and I don’t know how I ever slept without one
I don’t have CH/A so in the summertime I sleep wonderfully to the noise of the A/C. In the winter though, it’s dead silent in the house as the space heaters make no noise. Bah.
Finally went on Ebay and bought one. It’s great.
Hmm, bout as mundane as you can get I’d say.
They’re fabulous! I have several, including one that runs on batteries in case I want to use in a foreign city or a really loud forest. Seriously, I’ve used it when we were camping.
That may be mundane and/or pointless or silly, or all of the above.
Do you mind saying how much it cost? I have tinnitus which continues to get worse and I will probably have to get a white noise machine at some point.
beckwall it’s funny that you should use it camping because one of the settings is called “summer’s night” and it’s basically a bunch of crickets chirping. Drives me insane I tell ya. Definitely one setting I will not use though my husband likes that one.
buns, well on ebay after all was said and done I paid 16.80 and that was inclucing S&H etc.
The bidding started out at $5.00 and there are lots on ebay. Take a look there.
by the way I am googling tinnitus.
What brand? Where didja find one? We’ve been looking for battery operated white noise makers for when we’re camping*.
Pullin
*in an RV. Sometimes parks are noisy but we don’t want to run the A/C all night just for the noise.
I’ve had one for going on 7 years.
My mom bought it for us when I was pregnant with out son. To help him sleep at night as one of the buttons has a heart beat. That is way too much " Murder in the Roux Morgue-ish".
My son never needed it, but I cannot live without it. And it really really x1000 helps since I now have tinnitus in my right ear. WHAT!? The only bummer is that it goes for 1 hour on it’s longest setting. But this one that I have ( which is probably obselete by now) has been played every night, nearly all night, for seven years, minus a few vacations here and there.)
I can’t live with out it.
For those with tinnitus (whheeeee!) another option I’ve found is a radio playing NPR or classical music all night helps divert the ringing/clicking noises. It’s aliens talking to me, I know it. What drives Mr. Ujest bonkers is that sometimes the radio goes off the dial a little and it is staticky, but I cannot really hear it anyways.
I must have white noise when I sleep as well. In the summer I have my fan, but using a fan in the winter is cold. So I tried having the fan face somewhere else. Didn’t work. So now I just put an old sweater or blanket over it. There’s still the white noise, but no breeze.
Neat thing is- soon as you go to sleep, you’ll be hearing the voices of the dead in the white noise.
Sleep tight! 
In the winter when a fan is too cold to use for “white noise”, I switch to one of those small room humidifiers. Puts some moisture into the dry air and makes some good noise, for about $20.
You guys are crazy. I can’t stand white noise when sleeping. I like absolute, deathly silence.
I have tinnititus.
The ear nose and throat DR that diagnosed it suggested the FM station off channel for the white noise.
I’ve had it for so many years now that it is seldom a problem unless I am reading some terribly boreing stuff.
it is quite beautiful that I am not alone w/the white noise machine. Oddly enough I can’t stand the white noise option, I’ve been using the ocean waves or the spring rain.
Shirley about the heart beat one…hehehehe…my husband didn’t know I got the machine so when we went to bed and her turned out the lights, I turned it on that setting.
It really freaked him out which made my sleep even better that night. bwhahahahahah divorce is around the corner.
Mine’s silver.
Jus a leetle joke.
Where do you live that you can get absolute si…
Oh, Canada. I see. 
my “white noise machine” is really nice, it even has aquatic plants and fish in it…
yes, it’s a 20 Long fish tank (specifically the “WN machine” is the filter, an AquaClear 70), it has a few settings…
“impeller hum”
“waterfall”
and sometimes…
“annoying buzzing lid noise”
not really a fan of the last one…
heh!
Seeing as how our backyard is mostly train tracks and our view is mostly elevated freeway, we’re longtime users of The Fan. We used to just point it away from the bed and out the door for non-summer use (in Texas, that’s roughly November through March). But ‘cause I have nasty allergies, we recently invested in a Whispure True Hepa 250 air filterer, and turns out it has the sweetest non-breeze-making white noise you could ask for. (Well, OK, it makes a lil’ bit of breeze where the clean air comes out the top, but nothing like The Fan.) It has three equally sweet settings, lo med and hi, too.
Before we got that, I was scoping various single-purpose white noise machines, but didn’t much care for the audio quality on the ones I previewed.
I’ve got a white noise machine which I seldom use. I sleep badly so it wouldn’t hurt to drag it out and give it another try. The ‘ocean’ sound was the most authentic, I found.
hehehehe…I’m an extremely light sleeper, and I usually have to have a fan going to mask the miscellaneous random noises. Even so, my fish tank is downstairs from my bedroom, and I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve gotten up within five minutes of going to bed to go down and bang on the lid to get rid of “annoying buzzing lid noise”. Even the “waterfall” option is too noisy for me. It’s noisiest when the water level drops below a certain level, thereby providing a constant, nagging reminder that I’m neglecting my tank’s upkeep and leading to restless dreams of my pet fish being slowly poisoned. So, bottomline, I personally wouldn’t suggest an aquarium as a white noise machine.