Hacker News Reader

Comment by Nav_Panel | Hacker News Reader

I was hoping this article would be about smaller "microinterruptions" as opposed to 20 minute "active interruptions". I recently moved to NYC and I feel that my quality of sleep has decreased compared to when I lived elsewhere. I'm certain it has to do with noise-related interruptions throughout the night.

I was woken up briefly twice tonight, once by my flatmates returning home and talking to each other and again by the heating pipes clanging as I live in a prewar and the steam boiler turns on at 5 every morning. I also imagine the train noise from the Metro North/other outside vehicle noise has an effect I'm not aware of.

If anyone has studies about optimizing sleep quality given these kinds of conditions, I would be very interested to read about it.

View on HN

I used white noise to great effect in a similar situation. It takes some getting used to, but you'll quickly get used to it and it will drown out any interrupting noise. Specifically, https://simplynoise.com/ worked well.

I use a physical white noise generator by Marpac: https://www.marpac.com/

It's essentially a fan inside of a cylindrical thing, but it doesn't cause any real air movement like an actual fan would. You can adjust the volume and timbre of the sound, too.

It probably won't drown out a snoring partner, but I never wake up when a train sounds its horn a few blocks away in the middle of the night. When I traveled without it once, I really missed it as I heard all the traffic noise outside of my hotel.

This (or rainymood as suggested by the other reply) seems to be a decent option. Did you use a pair of speakers near your bed? Or did you buy a pair of headphones/earbuds designed for sleeping? Also what sort of volume level did you use?

I used speakers near my bed, since I can't stand wearing earbuds while sleeping. Usually I just set the volume to the quietest it could be while still drowning out other random noises. Surprisingly, there were times when it had to be set pretty loud to drown out conversation, and it still worked well.

I have a Westinghouse air purifier which has the perfect white noise cover to anything I might be able to hear.

Plugs in your ears and or thick isolations on your bedroom walls should help.

Isolations are out of the question, I'm leaving when the lease is up (August 1) so I have no intent to invest heavily. Also the window/doorway will let enough noise through even with isolation on the walls.

I might try earplugs again. I bought a pack when I moved in but I never found them super comfortable, I'd usually fall asleep and end up waking up and pulling them out after a few hours.

Earplugs is the way to go. Get good foam earplugs, I use these [1]. If you experience discomfort or even pain during the night maybe you are shoving them too deep into the ear canal.

[1]: http://www.britishsnoring.co.uk/shop/snore_calm_foam_ear_plu...

If you pull up on your ear with your opposite hand while putting in the earplug, that will helps it to fit better.

Having a pitch black room, covering any LEDs with electrical tape, and using an eye mask also help.

http://www.rainymood.com/ might help with that

Reply on news.ycombinator.com