Earplugs significantly boost my sleep quality

[Vali2003]

I’ve been sporadically wearing earplugs over the last two-three weeks and every time I did wear them, my sleep was significantly better. 

I originally bought the earplugs because it can be noisy in my shared-flat sometimes. Think, game night, someone coming home late at night, late-night kitchen action etc. 

I didn’t plan to use the earplugs every night. However, I’ve noticed that every night that I’ve worn them my sleep is significantly better than without them. I don’t wake up in the night at all. And there’s a much more “solid” feel to my sleep. I also wake up feeling more recovered. 

Note that it’s not just better than my sleep in those noisy nights. It’s better than my sleep even when in nights when it’s “quiet.” 

So, what I think happens is that (in my case at least) there always are micro-noises (a car driving by, someone using the bathroom, some neighbor..) that disturb my sleep. But they aren’t loud enough to wake me up. On some level these micro-noises make me not sleep as deep even though I don’t consciously notice them. When I put in the ear plugs that flies out the window and hence my sleep is better. 

Earplugs for the win. I think silence is often underestimated in the “improve sleep discussion,” because there can be these micro-noises disturbing your sleep quality without you being able to consciously notice them. So I wanted to share this.  

 

 

 

[TheCloud]

Same here.  Earplug + eyemask has noticeably improved my sleep quality.

Edited 14 hours ago by TheCloud

[Vali2003]

Sleep mask + ear plugs is a killer combo. 

Although I sometimes wake up in the middle of my night suddenly without my sleep mask. 

[Elliott]

Earplugs hurt for me after a while, I would probably need to alternate between earmuffs and earplugs each night. Earmuffs hurt after a while too.

Do you have any tinnitus?

[Vali2003]

@Elliott I actually have tinnitus, yeah. But it’s not a very severe one. It get’s a little bit louder when the earplugs press on my ears, and because of that I thought for years that I couldn’t wear earplugs (because I was scared of the noise getting louder). But now it mainly doesn’t bother me anymore so I started using them more frequently.

Do you have tinnitus, and if yes, what kind?

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Vali2003

[Elliott]

2 hours ago, Vali2003 said:

@Elliott I actually have tinnitus, yeah. But it’s not a very severe one. It get’s a little bit louder when the earplugs press on my ears, and because of that I thought for years that I couldn’t wear earplugs (because I was scared of the noise getting louder). But now it mainly doesn’t bother me anymore so I started using them more frequently.

Do you have tinnitus, and if yes, what kind?

 

I have it mildly, a quiet solid high pitch ring i think around 4kHz, never really changes but sometimes it seems like a slight siren effect. I only notice it in silence. I think it's from a lot of loud noise exposure. I actually kind of like it, aside from the fear of hearing loss. The last time I did a hearing test though, 10 years ago, my hearing was off the charts good, they were skeptical as to how high a pitch I could hear.

It's sort of trance inducing to me, I've had it for a long time, maybe my whole life but i don't remember when it started. I prefer sleeping in silence but I pretty much can't when I'm a bit stressed.

There's techniques people use to fix some types of tinnitus, by the way, on youtube. I haven't tried them seriously.

I wear hearing protection when I do anything loud, yardwork, power tools, I try to bring them to concerts even but usually forget. I got my girlfriend to wear earmuffs when she uses loud things around the house, lol. Hearing loss can often be cumulative from common things we deal with.

Edited 10 hours ago by Elliott

[Vali2003]

@Elliott My tinnitus is triggered by tightness in the jaw and upper neck. I tried lots of different ways to solve it when I first got it, but now I mostly don’t mind it, so I stopped searching for solutions.

But my neck and jaw tightness is slowly getting better anyways and I think my tinnitus is quieter than it used to be, so, that’s good.

What’s the reason you’re not able to sleep in silence when you’re stressed?