45 sleep sounds,
at the right volume all night.

White noise is a continuous, uniform sound, like a running shower or a fan. Its fame has a basis: the womb was a noisy place, and a uniform hiss recalls that environment and soothes many babies. It also works as a sound curtain: it masks the noise peaks of the house, the doorbell, the dog, the older sibling, which are what actually wakes the baby.

It helps in a noisy home, an apartment with construction next door, daytime naps with life going on around and babies who startle easily at sounds. To use it well: low volume, closer to gentle rain than a running vacuum, the device at least 2 meters from the crib, a continuous and uniform sound, and for falling asleep and sleeping, not as the soundtrack of the whole day.

It gets in the way when the volume is too high (if you need to raise your voice to talk over it, it's too loud), when it becomes a crutch for the wrong wake window, because no noise puts a baby to sleep who isn't sleepy, and when it becomes an exclusive dependency. About that last one: if it works for your family, it isn't a problem to fix, it's a choice. And for the record: white noise is optional. A baby who sleeps well in silence doesn't need it.

Read the day 5 summary on the blog