Why steady sound helps a baby settle
Homes are rarely silent, and small changes in noise can be enough to stir a sleeping baby. A soft, continuous sound gives the room a gentle, even backdrop, so a creaking floor or a passing car is less likely to stand out.
White noise is the classic choice here. It is a smooth, unbroken sound with no sudden peaks, which is why so many parents reach for it at nap time and through the night. Rain works in a similar way, with a soft, natural texture that many babies and parents find soothing.
Driftly keeps this simple. White noise and Forest Rain are both in the free tier, so you can try the two most common baby sounds before deciding on anything.
White noise and rain in Driftly
Driftly has 29 ambient sounds across 11 categories, and the ones most parents look for are easy to find.
You can also blend sounds. Driftly lets you mix up to 10 at once with a volume slider for each, so you can set a quiet base of white noise and add just a touch of rain until it feels right, then save that mix for next time.
- White noise, free, a smooth and even sound for a calm backdrop
- Forest Rain, free, a gentle natural rainfall
- Rain on a tent and rain with thunder, premium, for a softer or richer texture
- Pink noise and brown noise, premium, deeper and warmer variations on plain white noise
How to use Driftly at nap time and through the night
Two features make Driftly easy to live with once your baby is asleep.
The sleep timer fades the sound out gradually rather than cutting it off, and you can set it anywhere from 1 to 720 minutes. Use a short fade for a nap, or a longer one to carry through the early part of the night.
Background playback keeps the sound going with the screen off, so you can lock the phone, dim it and set it down. Everything is saved on your device and plays offline, so nothing streams, nothing buffers and there is no connection to drop in the middle of the night.
There are no ads, no accounts and no sign-up. Driftly plays the moment you open it, so there is nothing to interrupt a quiet room.
A calm note on safe use
Sound is here for comfort, not as medical advice, so a little care goes a long way.
Keep the volume low. A gentle, background level is plenty, and there is no need to reach for anything loud. Place the phone or speaker well away from the crib rather than inside or against it, and give it a bit of distance. Above all, follow your own pediatric guidance on infant sleep, since your paediatrician or health visitor knows your child best.
Driftly is a comfort tool for the whole family. It is not a monitor and it does not make any medical claims.
One app for the whole family
The same calm sounds that help a baby settle can help you wind down too. Alongside white noise and rain, Driftly includes guided meditations with two warm voices from 3 to 30 minutes, sleep stories, and a full breathwork library with exercises like Box Breathing and 4-7-8.
The free tier covers the essentials, including four ambient sounds, a guided meditation, three breathing exercises, the sleep timer, the alarm and saved mixes. Everything else is a single one-time purchase, with no subscription. Your practice history backs up privately to your own iCloud on iPhone, or through Google backup on Android, so nothing sits on our servers.