Infant Sleep Machines May Damage Hearing

First published April 2014
Updated February 2026

Babies are a precious gift. They come into this world innocent, small and helpless. They laugh, smile, babble, and break our hearts every day. What they often DON’T do is sleep. And of all the things we hope for our children, quality sleep habits are often at the top of the list.

One strategy many parents use to help promote healthy sleep habits is an infant sleep machine. These are machines that often provide a constant sound, such as white noise, ocean sounds, rainforest sounds, heartbeats, or other calming sounds. I always use a noise machine in my son’s room during both daytime and nighttime sleep, and I have done so since the day we came home from the hospital. My son is 18 months old now, and our white noise machine use is still going strong. In fact, my husband and I ended up purchasing one for our own room – and not having to hear our cats going wild at night sure has been nice!

But – should we be concerned about the level of noise coming from these machines that we play near our little ones’ ears all night long? As a pediatric audiologist, I have always felt comfortable using these noise machines for sleep. Many noise machines come marketed specifically for helping babies sleep. However, multiplestudies have found many of these noise machines are capable of producing noise levels that are dangerous to infants if used incorrectly.

Very loud noise can cause damage to the inner ear, causing temporary or permanent hearing loss. Moreover, sound loses energy as it travels, so the closer a sound source is to the ear, the louder and more potentially dangerous it is. So, what’s an acceptable noise level? 30 decibels is a whisper, 50 decibels is normal conversation, 80 decibels is a hairdryer – and it is at 80 decibels or louder that we begin to become concerned about damage.

But in addition to avoiding damage, we also want to make sure our babies are getting good, quality access to the sounds of the world around them. Background noise makes speech much harder to hear clearly, and babies have a particularly hard time separating speech from noise. Babies need to hear clear speech to effectively develop language skills as they grow. Letting noise play while your infant is playing, eating, or interacting with you or the world can negatively impact this. But the solution is simple – turn it off when your baby wakes up!

So, now what?

Here are some tips to safely use noise machines with your sleeping baby without worry:

1. NEVER set the machines at full volume.
2. Maximize the distance between the machine and your baby at all times.
3. If you cannot hear someone talking within a few feet of you – turn it down.
4. If you have to raise your voice to be heard – turn it down.
5. If your ears feel muffled after listening for a few minutes – turn it down.
6. NEVER have the white noise playing while playing and interacting with your baby – ONLY during sleep or when trying to lull the baby to sleep. You can also turn it off while the baby is deeply asleep.
7. You can use a noise measurement app on your phone to MEASURE how approximately how loud the noise actually is. (Check with your phone next to the baby’s ears, not at the source of noise.) Aim for 50 dB OR LESS.

It is up to us as parents and caregivers to make all the decisions to give our children the best chance at life. We make so many decisions – all of them intended to be good. I feel that using infant noise machines to help babies sleep is still safe and promotes good sleep quality – as long as we have the information at hand to know when noise becomes dangerous. If you follow the above tips, you are on the right track. And if you ever feel concerned about your child’s hearing – you can always schedule a hearing test with an audiologist for more information. Until then, I wish you and your children a good night’s rest!

Click here for frequently asked questions and information on our Audiology clinic.