the ideal solution for sleeping baby?

No, your baby doesn’t have to be quiet to fall asleep. Certain noises, such as pink noises, even encourage faster falling asleep thanks to their soothing powers. Explanations.

Young parents know that putting a baby to sleep can be a real headache. No matter how much he tucks and cradles him, he seems to wake up as soon as he closes the door to his room and disappears. Sleep problems that quickly disrupt our daily lives and exhaust us.

Fortunately, there are many techniques (sometimes unknown) to soothe and put baby to sleep safely. Among which, the pink noise! Different from white noise, pink noise would indeed have "magical" hypnotic powers, allowing the child to fall asleep calmly … and the parents to have a little respite. We take stock.

What is pink noise?

First of all, it seems worth remembering that noise is a sound wave composed of two characteristics: frequency (number of wave vibrations per second) and amplitude (size of waves).

White noise is a sound with a constant frequency. Clearly, it's a simple, repeated sound. In general, this is background noise or background noise. The white noises are intended to mask all the surrounding extraneous noises and allow the baby to feel like in a bubble, in safety. They can also be found everywhere in our daily life: the noise of the car engine (it is known, infants fall asleep more easily during a car trip), the noise caused by a vacuum cleaner, a fan or even even with a hair dryer.

If white noise is often recommended to young parents as a solution to their cherub's sleeping problems, pink noise would be more suitable for the human ear. It offers a deeper and softer sound, therefore more relaxing. Unlike white noise, pink noise is constant per octave band: its frequencies are random. It is designed to take into account our hearing and therefore the sound is less aggressive. It is usually compared to the sound of a stream, flowing tap water or a waterfall.

What are the effects?

One would tend to believe that a child needs silence to fall asleep smoothly, and yet these sounds seem to have hypnotizing powers. And for good reason, while he was still in his mother's womb, the baby was made aware of pink noises and white noises! Amniotic fluid allows the transmission of sounds from the outside world and the fetus has a sense of hearing from the sixth month of pregnancy. He was therefore able to familiarize himself with muffled noises. In addition, during the nine months of gestation, he could perceive the beating of his mother's heart, the blood circulating in his arteries, the rhythm of his breathing and even the gurgling of his belly!

Thus, exposing an infant to white and pink noises allows him to rediscover the warmth, comfort and security that he may have had during his in-utero life, and therefore soothe him.

Various studies – like that by Dr. Roneil Malkani of Northwestern University – have also pointed out that pink noise promotes deeper sleep and better memory in adults. No doubt this also has an impact on babies' brains.

Where to find pink noises?

Many products have been developed to reproduce the sound of pink noises. You can find night lights and fluff emitting this type of noise to put in the room or directly in your baby's bed. You have the choice between different models such as:

Whisbear Soothing Bear: this soft toy promotes sleep by emitting a pink noise, reminding him of the sounds heard in his mother’s womb. It also has a CrySensor function to analyze surrounding noise and detect crying infants. Its legs can be hooked with a magnet, so the cub can easily be attached to a stroller or cradle. It is available on Amazon at a price of 62.90 euros.

MyHummy cubs: each bear of the brand makes 5 sounds. These are the sound of sea waves, rain, heart rate, white noise and pink noise. Most ? Parents can control the “grumbling heart” of the plush via an application on the phone and choose the number of minutes the sound plays. Thanks to sleep sensors, they receive notifications when baby wakes up. The plush is available on the MyHummy site from 39.99 euros. The price can go up to 89.99 euros if you want the model with the sleep sensors and the mobile app.

The Moonie rabbit musical night light: in addition to diffusing a dim light, the Moonie rabbit emits five different sounds: the heartbeat, the sound of waves, rain, white and pink noises. What promote and soothe the sleep of the infant. The night light is also used for cuddling. Your baby will also be able to play with his adorable, soft ears. It is available on Amazon for 64.99 euros.

Easy dream's “Ewan” sheep: this sheep offers 4 different types of sounds, including intrauterine sounds and pink noises. The sounds were not made synthetically by a computer but come directly from recordings! In night light mode, it has a soothing pink color for children. This sheep comforter is available at a price of 43 euros on the Easy dream brand website.

If you don't want to invest in a soft toy or a night light, you can still find videos of pink noises on Youtube. Here is an example:

Premature babies in France


Video by Coline Amar

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