White Noise Machines for Babies: Safe Use & UK Picks

A white noise machine can be used for a baby, but it is a sleep aid to use with care, not a safety product: keep it out of the cot, well away from your baby, and at a low volume. The Lullaby Trust's safer sleep advice says a baby's cot needs just a firm, flat, waterproof mattress and lightweight bedding, so anything electrical belongs on a shelf across the room rather than beside your baby's head. This guide explains what research says about volume, where to put a white noise machine, and how six sleep aids we list compare.

Are white noise machines safe for babies?

Used sensibly, they can be, but the evidence is about hearing rather than SIDS. A 2014 study in the journal Pediatrics measured 14 infant sleep machines at maximum volume. At 30 cm every machine produced more than 50 A-weighted decibels, the noise limit recommended for infants in hospital nurseries, and three machines exceeded 85 A-weighted decibels, a level that could risk noise-induced hearing loss if played for over eight hours. The authors recommended placing the machine as far from the infant as possible, never in the cot or on the cot rail, using the lowest volume that works, and running it for a short time until your baby is sleeping soundly.

The practical takeaways are simple:

• Distance: put the machine across the room, not on the cot or a shelf right beside it.
• Volume: start at the lowest setting. If it drowns out normal conversation from the doorway, it is too loud.
• Duration: use a timer, or turn it down once your baby is asleep, if the machine allows.
• Listen out: make sure you can still hear your baby when they wake.

Keep sleep aids out of the cot

The Lullaby Trust advises that babies need just two items in their cot: a firm, flat, waterproof mattress and lightweight bedding. It says to remove pillows, duvets, bumpers, soft toys and positioning products such as wedges. That matters for sleep aids because many are cuddly: a sound-and-light soft toy such as a sleep sheep is a soft toy, so it should sit on a shelf or the floor away from the cot, not sleep with a young baby. Our guide to safe sleep for newborns covers the full checklist, and our piece on baby nests and sleeping pods shows how other "helpful" products can run against the same rules.

Anything that charges or plugs in deserves a look at its safety notice too. We covered a recent OPSS recall of a sleep machine over overheating of its battery in Love to Dream Sleep Machine recall. Register products where you can, and check gov.uk product safety alerts occasionally.

The sleep aid that matters most: a room thermometer

The Lullaby Trust recommends a room temperature of 16 to 20°C for babies so they do not get too hot, and says the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is higher in babies who get too hot. Because it is hard to guess a temperature, it advises using a room thermometer in the rooms where your baby sleeps. For cold homes, it says it is rarely necessary to keep the heating on all night and an extra layer will usually help; if heating is left on overnight it should be low and certainly no higher than 20°C. It also says babies do not need hats indoors or a duvet or quilt.

That is why a simple room thermometer is arguably a better first purchase than a sound machine, and why autumn is a sensible time to buy one as bedrooms start to cool. The Lullaby Trust also advises having your baby sleep in the same room as you for at least the first six months, day and night, which means a white noise machine will be in your room too at first, so keep the volume low for your own sleep as well.

How the sleep aids we list compare

None of these have been hands-on tested by us; the details below come from the manufacturers' descriptions and our listings, so check current specifications before buying.

Product	Type	Price	What it does (per listing)
VAVA Baby White Noise Soother	White noise machine	Around £30	Multiple sound modes, adjustable volume, dimmable night light
Hatch Rest 2nd Gen	Sound machine and light	Around £70	App-controlled, custom colour, brightness and sound-schedule presets
Sweet Dreamers Ewan Deluxe	Soft toy sleep aid	Around £45	Womb-sound white noise, gentle glowing light and a cry sensor
Lumie Bedbug	Low-blue bedside light	Around £59.95	15-minute sunset fade to help settle babies and young children
Tommee Tippee Groclock	Toddler sleep clock	Around £24.99	Shows a sleeping or awake owl so children learn when it is morning
Tommee Tippee Groegg2	Room thermometer	Around £20	Colour-changing egg that shows if the room is too hot, cold or just right

Which one to choose

For a newborn: start with the Groegg2 room thermometer (£20), then add a basic white noise machine like the VAVA (about £30) only if you find your baby settles better with steady sound. The machine's adjustable volume is the feature that matters most, because it lets you follow the low-volume advice above.

If you want a routine tool: the Hatch Rest offers schedules and app control at a higher price, useful mainly if you like programming light and sound; it is not needed for safety.

For toddlers: the Groclock and the Lumie Bedbug are aimed at older children who are learning to settle or stay in bed until morning, so they are not first buys for a newborn.

Think twice about the cuddly option: the Sweet Dreamers Ewan combines sound and light in a soft toy. Because the Lullaby Trust says soft toys should be kept out of a baby's cot, we would use it as a room fixture or for an older child rather than in the cot with a young baby.

If you want a full overview of what else to put in the nursery, see our baby monitor comparison and the white noise and sleep aids category.

When to stop using white noise

There is no set age to stop. If your baby has become reliant on it, you can gradually lower the volume over several nights, as the study authors' advice to use the lowest effective volume suggests. If you have any concern about your baby's hearing or sleep, speak to your health visitor or GP.