I have cat-induced insomnia. My cat meows besides the bedroom door until I wake up in the middle of the night. She gets enough food before bed and again in the morning, she’s been checked by the vet, she has plenty of toys, but still, she meows for attention. She isn’t allowed to sleep inside the room for other reasons (plus she would still meow at me even if she was inside).
I’m not a person who can fall back asleep easily once completely awake. I start becoming anxious and thinking about things, and next thing you know, hours have gone by! It was getting to the point where I slept less than 5 hours a night most of the time. I thought I would go insane.
I tried a lot of things before this sound machine. I wore high-quality, silicone earplugs. I left the fan on. I tried to put foam on the bottom of the door to block sound. Nothing was enough to muffle my cat’s meows enough for me to sleep through them!
I didn’t have high hopes for this, even though I read through a lot of the good reviews before buying it. I always thought sound machines would only be as effective as a fan.
When I tried this out, I first tried the fan setting because I liked how that one sounded. Then I tried the white noise setting and that one actually worked a lot better to muffle the cat noises. I think she’s even stopped meowing most nights now because I don’t respond to it anymore.
The machine gets loud and I turn it up high. I still sleep with earplugs in, or else the sound would be too loud. The combination of the machine and earplugs are enough for me to sleep through disruptive noises, even as a light sleeper!
If you’re worried about your alarm, if you keep it right next to your bed you should be fine. I tested alarms on my phone to see if I could still hear them loud enough, and I could! It might be an issue if you keep your alarm further away though.
I haven’t experimented much with this machine because the setting I have it on with the white noise already works so well. You can adjust the volume to your liking. The sound travels up and helps to fill the whole space you’re in, rather than just occupying a single corner. The machine is also super small which I wasn’t expecting, and that’s great because it’s light, portable and not clunky. I worried where I was going to put it until it arrived and I saw how small it is!!
Overall, if you suffer from noise-induced insomnia, or if you just need some comforting background noise to help you fall asleep, you need to try this little machine! If your cat is extra loud at night, then you especially need to give this a try. I’m so glad I found this!