Mom Thought Baby Needed Sound Machine To Sleep, Until Test Revealed Truth

A mom of twins was convinced her daughter needed a sound machine to help her get to sleep at night, until a test at eight months old revealed the truth.

Becoming a mother for the first time is a shock to the system, however much someone might prepare, and nowhere is that more evident than in the level of sleep deprivation they are likely to face.

A 2025 study presented at the SLEEP annual meeting (American Academy of Sleep Medicine) tracked first-time mothers using wearable sleep data and found that new mothers averaged just 4.4 hours of sleep per day in the first week after birth.

While the study found that sleep levels returned to an average of around 7.3 hours per day once children hit eight weeks of age, periods of continuous sleep remained much shorter at around 3 to 4 hours at a time, for months.

Given the challenges of looking after a baby on a day-to-day basis, anything that might help an infant sleep for longer is always going to be welcome.

In the case of new Reagan Lester, 25, this was something she was mindful of prior to the arrival of her twins Lakyn and Crew. "I watched all these videos and researched everything I could to be prepared for our first born," Lester told Newsweek.

One of those preparations involved the purchase of a sound machine that she became convinced her daughter Lakyn slept better with.

"Looking back it did seem like the sound machine was something that she had to have in order for her to sleep," Lester said. "I kept her room the perfect temperature, the fan the perfect speed, and the sound machine playing the same sound every night to assure she would fall asleep easily and sleep well."

The decision to use a sound machine was one backed up by evidence. In 2025, a randomized trial published in Archives of Disease in Childhood found that 80 percent of newborns fell asleep within five minutes when exposed to white noise, compared with just 25 percent without it, highlighting its effectiveness in helping infants settle and sleep.

However, Lester and her husband would soon learn that, whatever the effectiveness of white noise, a sound machine was largely useless to Lakyn.

Lester can still remember one of the first times she began to suspect Lakyn might be deaf. "She was around five months old. It was Fourth of July and she didn't even flinch at the fireworks," she said. "I remember jokingly telling my husband ‘so when do we bring up the doctor that we think she is deaf.’"

Three months later, their doctor conducted a hearing test on Lakyn that confirmed she was almost completely deaf. There was more though. Further tests revealed Lakyn had a very rare genetic bone disorder that causes skeletal dysplasia, a condition that impacts the growth, shape, and development of bone and cartilage.

"Basically she has a lot of bone overgrowth that has caused her moderate to severe hearing loss in one ear and severe hearing loss in the other ear," Lester said. It's led to other complications as well.

"She can't breathe through her nose and she will likely lose her vision in the future," Lester said.

Lakyn is undergoing further genetic testing. Doctors suspect she has Craniometaphyseal dysplasia (CMD), a rare genetic disorder characterized by the abnormal thickening of skull bones and the malformation of the ends of long bones in the arms and legs.

It could also be Craniodiphyseal Dysplasia, a condition that causes calcium to excessively build up in the skull and facial bones. This can lead to severe facial deformities and can put pressure on nerves and the brain. There's no cure for either condition.

"To get the news that our daughter that we prayed for over a year just to get pregnant with has all of these medical issues is devastating," Lester said. "But we are so thankful for her hearing aids and we choose to see the positive in our situation."

Lester puts much of that positive outlook down to Lakyn. "We are lucky to have such a happy outgoing girl who loves to sign and wear her hearing aids," she said. "She teaches us something new every day!"

Looking back, Lester wonders whether the sound machine had a calming effect on her rather than Lakyn. "Maybe those things are what eased my mind and calmed my anxiety which she vibed off of," she said.

The focus right now though is looking forwards and adjusting to the family's new normal. That starts with studying American Sign Language and therapy sessions for deaf families, as well as continued appointments with a specialist. Family life may look a little different to what they expected but everyone is learning to take things in their stride.

"Right Lakyn is just like every other toddler except she gets to turn her ears on and off when she wants to listen," Lester said. "All of this just goes to show you that you can research all you want when it comes to your first baby but there will still be things that surprise you."

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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 10:41 AM.