"My neighbors are nice people, but they are NOISY, and it is driving. me. crazy."

At Marpac, we like to say that our customers say it best… and often, they say it funniest, too.  Take, for example, the following pretty hilarious Dohm reviews highlighting the daily annoyance of living with noisy neighbors:“This world is not the world we evolved in. Early in our primate existence, the white noise would have been the soft noises of the jungle or the grasslands. The loud sounds of lions attacking neighboring antelopes would have woken us up and allowed us to get prepared in case he was traveling with friends. The way we live now, it's like lions are attacking nearby herds of antelopes ALL THE TIME!! We are not supposed to be on alert 24/7!!”

“I don't know why I didn't buy this sooner. Shooting my neighbors is the only thing that would help me sleep better, but this is legal so perhaps a better choice.”

“I'm surrounded by hillbillies with baying hounds, yuppie biker wannabes with criminally loud Harleys, NASCAR pretenders with resonator pipes on their pickups and a particularly annoying neighbor kid whose "outdoor voice" is beyond reason. Enter the Marpac.”

“My neighbor likes to get into what I can only assume are monkey knife fights in his bathroom at all hours of the night. And unfortunately, his bathroom is on the other side of my bedroom wall. Now, I don't know what's wrong with this man, but I do know what's right with this machine. It is small, simple and works exactly as advertised. I didn't want to get something with a million noise options, I just wanted something to mask the ridiculous noises coming from next door. This machine wipes them all out. It's the perfect, unobtrusive filter and has helped me sleep for days now. I love it!”

Everyone in our office gets such a kick out of these.  (I don’t think we’d be laughing if the descriptions weren’t in the context of “thank goodness this sound is no longer driving me crazy” - we’re not cruel people.)  But we share them via email, and before you know it, adorable pictures of hedgehogs are zipping back and forth with commentary, and office productivity suffers ever so briefly.  It’s totally worth it. (Did you know that hedgehogs are nocturnal, and that some people have them as pets?  Well, that’s something we learned this week…)

All of this to say that if you’re suffering NOT in silence, there are solutions beyond reciprocal harassment or legal action.  Yes, we’re admittedly a little biased, but if your dorm room, apartment building, or office environment is making it hard to sleep or concentrate, we recommend trying a white noise machine.  We happen to think ours are the best, because there aren’t any digital loops or recordings to drive you almost as crazy as your inconsiderate neighbors or office mates were making you, but hey - it’s a matter of personal preference, really.  Maybe you just love the sound of the rainforest.  :)  Sure beats “monkeys having a knife fight.”