One of the rare things my wife and I weren't fully compatible on, she's like you and needs full silence/darkness to sleep whereas I need something that pulls my mind away from the existential dread to fall asleep. I now use earbuds...
I use SleepPhones. Much nicer than earbuds because they're flat in a headband. Earbuds either fall out overnight or leave me with soreness in the morning.
I'll check them out! My buds definitely fall off during the night and I don't usually have soreness (because they fall out) but sometimes I'll wake up all tangled in the cables lol.
Update, I was hesitant to recommend the wireless charging ones as I had received a bad module. RMA process was super smooth and the replacement works flawlessly so I can definitely recommend them now. Wireless charging is a very nice feature for these.