Summary One hundred and twenty‐six children, 3 to 63 weeks of age, have been exposed to a mixed noise (100‐7000 Hz) in intensities between 50 and 80 dB under steady conditions of room acoustic during different periods of time between 10.30 p.m. and 01.00 a.m. A noise level of 75 dB led to obvious sleep disturbance or waking‐up in ⅔ of the children after 3 minutes and in all after 12 minutes. The waking threshold according to these investigations is higher than in adults. A 24‐hour recording of the noise level in different types of infants' and children's care units demonstrated that the acoustic stress– especially by “interior working‐noise”–in care units of light construction reaches or exceeds the obligate waking‐noise threshold of infants during most of the day and night hours. This is regarded as a deficiency of hospital hygiene.

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