White noise sound machine for under $20

Sleeping in a noisy environment can be extremely difficult. For example, people who live in apartments, students in dorm rooms and anyone in a busy urban environment. And since it’s usually noisier during the day, conditions can be worse for those who work evening or overnight shifts and are forced to sleep during daytime hours.

Here's how to make your own white noise machine out of things you may already have "in stock", or can be purchased inexpensively.

Step 1 MP3 player

If you think about it, playing white noise through a speaker is a very simple application. Here's all you need:

 * A six-year old iPod Mini with A/C adapter that was sitting in a drawer.

 * Computer speakers with A/C adapter. Any cheap speakers will suffice -- we’re only playing noise!

 * Software to create the white noise

If you don’t have these items on hand, they can be easily purchased on eBay for under $20.

Comments

[spookylean]

A great, very workable idea. I'm going to try this for our apartment tonight. Thanks!

[spookylean]

Worked like a charm! I used brown noise in both channels and we slept through the night. Thanks again.

[mikebeato]

Great! Thanks for the feedback.

[lemonie]

How loud do you lay this? Stream, water-fall, big-waterfalls sort of volume?

L

[mikebeato]

I'd say medium-size waterfall volume. Loud enough to cover up normal sounds to facilitate daytime sleeping. People talking, doors opening and closing, tv audio, etc.

[lemonie]

Thanks - You just get used to it I imagine, but how quickly - half a day?

L

[mikebeato]

It didn't take me long at all. Just an hour or so.

[lemonie]

I live in a very quiet peaceful spot. But I might see what it's like.

L

[iPodGuy]

Can you explain this a bit?

The track you made plays noise opposite of what is present in your environment and cancels it out?

My house is wired with speakers, so I'm kind of interested.

[mikebeato]

It doesn't scientifically cancel out noise -- as noise-canceling headphones do. Instead, it subtly covers over most routine noises in my house so I can sleep easier.

Now, i suppose if I listened to my generated white noise using noise-canceling headphones, I'm not sure how long I would sleep! ;-)

[RedSnertz]

My wife and I were at a conference and had a hotel room. SHe can't sleep without a white noise generator, but left it at home. However.... I had my laptop, and I'm a programmer. The AC vent was pretty loud so I held the laptop up there for a minute or two and recorded it. Then I wrote a quick hack program that did nothing but loop a WAV file.

Wasn't perfect, but it solved the problem. This reminded me of that.

[mikebeato]

This project was actually something my wife requested. She likes to sleep with white noise, and we used a small desktop air cleaner for years -- the sound of its fan was perfect. However, after many years of nightly use, the fan motor failed and necessitated this little project.  

[RedSnertz]

Mothers are the mother of invention.

[iPodGuy]

Oh, I see. Thanks.