A sound machine should cover the neighbor and the traffic without adding a loop you start to hear at 2 a.m.
We slept with fan machines and with digital brown and pink noise in a city bedroom. The useful ones disappeared. The bad ones had a seam you waited for.
Masking, not music
A mechanical fan has no loop. It also has a pitch you cannot change much, and a motor that may tick as it ages. Digital noise can be shaped and can also repeat if the sample is short. You notice the repeat the night you are already awake.
- A sound that still masks speech at a volume you can sleep through.
- No obvious loop if you listen for a minute in the dark.
- A timer you can defeat, if you want it all night.
- A volume knob you can find without a screen in your face.
If you can count the repeat, it is not masking anything. It is another noise.
In the bedroom
Place it across the room, not on the nightstand by your ear. You want the room filled, not a speaker next to your head. Start quieter than the demonstration in the store.
Choose the sound you stop noticing. That is the one that works.
