A little noise goes a long way

We sleep with a fan on. It's not for the breeze (I don't even think it is pointed at the bed), but for the quiet sound it emits. Our son sleeps with a music player shuffling through some hand-picked soft music. I am not sure how all of us got used to sleeping with a little bit of noise, but that's a different post for a different day.

Background image by Shawn Campbell

The noises we need to help us sleep are quiet. This is because we have common sense. By now, you may have read the research done by the University of Toronto, which found that most white-noise machines set at full volume near or on a crib could damage a baby's hearing.

I'd like to pause this post for a slight tangent semi related to noise and damaged hearing:
Why do all children's toys have a loud setting on them? Every toy my son owns that emits sound has three settings: Off, On and REALLY LOUD. Why is that third setting there? I do not need to hear his toys from across the house. Thankfully, he has learned how to click the button over to the middle setting, but this whole thing seems unnecessary.

OK. Rant over.

New mothers will read about the importance of white noise for babies to recreate womb-like conditions, but I'm not sure what new parent would crank the volume of a white noise machine to full volume. I guess this could be a problem if there is a default in the machine, but it seems from the testing that all the white-noise machines have volume maxes that are just too darn loud. 

So, just to remind you: A little bit of noise is OK. Do what works for your baby.

What do you need to help you sleep at night? A super-dark room? Your spouse? A little noise? Tell me in the comments.