I love the sound of falling water. Would an indoor fountain / waterfall in my bedroom be soothing and help me sleep, or will it keep me awake and give me insomnia?
I don’t have any major problems sleeping and my neighborhood is relatively quiet (outside sounds do not keep me up), but sometimes I have trouble sleeping (as I assume most people do).
I bought a cheap tabletop fountain because my kid was obsessed with the texture of water, and I really liked it. Helped me focus my head, kind of hypnotic.
I use an noisemaker in my bedroom, but I’ve had the joy of being in a cabin near a real waterfall, and it was wonderful. Rain on the roof is also beautiful. If nothing else, distant traffic is soothing – until the fire-truck wails past.
It’s totally individual. What works for one person might fail horribly for the next.
Warning: if you go with an electronic sound-maker, check that it generates the sound, rather than plays a recorded sound. The sound has to be random. If the device has a sequence of sound in memory, and just plays that over and over – you’ll eventually learn it, and start to anticipate bits of it. ("Oh, we’re coming up on the place where the water “plops.” “Plop.” “Yep. Every 48 seconds.”)
I have a little travel device that has a 9 second loop. It’s not restful. It’s hideous!
I tried mynoise.net last night and it was perfect. There are lots of sounds and you can adjust the sound spectrum and volume, etc. So I’m not going to get an actual fountain. Thank you to everyone who gave their ideas!
I used to have a fish tank in my bedroom. I got a new filter for it that made kind of a waterfall sound. The first night I had it, I think I was up six times to go to the bathroom. I got used to it after a while, though.
While individual preferences vary, water definitely helps me. One of the reasons I build a pond/waterfall in my backyard is so that I listen to it at night. It’s also loud enough to drown out a little bit of traffic and pet noise from the neighborhood so I’m eliminating some negative noises.