The best white noise machine to help your baby sleep

Shortlisted for the 2022 Mother&Baby Awards

Send your baby drifting off to sleep with our number one choice, Sweet Dreamers' Ewan Deluxe. It plays five soothing sound options, including Rainfall, Harp Lullaby Melody, Vacuum Cleaner, Womb, and Shush, which are all combined with Mum's resting heartbeat to soothe your little one off into dreamland naturally, and the clever SmartCRY sensor automatically activates when your baby stirs. Ewan's soft pink night light glow also mimics a womb environment to help comfort and soothe your baby and induce sleep.

Our mum tester Gabriella's little one experienced a sleep regression, and the constant stirring resulted in two very tired parents! They introduced Ewan The Dream Sheep and after only using it for a short time, it had already picked up their son's whimper and cry. Sensing that he needed comfort, the sounds and glowing red light were triggering. Gabriella says, "It's a very shallow glow and doesn't light up the whole room to over-stimulate him."

One downside to this product is that you can't place it inside the cot, which is tempting to do but soft toys are not recommended for sleeping with until your baby is 12 months old. However, the velcro tail makes it easy for you to strap Ewan to the cot or crib bars for safety. Our mum tester Samantha Walker says, "The Velcro tail, to me, is a fantastic feature, as you can securely strap him anywhere, so you know baby is safe." Mum tester Fiona Watson agrees, saying, "It's very cute and really soft, and the tail doubles as a Velcro strap, meaning you can hang it from the top of the cot in the early days when you can't leave it lying around inside." She also points out that it has different volumes too.

Read our full Ewan Deluxe review.

After a hectic day, help your baby drift off to sleep with the adorable Ollie the Owl from Tommee Tippee. It plays comforting sounds, including Heartbeat, Rainfall, White Noise, and Brahms Lullaby, and you can adjust the volume easily. Pick from one of three light settings, as the gentle, warm, glowing tummy creates a soothing environment. If baby stirs, the built-in CrySensor cleverly activates to lull them back to sleep, so it's sweet dreams all around.

Our mum tester Sara Kehoe had tried every other sleeping aid on the market with her toddler and says that none even came close to working until Ollie the Owl came along and worked on the first night! "He's beautiful," she says, "much smarter than Ewan The Dream Sheep, for example, and it's very cuddly and soft". Sara describes that by using a noise sensor, the toy is able to pick up on small noises and is ready to soothe her little one back to sleep before she's even realised she's stirring, which we think is pretty impressive!

The rechargeable batteries are said to last up to 25 hours, though in Sara's experience, the batteries do go very often. She says, "I must have had to change the batteries every week or so, but in Ollie’s defence, my toddler wakes up several times a night, so he’s had a very busy job!" Sara also found it very difficult to get the batteries out, having to ask her husband to do it. But she notes this is good in terms of safety for small children. Sara also loves that it's so easy to clean, being machine washable, you just take out the electronic module and it can be washed at 30°.
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Read our full Ollie the Owl review.**

Recommended as one of Lucy Mecklenburgh's new mum buys, this small but mighty Dreamegg White Noise Machine is packed with 11 soothing sounds, including white noise, ocean sound, brook, lullaby, music box, shushing, vacuum cleaner, fetal tone, fair sound, cricket, and fan sound. Its lightweight and compact size makes it great for taking on the go, and it features a nightlight with adjustable light intensity, ideal for midnight feeding.

One reviewer says the noise control is fabulous and that with so many settings, you can easily get the volume you need. They were also impressed with how many sounds there were and liked the fact that the timer function doesn't make the sound abruptly stop; instead, it fades out. They also say the charge is brilliant, fully charging in just an hour and lasting all night from 7 pm to 7 am. They said that they then charge it up and use it for little one's daytime naps, and put it on charge whilst they do baby's bath before bed. They haven't tested whether it would last longer, but reckon it probably would. They say, "This is by far the best baby gadget I have ever bought and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone with a newborn baby."

Another reviewer whose baby was always very unsettled, colicky and clingy describes how the Dreamegg was a game-changer. "This little machine helps baby settle 10x quicker, helps him to stay asleep for naps without having to be constantly resettled, keeps him calmer in the car (he usually hates car journeys), and also stops him getting easily distracted by sounds around him while feeding." They also like that the sound doesn't distort or sound tinny at higher levels. They also highly recommend the battery life, saying they charge it every two to three days but haven't ever had it actually run out, even with several hours of use each day. They just charge it to make sure because they couldn't be without it!

The Babymoov Sleepy White Noise Nightlight comes with both white and pink noise settings, as well as seven different natural sounds to help your baby settle, including a heartbeat, the rain, the ocean, a river, the forest, a vaccum cleaner and a hairdryer.

You can adjust the volume as you wish, and with an integrated timer, you can choose to turn the sound off after 10 minutes and the light off after 30 minutes. One reviewer said, "This soothing noise/music/night light works a treat to lull baby to sleep but the set timer could be a bit longer." Another reviewer points out that the continuous noise is actually a rotation of the seven different sounds every three seconds, which isn't made clear in the product's description. They had wanted something that played the same thing all night. So this is something you might want to consider.

The rainbow-coloured light helps to set the mood and can be set to one colour if you prefer, It also has a handy 'tap and light' feature, so it's super easy to turn on in the dark, although one reviewer seemed to have trouble with this features and found the buttons to be fiddly. They found this disappointing as they bought it with the intention of their toddler lighting it up herself when she wakes in the middle of the night. "We have to go in and do it for her, so even though she loves it, it isn’t quite what we were after," they say, although they did appreciate the low-volume settings.

Sometimes a walk in the park isn't enough to settle your baby, but the SnuzCloud could be just the ticket. Our mum tester Lauren says, "We didn't think we needed a white noise machine before our baby arrived. We thought if we never used one then he wouldn't need it. How wrong we were! A few days in and we were pumping lullabies and white noise into his ears at every opportunity in a bid to get him to drift off."

The plush, lightweight sleep aid plays four soothing sounds, including pink and white noise, a calming lullaby, waterfall sounds, and a heartbeat. It also features two calming lights: a calming pink one to help little passengers relax and a soft, brighter white light so you can see what you're doing during night feeds. Suitable from birth, it can be used as both a white noise machine and a nightlight and is part of the SnüzPod range of bedside cribs. Lauren points out in her review that, "While you can download white noise apps and lullabies on your phone, having a separate, portable device that can be popped at the head of wherever he is sleeping is far more convenient."

She says that one of the major benefits of this sleep toy is that, unlike some other white noise/lullaby machines, this one is soft, which means that it can easily be tucked up behind baby's head inside of the pram or Moses basket without the risk of it falling on your baby or become a hard obstacle to kick. Unfortunately, the SnuzCloud Sleep Aid is surface clean only, so can’t be put through the washing machine. Lauren thought that at £30, it was a bit pricey and more of a luxury than a necessity, but she admits that they now couldn’t do without it. "It goes everywhere with us," she says.

Read our full SnuzCloud review.

Your baby will have a good night’s sleep with this sleep training programme. With a personal voice recording to allow your baby to hear your reassuring voice even if you aren’t there, this night light plays a range of soothing songs and beautiful sounds for your baby. Featuring a range of multi-coloured night lights & glow-on-the-ceiling, your little one will enjoy 50 bedtime stories, 100 classical music, 10 lullabies, and 10 natural sounds pre-set into the unit. Our mum tester Lucy loved how well this fit into her nursery. "This is a fantastic device that is an all in one, which has saved space and looks great!"

It’s charged using a rechargeable battery, which is ideal for you to use both at home and outside without any wires when required. The LED display on the projector clearly shows you the time and room temperature and even features a timer when needed. Mum Lucy said, "the automatic thermometer’s temperature display is brilliant and clear to see without creating too much light if your little one likes a dark room. The range of volume on the speaker, which is Bluetooth and can connect to pretty much any device, is surprisingly wide too."

It’s operated using the phone app, meaning if you hear your baby stir, you can alter the settings to help lull them back to sleep. Do check before purchasing, however, that your smartphone is compatible with the app, as it’s not compatible with every device. This connectivity however did prove an issue for mum tester Lucy. "As it is Bluetooth, every sound coming from you phone for example, is projected into your baby’s nursery. Candy crush sound effects and text typing have been two sounds that have been played mistakenly whilst using the Vtech Hush!" Lucy says. For this reason Lucy preferred to operate it manually. "It is particularly handy that you only need to touch the top of the hush with your palm to change settings. Different colour lighting such as red is also an option and you are able to dim or brighten the light to your baby’s liking using your palm again. The image projector is surprisingly clear and it isn’t too stimulating that it causes too much of a distraction before bed."

It's pricier than the other machines on this list, but this one goes above and beyond. It also doubles as a nightlight, room thermometer, and clock. One thing to be aware of is that customers report issues with the app. One reviewer reports it crashing a lot. another tech-savvy reviewer who works in the industry wasn't impressed by the app either. They described the routine function as "fiddly". This may be a personal preference, but we found another review that said something similar.

This adorable minimalist-style white noise machine will look lovely in your child's nursery. You only get one colour option, but the neutral design makes it great for adults, too. In fact, many reviews are from adults who have needed a portable solution, for example when they have gone camping.

The product features seven calming sleep sounds to choose from, including white noise, nature, ocean, rain, fan, shushing and a heartbeat to mimic inside the womb to help send your little one stay snoozing. It offers 48 hours worth of charge when charged fully using a USB Type C cord, while the built-in soft LED light has three settings to adjust to your preference.

It really is a dream to bring along wherever you're heading, as well as hang in your child's nursery. Sadly one reviewer who had been using it for a couple of months reported that the strap had always seemed weak and they suspected it would break, but not as fast as it did. They said if you use the strap just beware and don't use it too much. They really liked it otherwise.

If you're looking for a natural sounding white noise machine with a classic design that will look good in your home, you'll like the Maraca Dohm. Available in different colours – white, black, pink, grey, tan and camo, the Marpac Dohm claims to play white noise sound that contains less high-frequency content than most competing sound machines on the market. Sure, it may not be particularly pretty or cute, but this white noise machine can be used by both babies and adults.

Simply flip the switch to choose your volume setting, 'high' for noisy environments and 'low' for everything else, then twist to fine-tune the tone of your white noise. One reviewer found the volume controls to be easy to use but said that they didn't notice much variance between the two volume settings. They said that if you rotate the casing to open the holes, the tone changes, though, which also seems to affect the volume. They said, "I have 6-month-old twins and it's only been a few days, but since using this, they have slept through the night without waking! It's much better than our previous white noise machine which had a timer on it and would turn itself off after 20 mins, often waking the babies."

Going on holiday with your baby this summer? Ensure you get a good night's sleep wherever you go with Suzy The Portable Baby Soother, which attaches to your travel cot or car seat with a fastening strap. One reviewer says, "The quiet Velcro fastenings are a hit!" They said it really helped to settle their little one while they were out and about, and then liked that it's a great size, lightweight, with a variety of sounds to choose from.

The soother produces six different calming noises, including heartbeat, shushing, and white noise. It will shut off automatically after 20 minutes, but the clever cry sensor will automatically reactivate the sound whenever your baby wakes. One reviewer says, "I got this after seeing a newborn photographer using it during our shoot and being amazed at how well it settled my newborn." they also liked that it was handy and portable, as well as really simple to use, saying their four year old can use it. They do point out that the automatic start up when their baby stirs isn’t as sensitive as they'd like but still thought it was quite good and said it does work before he gets too upset.