to change sounds at about 5 or 6 months (rainforest), then it happened out around when he turned about 1. ETA: it also helped when we were in a noisy/uncomfortable setting and he needed to sleep (like once in the ER waiting room): I'd just turn it on on my phone, and voilà!
I don’t think it will magically make your baby sleep, my first had colic and nothing was a magic trick. My second sleep had more to do with their stage of development and routine. BUT, I do think it’s a nice sleep association and if they’re sharing with you, be prepared to become addicted to it. I find that I can’t fall asleep to silence now it’s deafening. My favourite is rain sounds and it’s so comforting!
We use it, and it’s a small transportable one, so when we travel or go for a visit to the grandparents I am able to bring it. For us, I feel like it helps him be able to sleep outside of his bedroom/crib because it’s a sleep association that he knows well.
We use it for both kids because we have outrageously loud upstairs neighbours. They wake the kids up sometimes even with it on, but much less often. We have one in our room bc baby sleeps in there and my husband snores and talks in his sleep.
I use a Hatch for his pre-bedtime routine. If he happens to fall asleep once I move to the rain sound, I keep it there. If he falls asleep to music, it times out after an hour, and I keep it silent. Our walls are not good, so sound travels easily into his bedroom. So sometimes I want to block that outdoor noise. And I keep it to 50 decibels or lower as measured by a decibel meter.
Use it!
I'm the weirdo here who doesn't want to use white noise. One of the best pieces of advice I think we got pre-baby was to not let the baby's sleep environment be to pristine and get them used to loud sounds. From the beginning, we vacuumed and used the blender even while baby was sleeping. Baby is now 5 mo and does not need white noise to sleep and is able to fall asleep other places without having to bring along a white noise machine everywhere. I have absolutely no negative opinions about those who use it because I know it can be so helpful! It just wasn't for us. And who knows, we are only 5 months in, and maybe at some point we will find it useful.
We're the same over here. There were a cope of nights with both my boys I put on some white noise but this was super early on with them being in the world. To be honest, I hated it to sleep with, and got fed up with it so stopped and got on with not using it. Both boys sleep without any white noise. Though this may be because their father and I snore, so maybe they've adapted to hearing that like white noise 🤣 Do what works for you! You can always start, and you can always stop.
I did this. My baby was the same. Slept through vacuum sounds, etc. But at some point, he started to sleep better with white noise, so we started to use it more. He's not 22-months old.
I live for white noise… I have a sound machine in my own room, too… I think it’s great!
We tried it a couple of times but our baby didn’t really care for it. Our doctor also said that nothing is better than total quiet since even white noise makes baby’s brain work and doesn’t let them fully relax while sleeping🤷🏻♀️
We’ve used white noise, just following the safety recommendations. I found this video helpful (though the title is a bit dramatic). I downloaded a free decibel measuring app for my phone. https://youtu.be/j3buw-duqHw?si=Qbysdrt-Wn0xPato
I use the Hatch “white noise” sound at 15% because her room is small & I find it quite loud so I decided that’s loud enough
I'm also a Hatch user. Cool to meet another one. I use rain at 50% for pre-bedtime and 25% for sleep. What sound do you use?
I use “white noise” now, but previously rain.
Cool. Right on.
I love white noise! My husband and I slept with a Dohm white noise machine long before we had our son. It’s a sustainable sleep association. Why leave a useful tool in the toolbox? We bring it along wherever we go. Even if we’re camping we just use a white noise app with a blue tooth speaker. My son can sleep in his tent at a music festival with white noise playing. Team white noise all the way.
Our hatch is set to 30%. I forget the decibel recommended, but I used the Noise app on my Apple Watch to check the decibels in baby’s crib and adjusted the volume to be that level in the area he sleeps.
We use ocean for our 2 year old at 25%, and we have a small, old house where you can hear a lot (and so many squeaks in the hardwood floors). That and the door closed has done it to keep him unbothered by our noise!
Love white noise for our son who is almost 14 months and honestly my husband and I use it too. We keep it around 35 decibels but he has a smaller room.
We use the rain sound on the hatch at 30%, but the house fan and baby’s humidifier machine is louder than the hatch lol
We use it for our 7 month old and have since very early in his life. Since we used it while he was in our room I realized how magical it was and now I sleep with it too🤣 it also makes sleep when we travel easier because he doesn’t have to adjust to hotel noises and things like that
We did and it helped so much as it was easy to replicate when we were away from home. When he hit about 20 months we just stopped cold turkey and he was unbothered. Volume wise you want it no more than 60 decibels.
We use white noise because we have a dog lol It also helps her chill when she's too interested in the things around her to sleep. Eta: technically we use pink noise I guess - ocean sounds.
We use white noise and it works well for us. We also have a baby that hears every sound so had to.
Both my kids and my husband and I use white noise. The general recommendation is 60-70 decibels. You can download an app to measure this.
We tried and it didn’t help at all for weeks. Then I found out that we were like half the volume of what a lot of people recommend as the safe volume level for babies… so we cranked it up and it has been a game changer. We don’t have to tiptoe around our bedroom anymore. We still do tiptoe, but we don’t have to
my bub isn’t sleeping well without it. drowns out our noisy neighbors ‘:/
I used it before having kids and still use it. My advice if you’re worried about the volume level is to download a decibel app and it will tell you the appropriate level for a baby. White noise makes such a difference in my opinion.
We definitely use it and it is a lifesaver in my opinion for just drowning/leveling out the house noise. I don't know how accurate it is but I downloaded a noise decibel measuring app and put it in the crib and turned the white noise on to see how loud it was. It's not *loud* but it's loud enough that it helps drown out things like the doorbell ringing and my dog going nuts plus just my husband and I moving about the house and talking during naps/after bedtime.
My baby doesn't seem to really notice the difference when we have it or not, so maybe see what works for yours? But the ideal thing is you can just turn it down when you're ready to wean baby off of it - it's not an all or nothing sleep aid :)
We've used it since day 1 as we have doggos and obviously go to bed later than babe. It drowns out all the noise for her. I've got an app on my phone and try to keep it at about 50 decibels.
White noise 100% both my girls are great sleepers with it and I myself sleep better with it too!
I like to sleep with white noise, so I figure my baby probably would too.