We all know that the secret to waking up refreshed in the morning is to get quality sleep. However, a good night’s sleep can be elusive. If you toss and turn or wake up frequently in the night, a white noise machine could help you sleep more soundly and get the rest you need.
The best white noise machine (also known as a sound machine) can help you fall asleep and stay asleep by cloaking different intrusive sounds from outside your room. When I lived in an apartment complex with questionably thin walls, sound machines drowned out environmental noises like crying babies, revving engines and barking dogs.
Use These 27 Tips to Help You Sleep Better Starting Tonight
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably trying to find ways to get better sleep, or to help someone else improve their sleep
. To help everyone get more shut-eye and snooze more deeply, I tested a selection of white noise machines. If they can send me — the self-proclaimed lightest sleeper ever — to dreamland, there is hope they can help you get a good night’s sleep too.
Read more: Which Is the Best for Sleeping: Pink, Brown or White Noise?
Unlike many models, the LectroFan doesn’t have sounds of birds chirping, ocean waves, water falling or other nature sounds going on, and I think that’s a good thing. It means that people who buy a white noise machine for white noise are getting exactly what they want. The LectroFan has 20 total sounds — 10 white noise sounds and 10 fan sounds. It’s only got three buttons on the front: power, volume control and sound selection. The adjustable volume control is pretty sensitive, and I’ve never had a problem finding just the right volume to mask outside sounds on any given night — I’ve used the LectroFan on and off for about six months, both at home and while traveling.
What I love: I really adore the simplicity of the LectroFan. Its small size and portability add to that. This is the perfect white noise machine for people who don’t need much in the way of sound options, but do need to bring their white noise machine when they travel.
What I don’t love: There’s not anything to really dislike about the LectroFan, unless you’re looking for something with nature sounds. If that’s the case, definitely look elsewhere.
Honeywell makes trustworthy, high-quality products, and the Dreamweaver Sleep Fan is no different. This small bedside fan doubles as a sound machine, but it doesn’t actually use white noise — it uses pink noise, a softer type of ambient noise that’s been shown to increase time spent in deep sleep and improve memory. When I was living in a busy apartment complex, this fan-and-pink-noise combo helped drown out the sounds of cars and passers-by.
What I love: There’s a little night light on top of the unit that has three levels; if you like to sleep in pitch-black darkness, tap it three times to turn it off completely. If you like a little bit of light, the Dreamweaver can be your white noise machine, night-light and fan all in one.
What I don’t love: It seems like the fan collects dust pretty easily, but that’s what fans do. It’s nothing a quick wipe-down can’t fix.
The Hatch Restore is a great multifunctional white noise machine that also serves as a sunrise alarm clock (something you should consider if you hate waking up to abrupt and invasive alarm sounds).
What I loved most about the Hatch Restore is its ease of use: With the Hatch Sleep app, you can set up an entire bedtime routine with multiple alarms so you can have separate ones for weekdays and weekends. You can also adjust volume, light intensity and sounds. For example, here’s what I set up on my Hatch Restore:
- A bedtime routine that starts with 20 minutes of reading — the Hatch Restore softly illuminates my room with peach-colored light.
- A 10-minute wind-down guided meditation. You can choose from several in the Hatch app, plus more with a premium subscription.
- Pink noise that continues until my alarm goes off.
- A 30-minute sunrise alarm that culminates in the Mountain Alps sound — I wake to what sounds like an early winter morning.
You set all of this up in the app, but you don’t need your phone nearby to start your bedtime routine: You can simply tap the button on top of the Hatch Restore to get things going. Without a premium subscription, you have access to more than 20 hues of light and 31 sleep and wake sounds. If you’d like to explore more hues and sounds, you can subscribe and unlock additional content for $5 a month or $50 a year.
The Snooz White Noise Sound Machine is a good choice for people who want an authentic fan sound. Most white noise machines come with a fan sound, but if you’re used to falling asleep with a fan, you can tell the difference.
That’s where the Snooz comes in: This sleep machine is a simple acoustic enclosure with a mechanical fan on the inside. Obviously, this means the sound doesn’t loop, so that’s a bonus. By rotating the body of the machine, you can alter the pitch of the fan sound to find one that best drowns out the sounds keeping you awake.
I, for one, would probably just prefer to sleep with a fan because I sleep warm anyway. It’s kind of pricey for a white noise machine with such limited sound options, but the Snooz could work well for people who like fan sounds but don’t want cold air.
Watch this: Do these 8 things to sleep better tonight
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White noise machine FAQ
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