The Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine

The Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine uses the latest audio innovations to introduce sound backgrounds that are very real through speaker technology and signal processing. Sam Nicolino Jr., with his company, Adaptive Sound Technology, has developed such an effective sound machine that listeners are impressed with its ability to create a new sound environment that literally takes them away. Full length recordings of natural sounds found in the real world have been recorded, edited by the Adaptive Sound Technology engineers and especially developed to create harmonious sound mixes, called Soundstories orchestrations, that are meant to relax listeners with a superb audio quality that is superior to standard CD sound files.

The ability that the Ecotones Sound Therapy has to make it stand out from any other sound technology, is that the Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine pulls any sounds from the present environment and adapts the Soundstories orchestrations to cover the noise so that it blends into the audio. The Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine can use any environmental noise, while producing audio without repeats or a machine type sound, at any of its three settings. The Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine has a full audio range (90 - 20,000 Hz) from the sound system, which includes two specially designed speakers. Listeners can listen to the Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine with headphones through the headphone jack or an external speaker and amplifier. The part that listeners love about the machine is that whenever they like, the Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine can cover up and replace the day to day noises that can be frustrating, including the plane overhead, office machines, loud neighbors with the relaxing sounds of a forest, the gentle crash of waves and other natural sounds.

The power of the Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine to relax its listeners has made the sound machine an effective sleep aid tool, especially with its built in sleep timer. Children and adults, who would otherwise have a hard time going to sleep, find the Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine helps them to rest and get a good, deep sleep. Using the sleep timer, the audio can be played overnight or set to turn itself down and off once you have gone to sleep. Users of the Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine wake up refreshed from their deep sleep and not at all groggy as would have happened if they had had to resort to sleeping pills. The chronic use and expense of sleeping pills are no longer necessary when the Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine is used.

The Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine can be set to one of three settings: manual, adaptive and background. At the manual setting, the machine will cover environmental sounds and the listener can set the volume level, which will stay constant. When the listener uses the adaptive setting, the sound machine will cover up environmental sounds by adapting these sounds into the orchestration. When in background mode, the audio presents a pleasant background sound that will reduce in volume when a phone rings or during a conversation. With the Ecotones Sound Therapy Machine, it is possible to get rid of annoying sounds by effectively covering them up with pleasant natural orchestrations, replace sleeping pills and their effects and add a beautiful sound atmosphere to any room.

Copyright 2009, All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of Sound Therapy World is expressly forbidden.

The Mechanics Of Light Therapy For SAD

Research shows that a change in the exposure to sunlight is the main causative factor for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD); with genetics, geographical location and family history being co-factors.

Melatonin, a hormone that is produced in the brain during the nighttime, is primarily responsible for regulating body temperature, hormone production and sleep. Melatonin production is dramatically increased during the shorter days and longer nights of autumn and winter resulting in potentially devastating symptoms of depression including lack of energy, memory loss, low self-esteem, chronic body aches, indecisiveness and suicidal tendencies.

Treatment of SAD includes exposing the individual to bright light of specific intensity for a particular amount of time.

During light therapy, the user sits facing the light box with the face slightly averted so that the light from the light box enters the eyes indirectly. This works on the principle that the retina registers the light that enters the eye and then transfers the signals to the hypothalamus in the brain, which regulates the body clock function. To get the full benefits of light therapy it is important that it is done correctly. While looking into the light directly could be harmful to the eyes, sunglasses can impede the effectiveness of the light therapy.

The duration of exposure, intensity of the light and the optimum time of day varies in different individuals and is determined by the individual’s requirements for light therapy. The effectiveness of light therapy depends upon the proper combination of duration, timing and intensity.

Duration: Light therapy generally involves 30-minute to 2-hour sessions that have to be undergone everyday. Shorter sessions of 15 minutes are recommended when individuals first begin light therapy. This is gradually increased to longer periods.

Timing: Light therapy is considered most effective if done immediately after waking up in the morning, rather than anytime during the evening. It should be avoided at night as it could disturb regular sleep.

Intensity: Light box intensity is measured in lux, which is the amount of light that a person receives at a particular distance from the source of light. Light boxes come in different intensities, which determine the length of time it is to be used for as well as the distance the user would need to sit from the source of light. Fluorescent light boxes that are designed to produce light of intensity between 2,500 to 10,000 lux are the most commonly used devices for bright light therapy.

Different light boxes are available to suit different lifestyles. You can choose from desk-top models that are designed to give you optimum light at short distances or light boxes of greater intensity for those who need it at a greater distance. Light-weight, compact and portable light boxes are also available for people who are always on the go.

Copyright 2007, All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of Sound Therapy World is expressly forbidden.

Sleeping Better With Relaxing Sounds

An increasingly noisier world where horns blare at any time of the night, televisions are on twenty-four hours a day and house-hold and industrial machinery clanks away ominously at odd hours leaves many of us feeling unable to sleep, restless and sleep deprived. However, the importance of a good night’s sleep cannot be underestimated. Devices that emit relaxing sounds are the answer to many a sleepless night.

Sound machines are the perfect aid to a good night’s sleep. They block out loud annoying noises and produce relaxing sounds that help you relax and calm you down. There are several different types of sound machines that produce natural sounds that have been clinically proven to help sleep-deprived individuals relax and sleep wherever they go. Some of the sleep and relaxation programs featured in many sound machines typically include Rain, Ocean Surf, White Noise, Unwind, Summer Night, Jet Lag and Celestial. Some of these sound machines come equipped with a variety of relaxing sounds so that an individual can choose the most suitable sound.

The smooth, consistent sound of rushing air that is created by some sound machines help control or block out unwanted continuous or intermittent external noises including those made by traffic, horns and machines as well as constant chatter or snoring. The relaxing sounds made by white noise sound machines are very effective for calming and soothing colicky and crying babies and they are of great help to individuals suffering from tinnitus. By masking distracting noises sound machines are an effective tool in helping individuals relax or concentrate without any disturbances.

Relaxing sounds could be emitted by mechanically generated recordings, CD recordings or electronically generated recordings. Mechanically generated recordings produce a soothing sound that is similar to that of a fan. Though hugely popular because of the familiarity of the sound it produces, its major drawback is that the volume cannot be controlled. CD recordings are available in a huge variety of sounds that are commonly found in nature including the sounds of falling rain or a running stream. The low cost and easy availability of CDs along with the high quality of the sound make them an extremely popular sleep aid. Moreover CDs can be easily carried everywhere and can be used in any situation. Electronically generated recordings typically produce sounds that are created by a recorded sound clip or sounds that are synthesized on their own. Recorded sound clips repeatedly play a few seconds of soothing recorded sounds over and over again whereas synthesized sounds produce a continuously soothing sound and more effective.

Copyright 2007, All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of Sound Therapy World is expressly forbidden.

Blocking Unwanted Sounds With A White Noise Machine

Increasing urbanization and growing industrialization have made the world a noisier place now than ever before with the sounds of construction, bulldozers, machinery and a rapidly increasing number of cars on the roads. What’s more with factories and transport industries working twenty-four hour shifts, we are subjected to noises of all decibel levels through the day as well as the night. White noise machines are the perfect solution to people who wake up at odd hours of the night to the sound of horns blaring, tires squealing, machinery whirring and televisions blasting at high volume.

A white noise machines is a device that produces a humming sound that can be very soothing to the human ear. It absorbs all new sounds that are generated and acts as a barrier between the sounds and the human ear, thus letting you sleep undisturbed at night. The term ‘white noise’ is a misnomer in the sense that it is not really a noise. What it is, is a sound that is used to cancel or neutralize the effect of other noises. These machines have a database of all the frequencies of sound that are generally heard in everyday life. By playing white noise at a similar volume to the external sound, the sounds external tend to get masked.

Some of the better models of white noise machines offer you a wide choice of soothing sounds that can be heard in nature. You can choose the sound you wish to hear as well as the volume you wish to hear it at. Some of the nature sounds found in white noise machines include the sounds of a waterfall, birds singing, a bubbling brook, crickets chirping, rain falling or the waves on a beach. Many companies offer travel white noise machines that are compact, easy to carry and run on batteries, providing you with a good night’s sleep wherever you are.

White noise machines can be used anywhere and for many different reasons. They can be used in bedrooms to block out loud, disturbing sounds, helping people get a good night’s sleep. They also help block the annoying ringing in the ears enabling tinnitus sufferers to get a good night’s sleep. White noise machines are particularly effective in enhancing productivity in offices where they help block the disturbing sounds of keyboards banging, phones ringing and a constant flow of chatter. In dorms too, white noise machines are used to improve concentration by blocking out distracting sounds of laughter, televisions and music systems.

Copyright 2007, All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of Sound Therapy World is expressly forbidden.

Why Sound Machines are Ideal for Travel Use

Sound machines are specially-designed devices that produce an assortment of nature sounds or white noises that have a soothing and relaxing effect. These devices help people sleep better by keeping out loud noises of dogs barking and cars honking at night and they also help calm colicky babies. Sound machines are the perfect solution for people who travel. They help to create a sound environment that is familiar to while you are away from home.

Though travel sleep sound machines are typically lightweight, compact and portable, they are as highly effective as many full-sized, non-portable sound conditioners. They generally come in handy travel pouches and can easily fit into any small-sized overnight or travel case. Most of these travel sound machines are equipped with special dual voltage adapters that enable you to use them in any part of the world.

Travel sleep sound machines use innovative technology to create white noises that emulate the sounds of nature including that of a waterfall, rainfall, the wind blowing or birds singing. When used in hotel rooms, the regular, soothing sounds emitted by these devices effectively block out unfamiliar and unwanted noises and sounds that disturb your sleep. Once you adjust the volume on your travel sound machine you will no longer be able to hear the television blaring in the neighboring room or the clanking sounds of the trolleys in the hallway, enabling you to get the rest you so badly need after a long journey. Travel sleep sound machines also help travelers who are suffering from a case of jet lag.

The Marsona DS-600A is a completely portable sound machine that offers you a large choice of relaxing sounds including that of the gentle rain, a babbling brook, the sounds of the surf and the waves on the beach, lapping waters and the chirping of crickets. This device can also be operated using four AA batteries if standard electrical current is not available, making it ideal to carry on camping trips and long journeys. You have an additional option of turning the unit off after one hour if you want to. The international model comes with dual voltage power supply and can be used with either 220 or 240 volt power.

The Marsona TSC-330 travel sound machine is also lightweight, compact and portable and fits easily into any overnight suitcase. This easy-to-use device comes with a 3-way sound selector and simple slide controls for tonal range and volume.

Copyright 2007, All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of Sound Therapy World is expressly forbidden.

Sleeping Better with a White Noise Machine

A white noise sound machine is the perfect aid to sleeping better. White noise sound machines produce the soothing natural sounds of the ocean waves or even the rain or the wind that help improve the quality and duration of your sleep, which is vital in helping you function better during the day.

White noise sound machines contain all the different audible wavelengths and frequencies equally distributed in the sound spectrum. It makes a humming sound that masks out all other sounds and can be very soothing. A white noise machine has a simple and basic set-up involving a speed switch and an enclosed fan, which produces the desired sound by driving air through many small slots that are present in the casing of the machine. The volume of this machine is adjustable and can be set at any preferred level that is comfortable for you. As your ears get accustomed to the new sound, the volume can gradually be increased and adjusted for maximum privacy.

White noise sound machines work by blocking the disturbing night time sounds that continually arise from various sources including trains, car horns, motor cycles and dogs barking and prevent individuals from having a good night’s sleep. White noise machines are also useful for people who have sleep disorders including those who find it difficult to fall asleep and for kids who have trouble sleeping. It has been found that white noise sound machines also induce sleep in babies suffering from colic by masking the loud audible sounds that are believed to be the primary cause of colic.

There are essentially three different kinds of white noise sound machines: CD recordings. electronically generated recordings, and mechanically generated recordings.

In electronically generated recordings a recorded sound clip is looped or a sound is synthesized on its own. Machines with synthesized sounds are considered better as the sound is continuous. These few seconds of sound are digitally recorded and then played repeated over and over again. These electronic devices produce sounds such as a waterfall, rain or wind.

Mechanical white noise sound machines produce a soothing sound that is almost the same as a fan. Its huge popularity is due to the fact that it produces a sound that most people are familiar with. Limitations with volume control are the one major drawback of mechanical white noise sound machines.

CDs are an inexpensive and popular kind of white noise sound machine. They are available in a wide range of sounds, the most common of which are sounds of nature and that of the thunder and rain. The high quality sound and low cost make them increasingly more popular among the different kinds of white noise sound machines.

Copyright 2007, All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of Sound Therapy World is expressly forbidden.

The Color of Sound

If “white noise" includes sound at every frequency, you might imagine it would be possible to create other “colors” of noise by emphasizing certain ranges of frequencies over others. And you’d be right. There is such a thing as pink noise, as well as red, orange, green, blue, purple, gray, brown, and even black noise. Of these, pink noise is the most common—and the most clearly defined. Whereas white noise has equal energy at every frequency, pink noise has equal energy within each octave—in other words, the amplitude at higher frequencies is reduced to make it sound more balanced to the human ear. Pink noise is used for, among other things, calibrating speaker systems. The term “pink” signifies that it’s like white, but “tinted” or weighted toward the lower-frequency (and therefore longer-wavelength) sounds. However, not all of the so-called noise colors map onto the visible spectrum so clearly—and in any case, the color names are nothing more than a convenient metaphor to describe white noise that has been filtered in various ways.

Many of the products claiming to produce white noise are recordings or simulations of wind, waves, and other sounds that are in reality quite a bit more complex than white noise. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—the sound of rain on the roof can be very soothing and can have most of the same masking benefits as white noise. And just as the term “white noise” can be stretched somewhat in meaning to include what you might call “off-white” noise, it also can have a more metaphorical sense, as in “meaningless chatter.” But what I’d like to hear is a recording that sounds just like my old air conditioner—complete with the hum that the compressor made every time it came on. For me, that would beat a melatonin tablet washed down with a glass of warm milk.

Joe Kissell

Menace of sleep disorders stalks many police officers

After working the midnight shift, Cleveland Patrolman Tom Ross just wants to go home and get some rest. But catching some zzz's during the daytime isn't easy for him.

So he spends his time pacing his kitchen, watching TV or trying to fall asleep, which leaves him constantly tired, he said.

"I've got nothing to wake up for until midnight, but here I am awake at 1 p.m.," said Ross, an executive officer at the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association. "I don't know what it is. I can't stay asleep when I can get to bed, and other times I just can't sleep."

Ross, 38, suffers from a sleep disorder, a common problem for police officers.

A Harvard University study found that nearly two out of five police officers surveyed suffered from a sleep disorder. Researchers presented the findings last month at the annual Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting in Minneapolis.

In the study, Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Shantha Rajaratnam and six other researchers found that 38.4 percent of police officers surveyed suffered from some form of a sleep disorder because of the ever-changing shifts.

The study group was made up of 4,471 police officers across the nation through a self-reporting survey that was mailed or handed out during visits to random police stations. The submissions were later validated by sleep clinics.

The ailments that plagued the officers included narcolepsy, sleep apnea, insomnia, restless- legs syndrome and shift work sleep disorder.

"Those numbers are probably on the conservative side," said Bryan Vila, a criminal justice professor at Washington State University who has studied police fatigue. "Other numbers have shown anywhere from 40 to 55 percent might have some sort of sleeping disorders or poor quality of sleep."

Vila, who wrote the book "Tired Cops" about police fatigue, said New York researchers also found that police officers at the Buffalo Police Department on average died six to seven years earlier than other blue-collar workers because of the long-term effects of sleep loss.

Lack of sleep has been linked to depression, obesity, heart disease and diabetes. It also affects emotional well-being, mental ability, productivity and performance, sleep studies have found.

Mark Rosekind, the president of California-based Alert Solutions, works with local and national law enforcement agencies to educate them about the short- term and long-term effects of sleep disorders. He said experts estimate $30 million to $100 million are lost every year because of lost productivity, absenteeism or treating health problems related to sleep fatigue or disorders.

"It's an area that has been be hind the curve," Rosekind said "We have a lot of general data about sleeping disorders, but what there hasn't been is research on particular groups like police and firefighters."

Bay Village Police Chief David Wright said he wasn't surprised at all with the findings.

"It's been pretty well known within the profession for the last 15 years or so," said Wright, the immediate past president of the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police. "I experienced it myself."

In an attempt to regulate shifts, many area police departments - including Cleveland's - have switched from rotating schedules to permanent night shifts, citing concern about officers' sleeping patterns and health, officials said.

CPPA President Steve Loomis said that while permanent night shifts have their benefits, those working at night still struggle to get adequate sleep.

"You have morning court dates as well as your day-to-day business," he said. Night-shift officers "don't get as much sleep as the other officers."

Loomis said officers bid on shifts, based on seniority, so they can eventually move off night shifts. He said that is one reason why it isn't a major issue for the union, and many Cleveland officers don't complain about the problem.

Ross, who has been working from midnight to 8 a.m. for nearly eight years, said even on his days off he's dealing with the problem.

"My first day off, I'll just spend the whole day sleeping," he said. "Everything just catches up."

The department's employee assistance program does not offer treatment or information about sleeping disorders. Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said the department rarely comes across cases of officers with sleep disorders.

Other departments in the United States and in Canada have begun to educate officers about sleep disorders and started to monitor the number of hours worked, Vila said. But many officers work second jobs that eat up sleep time.

Ideally, Vila said, police officers would receive four hours of sleep training before being put on the job, and supervisors would be trained to notice warning signs of sleep disorders.

"Teach an officer how to manage it," he said. "Just like they would maintain their gun or their armor, you have to teach them how to maintain their most important tool - their brain."

By: Dan X. McGraw