Too mired by issues to be an effective sleep aid...
I really liked this thing at first, but after about two nights of using it I quickly realized a lot of stuff I don't like about it.<br /><br />-Half of the sounds are four second loops.  And when something loops for four seconds, and you have trouble falling asleep, you'll start to quickly be irritated by hearing the exact same sound every four seconds.  For the rain sound, for instance, would it have been so hard to capture more than four seconds of rain?<br />-The volume buttons are on the bottom, so when you want to adjust the volume, you have to pick it up and fumble with them.  This wouldn't be so much of a problem if every sound didn't have vastly different dynamic levels.  If you have the volume mid level, some of them are quiet as a mouse, but some of them are loud enough to make your ears ring.<br />-For a device that's supposed to help you sleep, they neglected one MAJOR no-no for sleep aid devices--if there's any light which most negatively affects your sleep, it's bright white light.  There's a reason alarm clocks pretty much all come in a muted red color--red doesn't do much to keep you awake.  The darker you can make your room, the better you'll sleep.  This thing has a VERY bright white light that can't be turned off, and unless you cover it with a shirt or something, it will keep you awake.<br />-Each of the sounds has some kind of weird overtone within the loop that you will quickly notice.  If you, like me, have trouble sleeping because of an overactive mind that dwells on fine details, these will drive you wild.  The stream noise, for instance, is a short loop that ends in some kind of noise that sounds like a trampoline spring being compressed.  Hard to notice unless your listening for it, but when the loop is four seconds, it becomes all you notice.  And it's very annoying.  All of these loops have weird little parts like that.  I ended up keeping it on ocean because its weird overtone is the least perceptible of them all.<br /><br />Besides that, it's an attractive little device and the dial is smooth and easy to use.
Rating: 3 stars