<p>My youngest is having a really difficult time sleeping at night due to the location of her room in the house (right next to kitchen and living rooms). She is simply not getting enough sleep and sounds exhausted everytime I talk to her. </p>
<p>What has worked for you/your student as far as devices go. Any particular brand of ear buds, ear-plugs, white-noise machines or other ideas?</p>
<p>A thought occurred to me: if the device is really effective, is it possible that she may not even hear her alarm go off?</p>
<p>My husband has a problem with sleeping and noise and we have been using this noise machine to sleep for over 10 years now (bought it before the days of ipod apps that make noise)</p>
<p>I suggest for a start though you try one of the free noise apps on a phone or ipod. One advantage to this would be that you can also set an alarm on the device and I think the alarm would overrule the noise machine so she would not sleep through it.</p>
<p>The Marpac sound conditioner is the best you will find, most reliable, better than any of the digital versions. My experience has been that the digital versions are not loud enough and they tend to stop working. Besides its use for sleeping, the Marpac is commonly used in professional offices to mask any sound leakage of sensitive interviews, etc.</p>
<p>A noise machine would make it even harder for me to sleep. Even the sound of the fan on in the downstairs bathroom keeps me awake. I use earplugs that can be bought at any drugstore. Get the ones that are really soft and you can’t even feel that they are there. It still allows me to hear a phone ring or a fire alarm, but blocks out everything else.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that your daughter is having trouble sleeping. Our kids use earplugs religiously. I will say that my daughter shared that she slept through a fire alarm once. No earplugs. Wow.</p>
<p>That said, I’ve had great luck using the White Noise - TMSOFT app. It is effective, has numerous sounds/volumes/selections/inexpensive and is simple enough to use if traveling. Perhaps, she could try that first.</p>
<p>On a trip, I was having problems sleeping because of loud revelers outside at night (who knew Germans could be so rowdy a 3 or 4 in the morning!). My friend lent me her Boise noise cancelling headphones and I was surprised how much they helped. You can still hear the outside noise but I guess your brain focuses on the white noise. </p>
<p>However I don’t think I could sleep with them regularly as they are:
a: very bulky (and I am a fetal position sleeper)
b: Very expensive</p>
<p>I love my white noise, tmsoft app. My fav is “beach waves crashing”</p>
<p>Would it be possible for her to swap rooms with one if the night owls? Sometimes something as simple as a padded (think cubicle wall) privacy screen by her bed can make a huge difference. She could even modify an existing 3 fold with foam or quilt batting and staple on some fun fabric.</p>
<p>So what would you liken the sound that the Marpac makes to?? A fan? Humming??</p>
<p>My kids all require white noise to sleep at night - my D that is still at home has both the ceiling fan going and a table top fan - and then she is all bundled under her covers cause she is freezing!!! I though maybe she could get by with ONE fan if she had this noise maker. :)</p>
<p>A low-tech tool: Swimmer’s earplugs (the silicon disks). Available at your grocery store. They block a lot of noise. Maybe use them in combination with the white noise generator?</p>
<p>I don’t leave home without them. DH also uses them when I snore too much.</p>
<p>The Marpac. It’s the best. It makes noise disappear behind a soothing nothing. My wife has serious sleep issues and this thing lets her sleep much better. You aren’t awakened by noises from elsewhere and if you are it soothes you back to sleep. The sound it makes becomes part of the background within minutes of your first exposure.</p>
<p>This is what we use - it pretty much looks just like the one on the link above.
[The</a> Original Sleep Sound Generator - Hammacher Schlemmer](<a href=“PageNotFound”>The Authentic Sleep Sound Machine - Hammacher Schlemmer)
And I can still hear my alarm clock (I just cranked the volume up a bit)</p>
<p>I’ve tried virtually all of the earplugs and have settled on these as the best. They are soft and very comfortable. I wear them whenever I’m around loud noise (mowing, etc.) and wear them to sleep every night. Once you learn how to insert them properly and spend a couple days acclimating, they are fantastic. The only earplug I’ve worn that doesn’t poke when sleeping on the side of your head.</p>
<p>I have two marpacs in different rooms and have grown to love them. They don’t seem so special at first…but it grows on you. And it has made my hatred of my neighbor less bitter. (smile)</p>
<p>I always use white noise to mask other sounds. In my case I use fan noise. </p>
<p>I was recently traveling and stayed in a motel that had a stupidly designed air conditioner unit that would turn off the fan along with the compressor once the room was temperature (as opposed to turning off just the compressor and leaving the fan running the whole time or at least giving that as an option as some do) so it went from white noise to nothing and then repeat at intervals. That kind of cycling will guarantee me little sleep. I can’t believe hotels would be clueless enough to specify and buy these types of a/c units.</p>
<p>Because of that I downloaded a free app for my iPhone to create white noise. It’s called (of all things) “White Noise” from TMSoft. I downloaded a different app but didn’t like the noise choices as much. This white noise generator app worked pretty well.</p>
<p>Despite the white noise I have no problem hearing an alarm go off - it’s a different enough sound and close enough sound that it’ll cut right through the white noise.</p>
<p>Using a smartphone noise app is a good way to test whether a free standing unit like the Marpac would help. The free standing units tend to have more pleasant sounds that don’t have annoying sound loops. Plug in the phone so the battery stays charged and, if necessary, put it in a coffee mug at the bedside to amplify the sound.</p>
<p>Another option is a box fan on high right by the bed (blowing the other way).</p>
<p>I find earplugs helpful for falling asleep, but they never stay in my ears all night.</p>
<p>To answer the earlier question - the Marpac sound machine sound is a lot like a fan sound (although we have a ceiling fan in our room which we use in the summer and we still keep the sound machine on - so there is a difference).</p>
<p>^This. I don’t know if it would actually help me sleep, but I like “Thunder Storm” too. I also think the “Oscillating Fan” is pretty realistic. Crickets? Nope.</p>
<p>Too bad this app wasn’t available when my daughter had colic. We could have just selected/run “Vacuum Cleaner” rather than ruining two hoovers.</p>
<p>I use those earplugs that interesteddad suggested and I bought the box of 200 pairs. They drown out the sound of my H’s incessant snoring pretty well - well enough that I can’t hear the alarm clock if it goes off. There is a trick to putting them in right. You have to roll one between your thumb and forefinger until it’s skinny then stick it in your ear at the right angle. If you’ve done it right, you hear it unrolling. Takes some getting used to but they’re great. Oh, and ironically, we also sleep with a white noise maker from the now defunct Sharper Image but I can’t hear it!</p>