Sometimes, and modestly. White noise may help some babies fall asleep faster, mostly by masking sudden household sounds and becoming a familiar bedtime cue. The research is real but small, so think of it as a low-risk tool worth trying, not a guaranteed fix. It only helps if it’s used safely, so keep white noise safe for your baby with low volume and a device across the room.

This review is part of our baby sleep science section. Here’s what the studies found, why white noise seems to work, where the evidence falls short, and when it’s most worth using.

What did the classic newborn study find?

The study almost everyone cites is a randomized trial by Spencer and colleagues (1990), published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. They studied two groups of 20 newborns aged 2 to 7 days.

  • With white noise: 16 of 20 babies (80%) fell asleep within five minutes.
  • Without white noise: 5 of 20 babies (25%) fell asleep within five minutes.

The authors concluded that white noise may help mothers settle difficult babies. That’s a meaningful result, and it’s why white noise became so popular. But it’s worth being clear about the limits: it was a small study, in the first week of life, measuring how quickly babies fell asleep, not how long they stayed asleep or how they slept months later.

What do later reviews say?

The broader research picture is more cautious. A 2021 systematic review in Sleep Medicine Reviews looked at 38 studies of continuous white or broadband noise and sleep, mostly in adults (Riedy et al., 2021). It found:

  • Findings varied widely, from noise improving sleep to noise disrupting it.
  • Studies differed in the noise used, how sleep was measured and who was studied.
  • Using standard GRADE criteria, the quality of evidence that continuous noise improves sleep was very low.

Why does white noise calm babies?

Researchers and pediatricians point to two plausible mechanisms.

1. Sound masking. Sound masking means adding a steady background sound so that sudden noises stand out less. A door closing or a dog barking is a sharp change against silence, but much less noticeable against a soft, constant shhh. This is the best-supported reason white noise helps, and it’s why it’s used in adult bedrooms and offices too.

2. A familiar, womb-like sound. Before birth, babies live with a constant whoosh of blood flow and a muffled heartbeat. White noise and womb and heartbeat sounds are often described as echoing that environment. This idea is intuitive and widely repeated, though it’s hard to test directly.

There’s a third, practical effect: routine. A sound that starts at the same point every bedtime becomes a cue, much like dimming the lights or a favorite song.

Do babies sleep better with or without white noise?

There’s no universal answer. White noise is most likely to make a difference when there’s something to mask:

SituationLikely benefitWhy
Noisy street, thin walls, apartmentsHigherMasks traffic and neighbors
Older siblings with a later bedtimeHigherSmooths over voices and footsteps
Daytime napsHigherDaytime homes are louder
Travel, hotels, grandparents’ housesHigherA familiar cue in an unfamiliar room
Already quiet, calm bedroomLowerLittle to mask

If your home is quiet and your baby sleeps well, you don’t need to add sound. If sudden noises keep waking your baby, a few nights of low-volume white noise is a reasonable experiment.

Is white noise the best sound, or would pink or brown work too?

White noise is the color with infant research behind it. Pink and brown noise have more energy in the lower frequencies, so they sound softer and deeper, but they haven’t been studied in babies. Many parents simply choose whichever their baby settles to at the lowest volume. Compare them side by side in pink vs white vs brown noise for babies.

How to try white noise the right way

  1. Pick one sound and use it for 3 to 5 nights before judging.
  2. Start it as part of the routine, for example after the last feed or story, so it becomes a cue.
  3. Keep it soft. Louder isn’t more effective, just riskier.
  4. Use a timer if you’d rather not run it all night.
  5. Watch your baby, not the clock. If nothing changes after a week, it may not be the right tool for your family.

You can hear a preview on our white noise for babies page. In Baby Mantra you can also try the free First Night collection, mix up to three sounds with separate volumes, and set a timer from 15 minutes to 2 hours that fades out gently. See how the Baby Mantra app fits into a bedtime routine.

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