Stop Using White Noise to put Babies and Toddlers to Sleep? What the Research is Saying…

This article provides information about the impacts white noise can have on a child’s development. Affiliate links are included for your convenience. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

Over the years, using sound machines to create white noise has become a popular strategy to help sooth a baby or child to sleep at night or during nap time. Many parents like this option because the continuous sound aims to promote better sleep and relaxation. It’s also a way to drown out noise that may be happening within the house that may stir the child awake.

However, is it also creating trouble in other areas of the child’s learning and cognitive development?

As the brain develops, especially in the child’s early years, it is highly sensitive to different stimuli within their environment. White noise could be a factor that may interfere with the brain’s ability to process and discern various sounds.

Recent research shows prolonged exposure to white noise can prevent kids from speech and language development.

What we are Seeing Among Students

At our facility, we are also seeing this as a growing problem, not only in speech and language development, but also in auditory processing.

Certain kids exposed to white noise, especially at high volumes, are showing the following signs:

• Delayed babbling
• Non-verbal after the age of two
• Inability to hear and repeat sounds
• Asks “huh?” or “what?” frequently when asked to complete tasks
• Trouble with expressive language and output of words
• Grandparents or family close to the child has trouble understanding their needs when the child tries to express themselves verbally

While some of these symptoms could be due to Autism, Apraxia or an Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), it’s important to also take white noise into consideration if used when the child was a baby or toddler.

When parents lowered the volume or discontinued the use of white noise in the home, they noticed significant improvements in their child’s speech and language development as well as their ability to process information.

Why is White Noise Recommended in Sleep Trainings?

White noise is common in baby sleep trainings. Our sleep-deprived mamma’s typically use sleep training to help get their babies into a good sleep routine. While not all babies are prone to speech and language delays due to white noise, it’s important to follow the recommended decibel level and watch for any delays in development.

The use of white noise is meant to mimic the sounds babies hear in the womb. However, once the baby is born, white noise isn’t always necessary to help the baby sleep. Many babies can and do adapt to sounds within their environment, even when sleeping.

Examples of white noise may include the following:

• Fan whirring in the background
• Air-conditioner humming
• Sounds from a washer or dryer
• Television in the background

How does White Noise impact Speech and Language?

The anatomy of a baby’s hearing development is very different from an adult’s. Their ears are not ready for exposure to white noise at high volumes for long periods of time. Research studies are beginning to suggest excessive amounts of white noise for extended periods of time can lead to delays in speech and language skills. While many research studies are still developing on this topic, some show white noise can hinder or prevent the natural progression of speech and language development.

Some of these studies show excessive use of sound machines to induce white noise may create the following:

• Hearing loss
• Inability to distinguish high and low frequencies
• Hinder auditory processing development

A child developing their speech and language must be able to hear the speech over the background noise and then separate it from the background noise. Background noise can prevent the child from filtering unwanted sounds or decoding important information through their auditory system.

Children who are prone to extended amounts of white noise, especially during their developmental years, may experience the following:

• Has trouble with the right pronunciation and articulation of sounds, letters, words and sentences
• Gets frustrated when others don’t understand what they are saying
• Frequently has a rollercoaster of emotions
• Has muffled speech or runs sounds and words together
• Difficulty pronouncing sounds of letters such as r, s, l, t, c, k
• Trouble expressing themselves verbally and finding the right vocabulary words to use when having conversations
• Stares blankly when you try to explain something or needs multiple reminders of tasks to complete

You may also notice the child struggling to differentiate or decode high or low frequencies of sound.

Language development is one of the most important during the child’s early years. If white noise creates disruptions in language development, it can be difficult to correct and may have a lasting impact on the child’s ability to communicate with friends, peers and colleagues.

What should I do if I Suspect White Noise Causing Delays?

It may not aways be clear if white noise is causing a direct impact to your child or student’s development of speech and language and auditory processing. However, if you begin to notice delays or gaps in these areas by the age of two, you may want to try the following:

• Stop the white noise for a time to see if there are improvements
• Contact a professional to determine if they can assist (Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Pathologist, Audiologist)
• Music therapy (use acoustically modified music with bone conduction headphones targeting speech and language centers of the brain)
• Occupational Therapy exercises targeting the speech and language centers of the brain (top to bottom activities)

If your child or students show delays in speech or language development and had exposure to white noise as a baby or toddler, there are many programs and interventions to help re-build the neural connections in the brain needed for speech and language development.

Alternatives to White Noise

If you are concerned about using sound machines that utilize white noise, there are some alternative solutions to help your baby or toddler sleep. Remember, each child is unique and different so it’s important to adjust or adapt depending on the child’s specific needs.

Nature Sounds and Soft Lullabies

Typically, sound machines offer a variety of soft music, lullabies or nature sounds. You can use one of these options as an alternative to white noise. However, as with white noise, remember to keep the volume low and avoid excessive amounts of use.

Limit Usage and Time

If you would like to continue using white noise, you can lower the decibel level of the sound machine. It is recommended you only use the white noise for a maximum of one hour. Once the baby is asleep, we suggest turning off the sound machine to reduce risk. You can also set a timer for the noise to discontinue after a short amount of time.

Bouncing and Mimicking Sounds

For new mothers, you can bounce the baby while mimicking the sound of white noise with your own voice when trying to get them to sleep at night or during nap time. Simply repeat “Shhhhh” while bouncing the baby until the child is asleep and you can then lay them in the crib.

Create Distance

Place the sound machine across the room or further away from the child as they sleep. Avoid placing white noise next to the child’s crib or on top of the crib to induce more noise.

Reading

Read to the baby or toddler before bedtime or nap time to stimulate sleepiness and relaxation. Even reading to a baby provides soothing sounds, and in the long-run, enhances speech, language and vocabulary skills.

Exercise Ball

Sit on a large exercise ball with the baby or toddler in your lap before sleep and lightly bounce up and down while humming or softly singing to create rhythmic movement and sleepiness.

Open the Window

Open a window for outside ambient noise to flow throughout the room. This also helps the baby or toddler gradually develop a tolerance to background noise.

Swinging

Use an infant swing to rock the child to sleep while providing vestibular movement. Try to find a swing with a timer or turn it off so the child doesn’t require movement to stay asleep for long periods of time. Swings are good for nap times rather than for sleeping all night.

More Exposure

Provide gradual exposure to everyday noises when the child is sleeping. If using a sound machine or other method to help your child sleep, slowly reduce the time and frequency of using the machine. Providing more exposure to regular everyday noises helps the child adapt to background sound and improves their ability to filter out unwanted noise as they grow older. This also helps the child develop tolerance to noise in the house made by doing chores, other siblings, appliances, airplanes and other neighborhood sounds.

Sound Absorbing Items

Add sound absorbing items to the child’s room. To help reduce the amount of noise in the child’s room during nap time or nighttime, you can add items like the following:

• Curtains
• Rugs
• Noise-reducing tiles for kids’ rooms and nurseries
• Rocking chairs or couches
• Wall acoustic panels

As the child gets older, it’s a good idea to help them adapt to noises and sounds within their environment as they sleep, which can also support their sensory development. This is especially important for older children so they can learn to filter out unwanted noise in classrooms and when taking tests so they can attend and focus on what’s being taught.

If the child is older and struggles to filter out background noise when doing homework or when taking tests, a good alternative is to provide them with noise-cancelling headphones.

Reference Materials

Hugh, S. C., Wolter, N. E., Propst, E. J., Gordon, K. A., Cushing, S. L., & Papsin, B. C. (2014). Infant sleep machines and hazardous sound pressure levels. Pediatrics, 133(4), 677–681. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2013-3617

Erickson, L. C., & Newman, R. S. (2017). Influences of background noise on infants and children. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(5), 451–457. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417709087

Hong, S. A., Kuziez, D., Das, N., Harris, D., & Brunworth, J. D. (2021). Hazardous sound outputs of white noise devices intended for infants. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 146, Article 110757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2021.110757

Howard Hughes Medical Institute. (2003, April 18). White noise delays auditory organization in brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 12, 2026, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/04/030418081607.htm

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Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning challenges achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs