SHOP $80, amazon.com
Welcome to The Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.
I’m one of those people who is convinced that if you fall asleep in a totally silent room, you might just be a sociopath. Sorry, but it’s my truth! I’ve always been somebody who needs some white noise to fall asleep—the hum of an air conditioner, the whir of a fan, and, lately, my Snooz White Noise Machine.
White noise is, to me, one of those little things that makes all the difference. A room where you can hear a pin drop feels too sterile to sleep in, I think, but the key to white noise is getting it exactly right. If your white noise is too loud for you to sleep, it defeats the purpose of the whole concept. I can’t back people who use whale sounds or beach waves or rainforest chitter to fall asleep, but I suppose I can respect it. My perfect sound, though, is a sound so gentle that you barely notice it at all. It’s mindless background noise, like the sounds of your coworkers typing in the office—not too quiet, but not noisy, either.
I’ve never been a very sound sleeper (although I’m working on it), and usually, I rely on my Dyson fan to provide some white noise. Even when it’s snowing and below freezing outside, I use my fan just for the sound. Snooz is a total gamechanger, though. I’m sleeping better than ever, uninterrupted by disruptive noises or eerie silence. My sleep essentials are no longer just a damn good pillow, blanket, and mattress—now, I want to snooze with my Snooz, too.
SHOP $80, amazon.com
The sound is fine-tuned to your preferences.
There’s a fine line, when dealing with white noise, between something too loud and too soft. Something overly disruptive versus something virtually ineffective. Snooz walks the line with the expertise of a trained acrobat, and with the Original White Noise Machine, you can tweak the tone and volume of your white noise to be suited just for your needs.
If you are someone who listens to ocean sounds and whale noises to fall asleep, Snooz probably isn’t for you. The machine mimics the sound of a fan…by using a real fan. When I first got the device, I discovered that it wasn’t a speaker projecting digitized sound, as most white noise machines are; instead, it’s a device that contains an actual, spinning fan inside, and it amplifies the sound of that fan into your room. The fan doesn’t emit any air or wind, though, so it won’t cool down your room—sound only, baby. The natural, easy sound of moving air never loops or skips, because the fan is constantly whirring while the machine is on; it’s just the sound of real, actual air, the perfect drone to fall asleep to.
Not all fan-noise preferences are are the same, though, which is where the adjustable functions of Snooz come in. The “volume” is turned up or down by adjusting the fan speed; when you turn it up, the fan speeds up and gets louder; when you turn it down, the fan slows down and gets softer. And you can adjust the pitch of the fan, too, by rotating the outer shell of the machine. Whether you prefer the highest tone setting, which sounds like a small table fan, or the lowest tone, which sounds like you’re in an airplane cabin (we’ve all had some good night sleeps with those thin blankets and a neck pillow), or anything in between, you can sleep peacefully.
SHOP $80, amazon.com
It's simple, yet smart.
Let me put you in a situation that I may or may not have been in before. You come home very late at night and stumble into bed. You fall asleep immediately, but wake up some odd hours later because something is amiss: you didn’t put on your PJs, or you didn’t set the air conditioner, or, if you’re a white noise sleeper, the room is too quiet. With Snooz, you won’t ever be in this situation.
When I say you can sleep peacefully with this machine, I mean peacefully. You won’t have to worry about setting it or turning it on or off, because Snooz comes with an app that you can pair it to to get extra features. In addition to a remote control (very handy for when you’re super cozy in bed), the app also has a schedule that you can program, so your Snooz fades in and out exactly when you want it to, going to your specific volume and tone on the days of the week you select at the times you select. You can start falling asleep to your Snooz at night, and not have to bother with turning it off in the morning; the app will take care of it for you.
If you want to keep things simple, though, Snooz lets you do that, too. Setting it up is as easy as taking it out of its carrying case and plugging it in. There are only three buttons on the whole machine—the power button, a volume up button, and a volume down button. The outer shell swivels easily to set the tone, so really, you can get your ideal white noise without making a fuss at all. And if you want to kick things up a notch at some point in the night—personally, I share a thin wall with a family whose two babies love to start wailing at around 2 AM every night—, just open the remote on your phone, drown out those crying kids, and carry on.
SHOP $80, amazon.com
It looks good anywhere—and anywhere is where you’ll take it.
The Snooz comes in Charcoal or Cloud, and no matter which one you pick, you’re in for a damn sleek device. The thing isn’t too big or clunky—you can hold it in one hand, and wherever you set it down, it looks good. The design is simple enough to go with any room decor, whether you have a minimalist bedroom or a cluttered one full of your other smart devices.
Because the entire contraption just requires the cord and the machine itself, it’s wildly easy to travel with, too. In fact, it comes with a carrying case perfect for doing just that. So when you go to your next hotel room, or you take your next trip over to a family member’s house, you know what to make sure is in your suitcase.
And if you share a bedroom, the Snooz aims to be as inconspicuous as possible. The lights disable after a few seconds so as to not light up the room, the sound is as natural as an actual fan (because it is one) without adding any of the temperature arguments into the arena, and even if someone claims they don’t like white noise, it’ll be hard for them to argue when they’re fast asleep against the soothing, peaceful lull provided by your machine.
SHOP $80, amazon.com
Photography by Joe Lingeman. Prop styling by Andrea Bonin.
