• What is white noise and what is it for?
• Benefits of white noise:
• White noise to put babies to sleep: how it works
• How should white noise be used?
• Disadvantages of white noise

The sleep of babies, especially in the first months of life when it is more fragmented, can be a real headache for parents. One of the most popular methods to help little ones calm down and fall asleep more easily is white noise.

WHAT IS WHITE NOISE AND WHAT IS IT FOR?

White noise is a sound that contains all the frequencies audible by the human being that exist and, in addition, all of them with the same amplitude or power, in a harmonic way and without any sound standing out above another.

That is, it is a type of sound that fills the silence, but remains in the background so as not to attract attention and it is for this reason that (at a low intensity) it is pleasant and relaxing for the human ear.

• Examples of white noise are the sound of an untuned television, a dryer, a vacuum cleaner, rain, sea waves…
• The use of white noise began to become popular from a study published in 1990 in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood Trusted Source that pointed out that it could be useful to fall asleep in newborns: two groups of 20 newborns between 2 and 7 days were compared and they saw that 80% of those who heard white noise fell asleep after 5 minutes. compared to 25% of those who heard no sound at all.

BENEFITS OF WHITE NOISE:

• The main benefit of white noise for babies is that, as seen in some studies, it can help them fall asleep and reduce nighttime awakenings. In addition, it can also be useful for soothing, reducing crying and helping children with colic sleep.
• However, and despite the positive experiences of many families, there are not many scientific studies on the benefits of white noise in babies and that is why the Clinical Practice Guidelines on Sleep Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence in Primary Care of the Ministry of Health indicates that, for now, “there is not enough evidence on efficacy and safety in recommending the use of white noise for the treatment of pediatric insomnia.”

WHITE NOISE TO PUT BABIES TO SLEEP: HOW IT WORKS

There are several explanations for why white noise can be helpful as a technique to soothe or help babies sleep:

• One is that white noise hides noises in the house (for example, that made by older siblings) and makes it difficult for the baby to wake up when hearing sudden sounds.
• Another explanation is that white noise can mask the baby’s own sounds. In this way, the baby stops hearing himself if he cries and, therefore, stops doing so.
• It is also speculated that white noise reminds babies of the sounds they heard when they were in their mother’s womb and therefore find it relaxing.

HOW SHOULD WHITE NOISE BE USED?

In recent years, videos with white noise have proliferated on the internet and there are even smartphone applications and machines designed specifically for use with babies.

Whatever device you use, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that the volume does not exceed 50 decibels (a noise level similar to that of a silent dishwasher) and that the device that emits the white noise is 2 meters from the crib.

DISADVANTAGES OF WHITE NOISE

Some pediatricians and sleep specialists recommend that children’s sleep be natural, without conditions, and warn that constantly using white noise to make babies fall asleep can cause them a kind of dependence and then make them unable to sleep without hearing it.

In addition, some white noise appliances may exceed recommended sound limits. So warns the American Academy of Pediatrics, which in a 2014 study analyzed 14 devices of this type designed especially for babies and concluded that habitual exposure to sounds that exceed the recommended 50 decibels can be harmful to hearing and increase the risk of problems in language development.

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