For a Great Night's Sleep - The Homedics SS-4500 SoundSpa Classic Clock Radio

From the Amazon website: Create a comforting environment. This Am/Fm clock radio has 6 peaceful natural sounds to choose from: Ocean, Summer night, Rainforest, Waterfall and Thunder & lightning. The LCD readout display projects the time in soothing blue light. Wake to natural sounds, radio or beep tones. Also includes a handy snooze button.

The Review: I originally bought this radio from Linens & Things three years ago. (Remember Linen's & Things? What a neat store!) I read that using white noise is a simple way that would help me to get a good night sleep, so I bought this sound machine/radio with that in mind.

White noise is a sound that contains every audible level of frequency vibration. This makes it a great way to block out other sounds in the area, as the wide range of vibrations tend to help block out other smaller sounds. The soothing nature of white noise helps me to relax, even if there is no specific noise that I need to block out. I now know that I am one of those people that actually sleeps better with white noise than in completely undisturbed silence. (Is there even such a thing?)

My preferred sound is the rain. It's soothing, just like the real thing. Even my husband can't live without our sound machine, and he suggested getting this same one for the kid's room. We usually have a fan going in their room, but now with the cold weather approaching, it's time to put away the fans. As the sound of a running fan is another form of white noise, the kids have grown accustomed to white noise as well.

This sound machine has an AM/FM radio that has great reception. I like to have the radio on when I am cleaning and it is so light and portable, I take it room to room.

There is a projection light that I leave off, because it is too bright for me, but you may like the fact that it will project the time on your ceiling for easy reference.

This sound machine comes with us whenever we go away overnight. I really appreciated the way it drowned out all the outside noise when we went camping (in a tent) with the kids! I don't think any of us would have slept as well as we did without this handy little sound machine. The price is right at under $20. This has become one of those "things" I couldn't do without!