# White Noise Machines



## ashmamma84 (Aug 28, 2007)

I'm interested in purchasing one, but I don't know where to begin...has anyone had success with it? Where did you purchase it? 

If anyone can provide some suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated!


TIA!


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## TraciJo67 (Aug 28, 2007)

ashmamma84 said:


> I'm interested in purchasing one, but I don't know where to begin...has anyone had success with it? Where did you purchase it?
> 
> If anyone can provide some suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> ...



Ashmamma, I've been using a sound machine for years. My preferred noise is a fan in the window (it's how I grew up ... lulled to sleep by a cooling breeze & the whir of the fan), but since we have central air, that's not very practical. I use this, purchased at Target.


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## CrankySpice (Aug 28, 2007)

I am a sleep freak, in more ways than one. I'm sure someone who knows my sleep habits will chime in about what a nut I am, but one thing I love is my white noise machine. I've had mine for at least 10 years, I think actually 12 years now, and I bought it at Brookstone. I've seen them at Bed & Bath, too, and they look very similar. I personally prefer either the roaring river sound or the steady vacuum sound. My boyfriend likes the peepers (frogs) but I find it distracting....I want a noise I'm going to forget, not one that entertains me.


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## Miss Vickie (Aug 28, 2007)

I have a sound machine that I like, though not as much as the one I used to have. I can't remember what kind it is but it had several sounds and it actually had an alarm to wake you up with an increasing in volume sound of your choice. It eventually died but I liked it for the several years that I had it, particularly the waking to a gentle sound and not the screaming of an alarm clock. The one I have now doesn't have an alarm but I use my dawn simulator as an alarm clock anyway, which is also a nice, gentle way to wake up.

I'm a day sleeper who lives not far from a small airport so yeah... sound machines? Pretty much a necessity for me.


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## ashmamma84 (Aug 28, 2007)

Great feedback! Thanks a bunch...I think I'm going to head to Target and Brookstone to see some in person. I'm a hands-on kinda gal...I want to see all it's functions. 

Now question, are these battery operated or is it something you plug into the wall?


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## SamanthaNY (Aug 28, 2007)

Just to clarify - white noise machines are different from sound machines. White noise is produced by combining sounds of all different frequencies together, thus _canceling out_ random sounds that can bother a person. True white noise producing machines will cost $50 and up (into the $hundreds), while sound machines are relatively inexpensive ($some for $20), contain a variety of sounds to choose from, but don't 'cancel' surrounding noises - just layer over them. 

White noise machines will generally plug in only (as far as I know...), while sound machines can be battery or ac operated.


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## Tina (Aug 28, 2007)

Ash, I got a sound machine from Radio Shack that I like for about $40. Listening to the rain, or the babbling brook, works for me. I gave my son my old one that was made by Sharper Image, and is actually better. I loved the ocean one on that, but one night, the sounds of the seagulls were incorporated into a dream where they were evil seagulls (some kind of a nightmare I cannot recall now), so I stopped listening to that one.  

ETA: The one from Target looks really good.


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## TraciJo67 (Aug 28, 2007)

Ash, I just noticed the price on the link I sent you. I didn't pay anywhere NEAR that at the Target I bought my machine from. In fact, I don't think I paid more than $50. I do know there are a lot to choose from at Target (online, even moreso) and prices start at around $20.


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## Tina (Aug 28, 2007)

Boy, it must have really gone up in price then since you bought, yours, eh Traci? Does yours have evil seagulls?


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## TraciJo67 (Aug 28, 2007)

Tina said:


> Boy, it must have really gone up in price then since you bought, yours, eh Traci? Does yours have evil seagulls?



Well, either that, or mine is a different model without the bells & whistles. Same manufacturer, though ... and looks the same, too (though mine is a different color, more eggshell). 

You know, I have mine set to "rain", and have since the day I bought it. I don't even know what sounds I have. 

If they ever sell a "Farm Livin' is the Life For Me" sound machine, I'm so there. I grew up learning to tune out multiple layers of noise by focusing only on the whir of a window fan: dogs barking, chickens clucking, cows moooooooooing & pigs squealing, siblings enthusiastically trying to kill each other right outside my bedroom window (well, ok ...technically, that's not a farm sound), crickets chirping & birds trilling "bob WHITE bob WHITE bob WHITE" ...


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## mossystate (Aug 28, 2007)

For years, I did the fan in the bedroom thing, then, I knew I needed more. I started using ear plugs, and they work well for me. I also have to have a darker than normal room. I cannot sleep in a room that has blinds..lets in way too much light as morning approaches. There are nights where I can hear my heart..or blood doing its thing, so, I might look into a machine. A friend of mine had his set on some Amazon rainforest setting.... ...yeah...CAW..CAW..CAW...just what I want to hear at night..it WAS a bit unsettling.


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## Tina (Aug 28, 2007)

TraciJo67 said:


> If they ever sell a "Farm Livin' is the Life For Me" sound machine, I'm so there. I grew up learning to tune out multiple layers of noise by focusing only on the whir of a window fan: dogs barking, chickens clucking, cows moooooooooing & pigs squealing, siblings enthusiastically trying to kill each other right outside my bedroom window (well, ok ...technically, that's not a farm sound), crickets chirping & birds trilling "bob WHITE bob WHITE bob WHITE" ...


Traci, you get imaginary rep for my first laugh of the day.  I'd give you the real thing, but I'm still on a mission to rep everyone in my birthday thread, and who sent me birthday rep but didn't post, so I'm out of rep. I would love the ability to give more rep. 

Mossy, I have a setting that is crickets chirping. The one drives me out of my gourd and I would never think of using it. Ever!


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## furious styles (Aug 28, 2007)

i just stand in the corner and go "pshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"


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## Tad (Aug 28, 2007)

TraciJo67 said:


> Ashmamma, I've been using a sound machine for years. My preferred noise is a fan in the window (it's how I grew up ... lulled to sleep by a cooling breeze & the whir of the fan), but since we have central air, that's not very practical. I use this, purchased at Target.



I have to have some background noise as well. I've had an air purifier in my room for close to 20 years, due to allergies, usually running pretty near my head. So that does the job for me pretty well. Failing that, an electric fan works. 

But if you get a real white noise generator, I'd love a report on how you like it. It might be the perfect thing to lull me to sleep!

-Ed


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## SocialbFly (Aug 28, 2007)

i dont know where i would be without my white noise machine...if i dont have it (grrr like now) i usually use a fan, and when it is cold, i still use a fan just pointed wayyyyy away from me...it truly does help, i am one of those people that hears everything and as a daytime sleeper in an apt building, not a good idea...

all mine is is a round sound machine, here is a description that i stole off of ebay...
MARPAC 580A SLEEP MATE WHITE NOISE SLEEP /SOUND MACHINE
that is what i use, or actually a much older version of the same...best purchase for sleep ever...but i am waiting for a travel version of it, cause now sleeping without it is hard....
ya just cant win...


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## SocialbFly (Aug 28, 2007)

look what i found...a travel one!!!

Marpac Marsona TSC-330 White Noise Sound Machine

ohhh i should add i bought one for my nieces room when they were babies, best purchase ever...turn that on, and those babies slept through everything, even storms and one of my nieces is a total freak about storms...so....


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## Tracyarts (Aug 29, 2007)

We have both a white noise machine and a sound machine.

For some reason, the white noise machine is anything but restful to me. But when we first got married, Dear Husband was a day-sleeper because of his night job and it was essential to help him get enough rest.

We have an alarm clock with a built in sound machine, and we use the sound machine now. I really like having it on a low volume just for background noise, not to cancel any other noise out. I lived all my life inside the city, and I do mean INSIDE the city. Now that we live in surburbia, it is too flipping quiet at night! So I turn on the sound machine to either rain or stream. The water sounds are really soothing and enough noise to fill in that place in my brain that is used to background noise.

Tracy


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## Jane (Aug 29, 2007)

If I used a machine with water sounds, I would be up at least once an hour going to the bathroom.


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## love dubh (Aug 29, 2007)

My cousin had a sound machine whose one sound was heartbeat.


"IT WAS THE BEATING OF THE HIDEOUS HEAAAAAAART!"

TTH, anyone?


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## Jane (Aug 30, 2007)

love dubh said:


> My cousin had a sound machine whose one sound was heartbeat.
> 
> 
> "IT WAS THE BEATING OF THE HIDEOUS HEAAAAAAART!"
> ...



"Nevermore!!"


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## SocialbFly (Sep 2, 2007)

They use that one a lot with new born babies to simulate them still being in the uterus close to the mommy's heart beat...they even have teddy bears that do that, now that kinda creeps me out...


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## mpls_girl26 (Sep 6, 2007)

I live in the city so my noise is cars, buses, firetrucks and airplanes. Oh....don't forget the loud and obnoxious neighbors around me! When my niece was up here with me this summer I turned on my window a/c unit and fan on to block out the noise which helped her. Otherwise she was up ALL the time asking me what a noise was....lol. 

This all reminds me too of that Sex and the City episode where Carrie is staying the night at Burger's house with the sound machine. Am I the only addict here for that show?


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## SocialbFly (Sep 6, 2007)

I love love love sex and the city...i had hbo on demand in florida and caught up on all the episodes i missed...cant decide who i am most like, so i choose a combo of three, just not Charlotte...too cute and too uptight 
(sorry Ash for derailing your thread with this...lol)


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