Baby sleep music is important to keep your child well-rested and functioning properly.
The thing is, we’ve become accustomed to lullabies with unsettlingly loud and obscure noises when the real answers to nighttime music for your baby have been around for ages: sounds from nature.
These are the six best natural sounds that babies will have a great time relaxing too, and they’ll be able to find sleep just a little bit easier each night going forward.
#1 Rainfall
One of the most romanticized sounds ever is rainfall.
The pitter-patter of droplets on a skylight, the way a heavy wave of rain sounds on the asphalt outside, it’s all entrancing.
With your baby, it’s a consistent sound. The pattern of droplets and how the land might change, but it’s ever so slightly. They’ll focus on the consistency of the rain.
Babies and all children for that matter admire consistency. It’s why kids get so frustrated when core changes in their daily routines happen.
Consistency comes from multiple different aspects of a child’s life, but one of the most powerful is auditory atmospheres.
Rainfall is constant, it varies only slightly and produces a sound that brings you so close to nature, you’d swear you were out in the rainstorm right now.
#2 Ocean Waves
Along with rainfall, ocean waves have this calming sound that just strikes a chord somewhere deep inside of us.
There are a lot of jokes that revolve around “If you listen to the ocean waves long enough, you start feeling like you understand everything about the universe.”
While that’s an exaggeration, it does fill you with this sense of calm. When you listen to ocean waves, what else exists in the world?
Nothing. It’s a sound that completely captures our attention, and for an infant, it holds onto their attention without letting go.
It’s not only the perfect baby sleep music, but it can be wonderful if you’re just trying to get them to calm down after something stressful or something that took a lot of energy to complete.
#3 Woodland Whispers
Nature isn’t quiet, but it isn’t loud, either.
Depending on where you’re standing in a forest, you can hear the trees swaying with the wind and the slight rustle of docile animals traveling through the underbrush.
Isn’t it just relaxing to read about it? Your child will hear a mixture of different natural, calming sounds made by nature interacting with itself in an endless cycle.
There’s also something wildly intriguing about it. Since there are so many different tones and noises from nature, your baby will be waiting to hear what’s going to happen next.
It’s calming, it’s excellent baby sleep music, and you may even find yourself mellowing out right beside your child. It might be time for a family nap.
#4 Mother’s Speech
As far as your baby is concerned, the most natural voice in the world is their mother’s voice.
If you have the option, record forty-five minutes of your voice while speaking calmly and saying positive things.
Keep it whisper-quiet, and try to record it with a professional microphone to cut out any static or white noise in the background. The focus needs to be on your voice.
Babies respond to their mother’s voice more than anything else on a strictly neurological level.
In a study by Stanford, they used MRI scanners to prove that there were greater physical and emotional responses when a child heard their mother’s voice over recorded nonsense sounds.
A recording of the mother’s voice could be more soothing to your child, even if they get a tiny bit amped up at first.
#5 Car Ride
The sound of the wind whipping by the siding of the car, the rustling of the trees if the window is ever so slightly cracked, and the familiar ambient feeling of air pressure inside the car all help to keep you relaxed.
Some people love the sound of car rides but end up getting motion sickness (colic children often endure this).
This is the perfect way to get the relaxing sounds and almost rhythmic aura of a nice, steady car ride, without any negative side effects.
For babies, this might remind them of the last time they were in the car, which could have been being brought home from the hospital or going to/from the grandparent’s house.
While their short-term memory is still being widely developed, it brings forth familiarity and a feeling of safety.
Every time they’ve been in a vehicle, it’s been with their parents who love them and care for them very much.
It’s an excellent, relaxing sound that is really just the different patterns of wind against the car.
#6 Birdsong
Nature’s little guardians have such different voices depending on the breed of bird, and they’re all relaxing.
The relatively high but calming sounds that birds make don’t pose any feeling of threat or uneasiness.
Instead, they sound like peace—we all think of gentle birdsong as a peaceful noise, because it’s calm, quiet mother nature at work.
Most non-predatory birds have lovely voices, and when they go in tandem with one another, it sounds like the woods are having a conversation with itself.
How does this affect your baby? All they hear is a relaxing, calming, albeit curious noise.
How to Calm Your Baby With Nature Sounds
You want to aim for something that isn’t going to startle them during any point of playback, and keeps them on cloud nine when it comes to retaining deep REM sleep.
Whether it’s for nighttime or just a more relaxing vibe throughout the day, you can use baby sleep music to instill naptime or help them tone down their child energy after a fun play date.
If you want them to get the best night’s sleep possible, these sounds can help.
