I Bought This 4.5-Star Sound Machine, and Now I Sleep Like a Teenager on Summer Break

It's always been pretty hard for me to fall asleep and sleep soundly through the night. The problem is twofold: I'm a night owl, so I find it challenging to wind down at a reasonable hour, and I also really don't like silence — without some noise in the background, I can't doze off.

The type of noise matters, too. I'm bothered by snoring, loud breathing, and strange little noises that come from wildlife or outside my window (just one reason I hate camping). I've tried taking melatonin and even Benadryl to pass out, and while these remedies worked at times, they're probably not the healthiest or most sustainable methods of falling asleep. I needed to find a way to doze off naturally and feel more rested in the morning.

Enter: the sound machine. I had heard so many great things about white noise, and I figured trying to block out the sounds and awkward silence that were keeping me awake was worth a shot. After some research, I settled on a LectroFan sound machine, which had gotten good reviews on Amazon.

And let me tell you: I'm in love with this thing. No matter who occupies my bed for the rest of my life, this glorious piece of technology will be by my side. Heck, that's true even when I'm not in my own bed — I went on vacation with my mother shortly after getting the LectroFan, and the machine was so lightweight that I decided to take it along. While my mom was resistant to running it in our room at first, she acquiesced when I explained that I couldn't sleep without it. (I'm not just saying that. I've tried.) She ended up loving it and purchased one when she returned home a week later.

This machine has changed my sleep habits so completely that I now keep one at my childhood home for when I visit and at my boyfriend's place to use when I spend the night. (I am not messing around here.) Incredibly, switching it on seems to prime my body for sleep before I've even climbed into bed. It's as though my body responds to this specific sound, and I instantly become drowsy. I've come to depend on it, and honestly, that's fine by me. Keep reading for a closer look.