Athens Exchange - Shhhh! The red light is on....

Shhhh! The red light is on....

Babies need their rest. Everyone knows that. Frankly, napping is really the only thing that newborns are somewhat decent at. Well, that and being incredibly cute. But what happens when their precious sleep is disturbed? They cry. And cry. And cry. For babies born premature, however, not getting enough quality sleep can lead to more than just a parent’s headache. It can actually slow their development.

This is a growing concern in neonatal intensive care units where there can often be too much noise and light for the infant to get real sleep.

A new monitoring system that measures audio and light levels in NCIUs called Sonicu is now being used in several hospitals in Indiana.

The latest version of this device streams sound and light data to a base computer which is connected to cone-shaped lights. When the room gets too loud, the lights go from green (quiet) to yellow (a bit noisy) to red (loud), to let parents and doctors know that they need to keep it down. It’s kind of like an electronic librarian, only just for babies.

Keeping it quiet is extremely important when it comes to letting the little ones sleep.

"The sounds ... come from all different directions and all different sources, and they're often associated with unpleasant sensations for the baby," Dr. Bob White, a neonatologist at South Bend's Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis said.

For preemies and even sick babies, noise just louder than a normal conversation can cause heart beats that are either too fast or too slow. Because they were born too soon, their ears are not developed enough to filter sound without the protection of the mother’s womb.

Sonicu’s inventor Chris Smith was inspired to make this device after watching how his own premature son was affected by harsh lighting and sounds.

"There's no good way for the nurses or doctors to walk up to a parent, tap them on the shoulder and say, 'You're being too loud,'" Smith said. "That's confrontational."

One thing is for sure, this new monitoring system is one way to keep the annoying adults-talking-as-babies thing down to a minimum. Or at least down to a decibel that is bearable for the rest of the world.