Those who are sensitive to noise, how do you fall asleep?

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My noise sensitivity is mostly at stores, so going to sleep at home is rarely an issue. Sometimes listening to music in my room sets me off though

My problem isn't so much about falling asleep, it's about waking too easily because of noise. I'm usually up so late that the birds have started chirping and the sun is coming up. Otherwise, it's around 4 a.m. and everything is silent in and out of the house. I use my earplugs so that I don't wake up too early. I'm a very light sleeper so as soon as someone flushes a toilet, has a shower, or goes down the stairs, I hear it. Same with any outdoor noise like people cutting their grass, or even opening / shutting car doors. As soon as I hear that, I'm wide awake even with my earplugs and I can't get back to sleep.

Lately I've had a problem because of my senior cat who is extremely vocal around 7 a.m. just as I've fallen asleep. He howls like a hyena in my face. If I shut my door he scratches on my door and also howls, trying to get in. I should start going to bed earlier in anticipation of his noise, but I can't tear myself away from enjoying the dark, post-midnight ambience. That's my favourite time of day and I hate to miss it by being asleep.

Reminds me of a funny thing I said the other morning when I hadn't got a wink of sleep all night, one minute it was dark then all of a sudden it was light and it wasn't even 4am yet, but I felt annoyed that I hadn't got any sleep, so I sighed and said "what's the sun doing up?! I haven't got any sleep yet!"

Made my boyfriend laugh.

One time in Uni I got really drunk and woke up in a field.
That sounds crazy but it made sense at the time, and I wasn't alone.

I only slept for about an hour so when I woke up I was still drunk.
I rolled over and said "Oh my God, look how morning it is!"

Putting sound absorbing acoustic foam panels over the window can help reduce noises from outside. You could also try putting some of these on your bedroom walls. People with home recording studios like them to reduce the noise when recording music but they can also make things more quiet for sleeping. Also, I use an air purifier every night that makes white noise. Besides the soothing white noise sound, it also makes the air feel really clean! The white noise helps to mask out barking dogs and traffic sounds. None if this will make it perfect but it helps a lot.

I have an air purifier in my room too. Actually there's five or six of them in the house. I don't hear it because of my earplugs but it does help to keep the air nice and fresh. The sound is pretty calming, even in the day.

Personally I can't cover my windows with panels because of my cats. They want to see out all the time. At night they duck their heads behind my blackout curtains.

My sister used to sleep walk back in the 1970s when she was a small child, but only when the weather was warm. Many occasions my (then) 6 year old sister would sleep walk down the staircase from her bedroom unlock the door and venture out 1-2 km and find herself sleeping on the dry grass. Weirdly in her sleep state she would always find her way to the same park about a block away and wake up near the swings.

My parents would be visibly shaken, Eventually they had to put a padlock and that stopped her going outside so she would be found downstairs. She grew out of it after 12months.

What a great idea. Going to look into getting some of those.acoustic panels.for my room.

Air purifiers.are.great.too. Unfortunately mine stoped working after repeated forest.fires.where I used to live. Need to pick up a new.one.

I did the same in my old house. Actually had the whole bedroom professionally sound proofed from the roof down to the floor. Expensive to re-fit, but well worth it. I had room to work or just retreat there in the summer months when I was really loud outside.

I use pink noise from an mp3 player. Sometimes I use a recording of a thunderstorm.

I can be very sensitive to noise. Even the tiny bit of noise my pillow makes in response to my breathing and heartbeat, even a slight "whistle" sound from my nose when I breathe.

I put small soft rubber patches on the kitchen cabinets' doors to reduce the noise when somebody closes them. It did help a little. And also put some under the fridge so that the vibrations do not cause the glasses to shake and make noise in the cabinet nearby. Low cost and easy to do.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

The day I wrote the OP, doing something strange finally helped me fall asleep. That particular day, it wasn't just that I couldn't fall asleep when I laid down. I had such anxiety about being woken up, it was uncomfortable to lay there. Finally, I sat on the floor and leaned over onto my pillow on the bed, trying to simulate when I take the train and I rest sitting up, but don't actually sleep. This took the pressure off. I stayed like that for an hour until the anxiety subsided enough for me to crawl into bed and actually fall asleep. I don't think it's an ongoing solution, but it worked in this one case.

Unfortunately, the next night, I also had trouble falling asleep and then I was woken up very early by noise and couldn't get back to sleep. The funny thing is, I got ready hours early for my late shift at work and then laid down, convinced I still wouldn't fall asleep. This time, not only did I fall asleep, I slept until 10 minutes past when I would have had to get up to catch my bus and I had to take an Uber!

I think this probably has the most potential for me, as when we had actual rain earlier this year, it did help me a bit in falling asleep.



This has happened to me, too.