Can't sleep? Start with what is actually keeping you awake

It is late, you are awake, and you have been sent here by a search that probably began “why can’t I…”. So before anything else: here are the ten problems this site can actually help with, and where each one goes.

Why we organize this way

Sleep gear is sold by category: blankets here, sound machines there, masks somewhere else. That is convenient for a shop and useless for you, because you do not arrive thinking “I need a weighted blanket”. You arrive thinking “I am awake again and I do not know why”.

The mismatch has a cost. Weight does nothing for noise. Noise machines do nothing for heat. A sleep mask does nothing for a racing mind. Most disappointed sleep-gear purchases are somebody buying the popular product rather than the relevant one, and starting from the problem is how you avoid that.

Everything here leads with the free fix

Every page in this section has a section called “try this tonight, for free” before it recommends buying anything. That is not modesty. It is because the free changes are frequently the more effective ones - moving your bed off a shared wall beats a hundred-dollar sound machine, and pointing a fan at a wall beats a new mask - and because if you buy first you will never know what actually worked.

We earn money when you buy through our links, and we would still rather you fixed it for nothing and came back when you have a problem that needs hardware. How we choose what to recommend explains the rest of our method, including what we do not do.

The four levers gear can pull

Everything on this site is one of four interventions. Knowing which one your problem needs is most of the work:

• Pressure - for restlessness and being unable to lie still. Weighted blankets.
• Sound - for noise, in two flavors: masking it or blocking it outright. Sound machines and earplugs.
• Darkness - for light, whether from outside or inside the room. Sleep masks.
• Light, at the right time - for waking badly and for a body clock that has drifted. Sunrise alarm clocks.

If you want the cross-category version - what to buy first if you are only buying one thing - the sleep gear buyer’s guide is the page for that.

What this section will not do

We are a gear site, not a medical one, and the line matters more here than anywhere else on this website. We will not help you diagnose anything, we will not discuss managing a condition, and we will not recommend or compare any supplement, medication or sleep aid.

One thing is worth settling before you pick a page from the list above: whether you are a light sleeper or a deep one. It is a real difference with measurable research behind it, and the two types should spend money on completely different things - light sleeper versus deep sleeper explains which gear each one needs.