You thought you could use short car rides to help your child fall asleep faster until your toddler cannot do so without it.
Nissan, a car company, calls it “dream driving,” or when parents rely on car rides to put their children to sleep. In the U.K., according to a study by the car company, 60% of parents depend on it and 57% do it at least once a week. Many Filipino parents do it, too.
The car manufacturing company collaborated with sound designer and sleep coach Tom Middleton to create lullabies that mimic the sounds of a car’s combustion engine targeted especially for babies. These playlist’s tracks claim tom help put your little one to sleep without unnecessary, wasteful gas mileage.
It’s not just the car motion that lulls a baby to sleep.
Many parents who practice dream driving believe it’s the car’s steady motion that lulls babies and young children to sleep. (It works in adults, too!) Babies in the womb are always gently rocked as a pregnant woman moves about during her daily routine.
But it’s not just movement; it’s the engine, too. “It’s [also] white noise that babies also are used to. This muffled kind of sound in the womb,” developmental psychologist Tracy Cassels told Fatherly.
Nissan noise and vibration development manager Paul Speed-Andrews explained via a press release that car combustion engines make a constant humming noise. It is a frequency, which is a “combination of white, pink, and brown noise varied in tone” that’s “especially soothing and comforting to young children,” he added.
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW"Even for easy babies, white noise is a must. It makes good sleep even better. And it helps prevent the sleep disasters that may ruin your life between four and 12 months!" says Dr. Harvy Karp, M.D., author of The Happiest Baby on the Block and more baby care books.
Don’t use just one white noise all the time.
Nissan’s Dream Drive Lullaby playlist aims to get parents off the habit to also save gas and help preserve the environment. “Every sound you can hear comes from building an orchestra of sounds and rhythms from interior and exterior recordings,” Middleton assured.
The playlist consists of five three-minute tracks arranged in order as to how a dream drive goes. First, to be tucked in comfortably to when the child starts drifting, up to when he’s sound asleep. The lullaby is done in 15 minutes, but it doesn't guarantee that your child will be asleep by then. According to Nissan's research, parents spend about 20 to 25 minutes of dream driving.
While Dr. Karp recommends playing white noise to help babies sleep, he cautions against using it all the time. Your kid might become too dependent on it like he or she may be with dream driving. Vary the type of white noise you play for your child to put him to bed. Other white noise sounds like sounds of waves and rain work equally well.
Nissan’s Dream Drive Lullaby playlist is free and available on several music platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube Music, Google, and Amazon. Other white noise music tracks are also available on different music platforms.
CONTINUE READING BELOWwatch nowAs mandated by Philippine law, kids should always use a car seat when riding in vehicles. Safe sleep experts, however, do not recommend children to sleep in them when it's not used in a car. Click here for car safety seat guidelines.
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