The importance parents place on sleep is evident in the vast number of products on the market designed to help babies fall asleep: music boxes, night lights, self-rocking cribs\u2026 All promise wonders, but how many are actually effective? Scientific research offers some guidance to help us navigate through all the options.<\/p>\n
Light with a strong blue component interferes with the brain’s perception of day-night cycles, tricking it into thinking it\u2019s time to stay awake\u2014and thus disrupting sleep (22). For this reason, showing babies cartoons or relaxing videos to induce sleep, especially on phones or tablets (which emit more blue light), is counterproductive. It\u2019s better to turn off all screens<\/strong> at least an hour before bedtime. The same goes for night lights used to comfort children afraid of the dark or for changing diapers or feeding during the night. A low-intensity amber light is a much better choice.<\/p>\n Moving from sight to hearing, listening to a muffled and rhythmic sound<\/strong> has a relaxing effect (23) and helps both adults and babies drift off to sleep. However, it\u2019s important to keep the volume of devices\u2014such as lullabies, white noise, or sound machines\u2014at a safe level. If too loud, it can overstimulate the baby and even harm their hearing.<\/p>\n\t\t