I know were you are coming from and I know a few people who have a clock in the room and sleepโฆ but I just canโtโฆ the rhythmic ticking drives me crazy haha
podcast or audio books are my go to - sometimes Iโm stuck on the same chapter for weeks
I can't handle the constant having to rewind and going wait did I already listen to this last night? that happens if I listen to podcasts or audiobooks to sleep.
Maybe I should just find a podcast I don't care about actually hearing everything in that I could use for sleep.
I have tinnitus. Had it my whole life. I live with a fan running in every room except the kitchen and bathroom. They are on 24/7 365. The silence literally makes my head feel like it's about to pop
I've had ear ringing properly once for like 3 weeks. Never had such a hard time sleeping because the quietness just makes it all the more louder. Really drove me insane and was glad when it started to slowly recede. Good chance I would just eff myself if it were permanent.
Others have made great points;
I'd like to add my favourite: you can play rain sounds from Spotify (and iOS devices can do this without any subscriptions from the Hearing CC toggle)!
It helps me during nights I have a lot on my mind :)
Growing up, my bedroom faced a main road (even though it was a decent way aways), always want the bedroom window open. Doesnโt bother me in the slightest.
As a teen, I needed complete silence/darkness to sleep well. Then I met my now-wife, who needed a TV on to sleep well.
It took a while, but we eventually compromised on a fan for background noise.
Yep. I also have a bit of tinnitus so I prefer a bit of sound. Usually I play an episode of Frasier, Mom or Modern Family. Usually before the end of the episode I'm sleeping.
Doโฆdo you live in my house? I will say that I tend to wake up to hear tossed salads and scrambled eggs though and shut off the TV when I can just roll back over and be asleep though.
I quite like We Have Ways podcast, although they never balance their mics so one of them ends up blasting my ears waking me up while you can't hear the other one at low volume ๐
If I'm not asleep by a certain time of night, "hour of the wolf", then I find it very hard to sleep without something in the background. Usually I use the sound of a babbling brook that I recorded while in Iceland.
I would love absolute silence.
I got Tinnitus in my right ear 24/7/365.. It will probably never disappear.. And I also sleep with a CPAP which makes annoying sounds when sleeping. So I would absolute silence.
Buy yourself a white noise machine. Iโve been using one for almost 10 years, itโs helped my sleep routine immensely. I prefer it to something with talking because the fluctuations of something like comedy would disrupt me. Also, I think that concentrating on something like comedy makes me want to watch it and I would woke up.
The next thing is an eye mask. Even if your room is mostly dark, Iโve found it helps me to stay asleep.
If silence is the real culprit you should try out a white noise generator, generally speaking it should overload/excite you less then music or human voices and could help you sleep faster.
Where I live silence during the night is not really an option, and I had had problems only when on vacation "away from civilization", but small stuff like white noise, a fan or similar low but continuos sounds helped me out without asking for my attention (which happens with movies, music or similar).
There are even apps that simulate different kind of sound and let you mix them (like rain, birds, wind) but I didn't have enough patience to really dig on this solution.
I find it helpful to listen to .mp3s of people talking about something I'm interested in. I can focus on that and drift off to sleep and wake up not even realising I fell asleep. Also, I've found a hindu mantra that helps sometimes. It's so hypnotic, it just carries me into the navel of sleep.
blameitonjorge, nexpo, night mind I've found work great as they talk in a very mellow manner. As long as you're ok falling asleep to the type of stuff they talk about lol
I am a wild over thinker. Problem I have with audio books and podcasts, is i miss too much of them by falling asleep. Haha. Even with the sleep time on like only 30min.
I mostly listen to audio books for sleeping that Iโve already read or listened too before, otherwise it has the opposite effect haha. This way I donโt care if I miss something or re-listen to something.
Sometimes I fall asleep within the same 5 min for a week ๐
Yeh. Itโs amazing. I have a medical license for it. But sometimes I want to not sleep haha. More about the silence being frightening. Rather than not being able to sleep. Haha.
Yes, I can't stand complete silence. I have a fan going at pretty much all times, summer or winter, and I definitely can't sleep without it. I have a white noise generator, but I prefer the fan because I'm so used to the airflow that the room feels dead and suffocating without it now.
The only time I ever would've preferred silence to some background noise was when I was at a scout camp along the banks of a river and the cacophony of frogs and crickets at night was super fucking loud. I barely slept the whole time I was there.
Other than that, I always put on some kind of ambient sounds or yoga music.
I do this too as a way to escape my thoughts. Meditation/mindfulness has helped in the past and itโs probably the healthiest solution. I donโt do that enough thoughโฆ
My father and my son both can't sleep without a fan. Ceiling fans don't count because they're too quiet.
When we moved from the middle of town (a block from the railroad tracks, no less) out here to the country, my girlfriend had trouble sleeping because it was too quiet. Then she had trouble sleeping because of my snoring. You just can't please some people :)
I can't sleep if I can hear voices. Other noises generally don't bother me, but my brain tries to listen to whatever is being said.