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Reader Interactions


  1. Debbye says

    Hi Lucine,
    Thank you for writing and sharing your thoughts on the matter! We’ve all got to do what is right for our baby, our family, and what works for one will not work for another! You are certainly right about some of us needing to say no to “noise training!” And we should follow our best parental instincts too!
    Thanks again!

  2. Lucine Drake says

    Thanks for your blog. I am very interested in this topic as I’ve found it raised a couple of times just in the past week- first my accountant advises me how proud he is that he raised his twin boys napping with plenty of noise, then a new mother who mentioned she wanted to “train” her newborn to get used to sleeping in noisy situations. So I looked for the research. What I’ve found, as others have, is that there isn’t much, so we have to extrapolate based on the research we do have. We know that there is light sleep and deep sleep, that we are more easily awakened during light, and less so from deep. We know that in research-based situations, those who are submitted to noise and other disruptions will go more quickly into deep sleep, which is a sign of sleep deprivation. We also have preliminary findings that there are individual differences in noise tolerance during sleep. We also know that the ration of light v. deep is different based on the age of the child. Newborns are terribly difficult to keep alert–just a qualitative difference, no training required here 🙂 What I extrapolate from all this is that submitting a child to noise with the expectation that it will train them to sleep through it might result in what appears a child that successfully sleeps through the noise….what is actually happening is that the child is going more quickly into deep sleep due to sleep deprivation. So now the question is: why are you trying to train your child to sleep through loud noise? Is it for your convenience, or is the quality of your child’s sleep more important to you? Personally (and the research shows) that quality sleep is critical for physical and mental development and wellbeing. Say no to “noise training.”

  3. Debbye says

    @Suzan- Thank you for writing! Like mother like baby in many light sleeper cases! 🙂

    @Bri- Good point about the previous comment! I hope whatever you chose to do about the white noise worked out well! Please share if you have a chance!

    @Victoria Roe- SO true! Our kids had no chance of being solid sleepers as my husband and I are such light sleepers! We often use white noise in our room at night too! Thanks for writing!