Noise reduction can help some children to settle more easily, stay asleep for longer, and wake later in the morning. This can be achieved by reducing the amount of noise you make or introducing a noise cover such as white noise or soothing music.
When to use
Ideally noise should be minimal at night and at a natural moderate level during the day. Similarly, interaction with your child should be more quiet and gentle at night and can be louder and more playful during the day.
White noise has been found to help young infants to fall asleep (Spencer et al 1989), but constant white noise has been found to impair cognitive development in rats (Chang and Merzanich 2003). Based on this, I would recommend trying soothing music during daytime naps, but minimise noise at night. You might choose to use soothing music on a timer as your child falls asleep, but I wouldn’t recommend leaving it on overnight.
The relaxing music I used was “Dreaming Music“.
Please add your experiences with this approach in the comments below. Please provide the age of your child when you tried it, and how long you tried it for. If it helped, please share the effects you saw. If it didn’t help, why do you think it didn’t work in your case?
