When sound machines first hit the market, they were more often than not cheaply made and gave you little control over the volume or type of sound they produced. But now? You can use anything from an app on your phone to the Google Home in your bedroom to play a variety of sounds to fall asleep or relax to. And they’re often customizable, so you can mix and match different sounds at different volumes until you find a combination you like.
Nowadays, using a sound machine for sleep is much more common practice than it used to be, and when coupled with a few easy changes in your daily life, quality sleep can be a lot easier to reach. Even so, there are often still questions surrounding why sleep matters and how using things like sound machines or CBD for sleep, including:
- What makes sleep so important?
- What is a sound machine?
- How do you use a sound machine for sleep?
- What happens when you use CBD for sleep?
- Are CBD PM tinctures, softgels, or gummies right for you?
The Importance of Consistent, Quality Sleep
Being able to maintain healthy sleep habits is paramount to developing good, consistent sleep quality. Unfortunately for a lot of people, getting quality sleep can often feel like an uphill battle or even a complete game of chance. And when you suffer from poor sleep, your memory, mood, and overall health often starts to decline.
This is because when we sleep, we’re not just experiencing unconsciousness, but our bodies are actually mending, and absorbing all the information from the previous day. So it's easy to see how poor sleep can take a drastic toll on your overall health and wellness. But don’t worry, there are a few things you can do to combat your sleepless nights.
Factors like reducing the amount of caffeine you drink in a day, keeping to a regular sleep schedule, working to decrease your stress levels, and eating foods high in melatonin can all help you get better sleep at night. As for the things that are out of your control, such as your neighbor's dog barking or the sounds of traffic outside your window, we have a solution for that as well.
Factors That Can Affect Your Sleep Quality
If you’re trying to increase the quality of your sleep, not only is it important to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, but you should also take a look at what other factors in your life could be affecting your sleep. Some of the most common sleep disruptors include stress, diet, alcohol, and caffeine consumption, blue light, and noise levels.
Stress is easily one of the most common culprits of poor sleep, but if you also throw caffeine and/or alcohol into the mix, what you're essentially doing is setting yourself up for a sleepless night. If this sounds familiar, try cutting off caffeine consumption around six hours before you plan to go to bed and not drinking alcohol within about four hours of trying to fall asleep.
Blue light is an easy enough problem to deal with as long as you can practice self-restraint and put down your phone or tablet at least an hour before bed (easier said than done, we know). Or if you find yourself working late into the night, try setting and keeping to a stricter cut-off schedule so you don’t go straight from the computer screen to the bed.
Lastly, and often the most disruptive of all, are the noise levels next door or outside your window. Unfortunately, that’s not usually something you can easily change. Which is exactly why a lot of people have turned to using a sound machine for sleep.
Why Use a Sound Machine for Sleep?
Sound machines are often used to help you fall asleep at the beginning of the night, stay asleep throughout the night, or even drown out the sounds of the city and traffic. They’re also a great alternative to earplugs if you find that they don’t block out enough noise or are uncomfortable to wear while you’re sleeping. Sound machines are an easy, fairly inexpensive way to block out the noise and bring your mind back to a relaxed state.
Using a sound machine for sleep is a great tool for anyone who struggles to fall asleep at night, whether because the noises of the city are too loud or the absolute silence of the suburbs or country are too quiet. Unwelcome noise (or even a lack of sound) can be all it takes to disrupt the quality of your sleep. And as a good night’s sleep is paramount to your health, mood, memory, and energy levels, if left unnoticed or ignored, your sleepless nights could quickly snowball into a larger problem.
What Is a Sound Machine?
A sound machine, or white noise machine, is something that produces a constant, calming sound to relax the listener and mask unwanted noise in the environment. Some of the most common sounds used to calm the mind include ocean waves, rain falling on the roof, waterfalls, wind blowing through the trees, or various other sounds found in nature.
While a physical sound machine for sleep exists and can be easily purchased from many stores, more often than not you can also find free apps for your phones or tablets that can do the same thing for cheaper (and possibly even free). But more than that, sound machine apps also let you create a custom sound so you can fall asleep to whatever relaxes you the most. Or maybe you have an Alexa or Google Home? They make great sound machines too!
You can allow your sound machine to either play all throughout the night or set a timer if you only need the noise to help you fall asleep at the start of the night. Plus, by playing the same sounds every night before you go to sleep, you can in part train your brain to recognise the noise in the bedroom as a signal that it is time to sleep for the night.
What Is the Difference Between White Noise and Pink Noise?
Although “white noise” is most often associated with sound machines, pink noise is gradually becoming better known. The important difference is the volumes assigned to various levels of frequency. While white noise involves an even distribution of volume across all frequencies, pink noise assigns a higher volume to lower frequencies and vice versa.
So when it comes to choosing between the two, it’s important to consider factors such as the presence of constant interruptive noise and the desired cadence of the sound machine. White noise (such as a rainstorm) is great for drowning out the noisy neighbors next door or the traffic outside, while the cadence established by the change in volume of pink noise (such as ocean waves) may be more beneficial in helping to lull you to sleep.
Some of the Best Sounds for Sleep
Nowadays, it's common to find that a sound machine for sleep comes with a wide range of sounds to help you relax and fall asleep quickly (especially those found within a phone app) – including everything from nature to animals to musical instruments and even ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response). While calming sounds often come down to a personal preference, there are a few sounds that are recommended more than others, including:
- Wind
- Ocean
- Fireplace
- Birds and crickets
- Rain and thunderstorms
- Piano and flute music
- Cat purring
- Meditation music
How CBD Can Help
In addition to changing the noise levels in your bedroom, there are a few other things you can do to help you fall asleep faster and improve the quality of your sleep, including turning down the temperature, using an eye mask, and taking CBD before bed.
Your body temperature naturally drops as you sleep. And because disruptions to your body temperature can interfere with your sleep cycle, scientists suggest that turning the temperature in your house down before you go to sleep may actually help your body cool down faster.
As for any lamp posts or car lights shining into your window, wearing a sleep mask at night is by far more cost effective than outfitting all of your windows with blackout curtains (although that can greatly help as well). It can also help to have something covering your eyes so that even if you open them, you won’t be distracted by anything you see in your room or outside your window. Even that small snag of attention is enough to start waking up your brain at all hours of the night.
But, in our humble opinion, using CBD PM at night is by far the most effective addition to your nightly routine. Why? Because between the CBD and melatonin in our tinctures, softgels, and gummies, you’re bound to enjoy a night of peaceful rest.
What Happens When You Use CBD for Sleep?
Regularly taking CBD for sleep as a part of your daily wellness regimen can do wonders for both the quality and consistency of your sleep. Especially once CBD is mixed with melatonin and a variety of calming herbs including chamomile, valerian root, and hops flower – all of which have historically been shown to increase feelings of calm and relaxation.
You’ll know the benefits of CBD have kicked in once your eyelids feel a little heavier and you start to sink into your mattress with fewer thoughts racing through your head. You’re also more likely to wake up feeling refreshed and well rested in the mornings if you regularly use CBD for sleep. At cbdMD, we offer a few different CBD PM options so that you can get the best sleep possible by using either our softgels and gummies or customizing your CBD tincture serving size.
CBD PM Tinctures vs Softgels and Gummies
When it comes to choosing between CBD PM tinctures, softgels, and gummies, the most important thing to consider is how quickly you want the CBD benefits to go into effect. The formulas of the three products are similar but have slight variations, and the delivery methods yield results at different speeds.
CBD PM tinctures would be your go-to for right before bed or if you’ve already been tossing and turning for a while and need to reach sleep fast. Because CBD oil tinctures are placed directly under your tongue and held there for at least 30 to 60 seconds before swallowing, a good portion of the CBD is absorbed by the mucus membrane under your tongue and taken straight to your bloodstream – which is what allows it to go into effect quicker than other methods.
CBD PM softgels and gummies, on the other hand, have to first be swallowed and digested before the CBD can reach your bloodstream. So while it usually takes less than 30 minutes for CBD tinctures to go into effect, CBD softgels and gummies can take an hour or more before you’re able to feel the benefits. They also have a bit less melatonin per serving – 3 mg vs 5 mg for each dropperful of tincture, though you can adjust serving sizes to suit you.
The sleep gummies contain some ingredients not found in the tinctures and capsules – including ashwagandha, L-theanine, and GABA – but do not include passion flower or cascade hops. So how you feel about them depends on your personal response to the herb blend.
If the taste plays a factor in your decision, then it’s also important to note that CBD gummies come in a yummy raspberry flavor, our CBD PM tinctures are available in both berry and mint, and our softgels don’t have a taste at all.
Don’t Forget About CBD Bath Salts!
Although our CBD PM tinctures, gummies, and softgels are our most popular sleep aids, our CBD nighttime bath salts also do a wonderful job of relaxing both your mind and body at the end of the night. Crafted with our Superior Broad Spectrum CBD formula and a blend of Dead Sea salt, Himalayan pink salt, Epsom salt, and melatonin, our bath salts are made to gently infuse your skin, leaving you feeling relaxed and stress-free.
For more information on how to use a sound machine for sleep, or better yet how using CBD for sleep can help increase your health and well-being, keep an eye on our frequently updated blog. Looking to stay up to date on the latest supplement news and cbdMD’s upcoming special offers? Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or chat with someone live today!