If you are one of the millions of people that has an occasional or chronic problem getting to sleep or just getting a good night’s rest, you might want to try one of the new sound machines that is designed to soothe you to sleep with the soft sounds of gentle falling rain, waves at the beach, distant thunder, a waterfall, soft instruments, white noise or relaxing music.

The September 2008 issue of Consumer offers a detailed reports about a study of techniques that work best to help people get to sleep, whether they are insomniacs, or just people suffering from anxiety or the effects of a tough day. The study involved people who reported difficulty getting to sleep and covered techniques including prescription medication, over-the-counter drugs, various relaxation techniques and the use of sound machines.

While prescription sleep medications were the most effective technique to help people with sleep problems to fall asleep, there are sometimes consequences and side-effects from taking these type of medications on a regular basis. Surprisingly, sound machines came in a very close second for helping people to get to sleep.

A group of people involved in the study tried several models of sound machines for 10 nights and reported their opinion.

The Brookstone Tranquil Moments Sound Therapy System was rated as the most effective of the sound machines tested. The sound machine has a built-in timer and 12 sound settings. The unit works on AC or 4 AA batteries and retails for $129.

Customer reviews on the Brookstone web site rate this sleep machine very highly. If you are interested in such a device, it is worthwhile to take a look at what others have to say.

Brookstone claims that the Tranquil Moments Sound Therapy System is based upon more than 23 years of scientific research. Of the 12 sound settings, five use nature soundscapes and seven use clinically engineered sounds developed by the Center of Neuroacoustic Research.

You can see the Brookstone Tranquil Moments Sound Therapy System at: