Mozart lullaby for baby

What this sound is

The melody known as the Mozart lullaby is the Wiegenlied listed as K. 350 in the Köchel catalogue. An honest note: music historians now attribute the piece not to Mozart but to a contemporary, Bernhard Flies or J. F. A. Fleischmann; the Mozart name was a mistake that stuck. Whoever wrote it, the melody is late eighteenth century and public domain. It moves in a gently rocking six-eight time, a little livelier than Brahms but within a narrow range. The version in Agubu plays in a music-box tone, slowly and without words; the card in the app says simply: K. 350, music-box tone. The melody repeats by itself; what brings it down is the timer, not the end of a pass.

Why it may help

Unlike the noises, a lullaby does not mask; it gives a sleep signal learned through repetition. When the same melody plays in the same order every evening, a baby starts to recognise the signal within a few weeks; the routine does more than the sound itself. Its gently rocking rhythm pairs with rocking in your arms; being a little livelier than Brahms, some parents put it at the start of the evening routine and Brahms at the end. On the evidence, most lullaby research is small and looks at singing live; for a recorded lullaby the evidence is thinner still. Claims sold as the Mozart effect have nothing to do with sleep. Keep the routine for a few weeks; the sleep log will tell.

Safe use

A lullaby is music, so the urge to turn it up is natural; the limit is still the one for the noises, set out in the white noise guide.

• Keep the volume low: the level recommended for hospital nurseries is about 50 decibels. The practical test is simple: if you can talk in a normal voice in the room and still be heard easily, the level is fine; if the sound drowns you out, it is too loud.
• Do not put the phone or speaker in the cot or on its edge. Keep it at least one to two metres away, and avoid headphones, sound toys attached to the cot and any speaker close to the baby's ear.
• Use the timer. Fading the sound out 20 to 30 minutes after your baby has fallen asleep is usually enough. If you leave it on through the night, keep the level genuinely low.
• Turn it down once your baby has settled, and do not let a loud setting become the habit even briefly. Do not leave it running all day while your baby is awake, because it masks the speech they learn from.
• This melody is a little livelier than Brahms; if it wakes your baby up rather than winds them down, move it to the start of the routine and end with a stiller lullaby or a flat sound.

How to play it in Agubu

1. Open Agubu, go to the Sounds tab at the bottom and tap the Mozart's lullaby card under Lullaby. This sound is part of the Premium library, so the card shows a Premium badge until you subscribe. The eight free sounds and the timer stay open to everyone. It plays on your device offline, with nothing to download.
2. Set the volume with your own ears first: if you can speak in a normal voice in the room and still be heard, it is low enough. Place the phone one to two metres from the cot.
3. Tap Timer and pick a duration. When it runs out the sound does not stop abruptly; it fades down slowly. Twenty to thirty minutes after your baby has fallen asleep is enough on most nights.
4. If you like, layer it in the Mixer: a low rain layer under the Mozart lullaby avoids the drop into silence when the melody ends. The Mixer is a Premium feature and blends up to four sounds at separate levels. Sounds play without ads and the app needs no internet connection.

When to use it

• As a step of the bedtime routine, in the same order every evening; the livelier lullaby first, the calmer one last.
• At the start of the evening routine, while your baby is still awake, to mark the turn from play to sleep.
• Before a daytime nap, in the minute or two of quiet just before you put your baby down.