![]() Another study found that white noise may be more effective than lullabies at reducing infants’ heart rates and breathing rates during painful procedures. Research finds that white noise may reduce pain during vaccination in premature infants. White noise may also be soothing for infants. Although there is no research specifically on white noise as a sleep cue, there is some evidence that other stimulus control techniques may improve sleep. If you consistently play white noise when your child is about to fall asleep or sleeping, your child will begin to associate it with sleep and ultimately it can signal to their body that it is time to fall asleep. White noise may also act as “stimulus control” meaning that it serves as a cue that it is time to sleep. Another study examined people living in New York City who complained about too much environmental noise and they found that using a white noise machine reduced the time it took them to fall asleep and increased the time they slept before their first awakening. ![]() One study found less sleep fragmentation when healthy adults listened to white noise while a recording of noises from the intensive care unit were played, suggesting that white noise may help to block out normal hospital sounds. ![]() White noise may also help to block out other noises in the environment that might disturb sleep. However, one small study in adults found that white noise actually reduced sleep quality. Another study in adults found that white noise has a positive impact on falling asleep but does not have any significant impact on total sleep time or sleep quality throughout the night. One randomized controlled trial (translation: the “gold standard” of research studies) involving only 40 newborns found that 80% of the infants fell asleep in the white noise group while only 25% did in the control group. Several small studies have found that white noise may help some babies to fall asleep. Researchers have found that white noise tends to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep (referred to as sleep onset latency) and night awakenings (referred to as fragmented sleep) but most results were not significant (likely due to small sample sizes). ![]() “Brown noise” contains all frequencies but plays the lower frequencies louder and the higher frequencies quieter than white noise. See here to listen to the differences between white noise, pink noise, and brown noise.Ī recent systematic review concluded that there is very weak evidence supporting the use of white noise in improving sleep despite its widespread use. “Pink noise” is similar to white noise in that it includes all sound frequencies but it involves the lower frequencies being played a little bit louder than the higher frequencies. What we think of as “white noise” may actually be “pink noise,” “brown noise,” or some other combination of sound frequencies and intensities. Yet, according to the scientific definition, “white noise” is actually a very particular sound- one that contains all sound frequencies that the human ear can hear played simultaneously at equal intensities. White noise is the term commonly used to describe any continuous sound emitted from white noise machines, fans, static, or even natural sounds (like rain or waves in the ocean). An expensive white noise machine seems to be on every baby registry list and there are countless white noise apps on the market which claim to improve sleep. ![]() White noise is often recommended to help children sleep and/or block out sounds that might wake a child (traffic noise, barking dogs, etc). ![]()
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