The “Break it Down” Blog

Summary [8 out of 10]

At $99, the Brookstone Tranquil Moments Sound Therapy Machine is a safe buy for anyone that is entertaining the idea of a sound therapy (aka “dream machine”) device. While the build and sound quality at it’s price could be better, for some reason… it just works, and that is all the proof we needed.

NOTE: In the image above, the iPhone is just shown for size-comparison differences.

Background

I am actually a pretty good sleeper, but I take too long to go to sleep some nights. Over the last few months my stress levels have been increasing so my tendency to roll back and forth in bed and not get to nice sound sleep was increasing. Not being a big fan of chemicals I wanted to try and find something more natural to get to sleep faster (even avoiding Melatonin if I could).

That is when I started searching for what I thought was a Bose “Dream Machine”… either they have been discontinued or they never existed, because I didn’t find any such device.

NOTE: Am I going crazy, or have any of you heard of the Bose Dream Machine as well?

Anyway, the area of sound therapy devices is very scarce and honestly the highest rated one I could find was the Brookstone Tranquil Moments Sound Therapy Machine (whew… long name).

I ordered it, we got it and have had it for about 3 weeks now. Below is my review of the device so far, please as any other questions you have and I’ll try and address them.

Review

Below is a bulleted list review in Pro/Con style to make it easier to browse and digest.

Pros

• Really seems to work… I don’t know how, but those relatively low-quality sounds have some property to them that my brain just drifts away to sleep pretty quickly.
  • NOTE: The device does say the sounds were developed at some sound institute, so I would lean towards agreeing that there is probably science behind these tones.
• Has a 30-min, 60-min and 90-min timer mode for night use (as well as simply turning it “On” indefinitely)
• Headphone jack if you want to use it personally but don’t want to disturb another person in the room (e.g. a dorm room or your spouse)
• Many different sounds to choose from (12 total, 4 in each of 3 categories)
• Nicely labeled face-plate that lists all the sounds, per category

Cons

• Build quality is basic plastic/cheap feel with a decent hard plastic facade and average control buttons.
• The white back-light that illuminates for the particular sound that is playing is really pretty bright. I saw a few folks mention this, but it’s worth mentioning again. If you need a dark room, this light will bother you (or just cover it)… it’s bright.
• Buttons don’t have a unique design to them and are not individually back-lit, so to navigate the controls at night in the dark, you’ll have to memorize their positions. Not that big of a deal though since we just push “On” and then go to sleep… so I might even consider moving this under “Neutral”.

Neutral

• Sound quality is not crystal-clear, I originally had this under “Con”, but since the device really does seem to work, I can’t complain. So I put the note here.

Conclusion [8 out of 10]

I’m very happy with the Brookstone Tranquil Moments Sound Therapy Machine and plan on keeping it after these last 3 weeks. There is a noticeable calm/sleepiness that comes over me when it’s playing, I’m sure it’s psychological, but who cares… I’m falling asleep quickly and that’s all I wanted to do.

One note I will make is that if you do decide to get/try out this device: Try all the sounds

I made the mistake of assuming I only wanted to listen to the beach and rain sounds, but as it turns out, just the nonsensical “White Noise” sound that is not particularly calming puts me to sleep like a baby for some reason. So don’t forget to experiment, even if the sound doesn’t sound great to you… let it play and see what happens.

Gallery

Below is a gallery of the Tranquil Moments machines to look at. I tried to grab a few pictures of just how bright the light was at the end, it was a bit hard (sorry for the grain, had to turn ISO up to 1600).

The comparisons are between the default screen brightness of the iPhone’s screen and then the second shot is how bright the light is compared to a default red LED on the base unit for my home phone. Hopefully gives you an OK idea: