I'm a little deaf so I don't hear my machine at all. It is prettty quiet. Even when I was in a nursing facility after heart surgery I wore my hearing aids in bed as I was on my back all the time, I still didn't hear the machine. The only time I ever did hear it is when I forgot to put the humidifyer in it and it is noisey with out the humidifyer. You can hook it up with out it, but the humidifyer is needed to help keep your nasal passage moist so it won't dry out so much. Some times it depends on how warm the room is as to the rain out problems too. I never heat the bedroom so I have no problems there. And when I use my electric blanket I can tuck the hose under that nice warm blanket too, but I don't like doing that unless it is really cold at night to a point to where it doesn't feel like the humidifyer is warmed or not. Now wouldn't that be wierd if you woke up to frozen water in your hose???? Soooo hose it going??? Huggies, Fay