Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I want to start by saying that anyone with a smartphone already has a white noise machine: Download the free app Rain, Rain, make sure you set your Do Not Disturb so that no calls or texts can wake you, hang it on the wall near your bed, and you're done. That's how I began this journey. I take a handful of pills to sleep every night, which works great for FALLING asleep, but if I wake during the early morning hours, it's hit-or-miss whether I get to go back to sleep. I reasoned that if I could train my brain during the time I reliably fall asleep by associating sleep with a sound (in my case, rain), that if I just continued to play that sound all night, I could more easily fall back asleep. It worked. (So, now you know how to test whether a white noise machine might work for you, first, and what you like and don't like in one.) New problem: Playing the app all night was draining my battery faster than I wanted. So, head to Amazon for a "white noise machine". And prepare to be overwhelmed. Instead, I searched the web for highly rated machines, and that's how I found this one. Criteria to consider: (1) Do the sounds you choose obviously loop, or sound fake? (Jarring.) (2) Do they include unwanted sudden loud bursts (seagulls, thunder)? (3) Can the machine be set to run all night, or does it only offer timed options? (4) Does it have lighted buttons that don't go out? (Seriously?? Why on earth do companies think it's okay to have lighted buttons on a machine that's supposed to help you sleep?!) (5) Is the power cord long enough to reach my wall outlet? (And if you want to travel with it, can it run on batteries as well?) (6) Is the footprint small enough to fit where I need it to? In the case of this machine, I cannot imagine anyone who bought this not being able to find a sound that lulls them to sleep. There are **48** options from rain (with various amounts of thunder) and ocean (with or without seagulls and buoys); to a crackling fire; home appliance sounds; a train, car, or boat ride; crowd noises (4 different venues to choose from); fans; or just plenty of choices of white noise. After I started using it, two more things occurred to me that I hadn't considered before: (1) Once you know what each raised, shaped button on this does (easily accomplished with a 20-30 minute "what does all this do?" session), you will be able to make adjustments, not just in the dark, but with your eyes closed. Awesome, and something to consider if choosing a cheaper machine without these kinds of buttons. (2) In case you're considering an even more expensive option, two of these little guys should do just as well for you. With the optional adaptive feature, if your trouble is outside noise, each will get louder as the room noise grows. Do this in stereo and I'm pretty sure your problem is solved. I bought this one because it was the cheapest of the three Sound + Sleep machines ($57 as of this writing), so cannot compare it to the regular size High Fidelity machine, or the SE Special Edition one, but this was good for my purposes - as good as my cell phone with an app. The only possible downside to this is that I wish the speaker were on the front instead of on the top. But I figured out that if I really want to change this, I can jury-rig something that will hold the (front, now bottom) slightly off the top of the nightstand, so the surface contact doesn't interfere with the button settings. Lastly, because of their user ratings, sound choices, and front-facing speakers, I think if I only had 20 bucks to spend on a machine like this, I would have chosen this one or this one, and just taped over the power button to kill the light. Hope this helps.