Okay people, here’s the deal: last week we got torrential rain and long story short insurance is paying for a whole new basement, including furnace and appliances. It’s created an interesting conundrum, though. For the week of the cleanup, I had five industrial fans and two industrial dehumidifiers running. It drew so much power we had to steal the dryer and furnace breakers. This lead to an overwhelming amount of white noise in my house. You could only make a phone call from the upstairs front room, and talking face to face downstairs was impossible. It. Was. So. Loud. As shitty and annoying as it was, though, it had this side effect: I slept like the dead. I slept so deeply I would wake up in the same position I fell asleep in eight hours prior. Jesus Christ, it was like a narcotic. Part of it, I think, is that the dogs also slept because they couldn’t hear street noise. I think I may sleep thin when they’re fussing. So...how do I reproduce this? I thought of a white noise generator, but I don’t know if that would be effective. The noise generated by the machines couldn’t really be heard in the bedroom; it just drowned out everything else. Any idea what could mimic that? Happy drunk thread, everyone. Discuss.
A wind tunnel. Ambien also helps. My two year old licked the top of the Parmesan shaker at the local pizza place like it was a lollipop tonight. We apologized to the server and she said not to worry about it. It happens “a lot”. So I’ll be using to go packets of parm in the future.
We have a fan going in the corner for noise at night in addition to the ceiling fan for air circulation. Year round. But sleep is always best achieved when the a/c, which is even louder is going. It's gotten to the point we have to take a fan when we travel. White noise makes sleep so much easier. Edit: Oh, and Benadryl.
I have a white noise app on my phone that works well. It has so many sounds, like nature, running water...but the best setting is “A/C Unit.” Crank it to about half volume and it knocks me out.
White noise app for the dogs maybe, to keep them from reacting to outside noises. Personally I get the most awesome sleep with earplugs.
Oh, you mean nightmare fuel? This morning I got woken up at 5 am by my wife complaining an armadillo was blocking the sidewalk to the car. As much as I hated getting woken up several hours before my alarm, that yard terrorist had been re-decorating my front lawn for a week or so and I was more than happy to shoot the shit out of it. Literally. Like after it finished all the back flips and running in circles those things are known for after they get killed, it literally just laid down on its back and shat all over itself. Now the vultures and other scavengers are out there chewing on it like a leather chalupa.
I have a fan in my room that’s super loud and blows just the right amount of cool air. It’s amazing. If I travel, I use this video:
I used to only be able to sleep with a fan on. These days it doesn't seem to be as much of a problem. Sorry about your basement, DCC, I know what it's like to deal with flooding.
After years of living together my wife and I still haven't adjusted on how to fall asleep. She can't fall asleep with the TV on and I can't fall asleep without it. If we're watching TV and I start to fall asleep, she'll turn the TV off and my brain immediately thinks "Whoa, no outside stimulation? Time to fire up the reactors and think about that 3rd grade argument with Jimmy and all the stuff I *should* have said". TV allows my brain to shut off. Without it, I just process information for hours. Also, I don't care what the medical community says, I sleep better with a buzz. And I don't just mean falling asleep. I mean I'll wake up more refreshed with a sixer of Buddy L's in my belly than I do going to bed sober.
Depends, I fall asleep really well but if I wake up it can be impossible to get back to sleep. I’ll go downstairs and turn on the tv and fall back asleep on the couch. It’s not as restful sleep but it’s a whole lot better than tossing and turning and not getting back to sleep. I’ve never tried a dedicated white noise maker. I run a fan in the summer but I’m unsure if it really helps. It doesn’t seem integral. Maybe I’ll give it a solid try with speakers. I know the ocean waves at our beach house are mighty relaxing to hear.
Would a noise generator work, though? I’m not sure because I didn’t enjoy the sound. It just muted everything else. I worry that you’d really have to crank a noise machine up on the volume. The fans were a distant drone that acted like a sound wall.
I used to date a girl that liked to sleep with the radio on. White noise is one thing but I have no idea how people sleep thru talking and music.
Tv or podcasts have help me get to sleep because instead of spinning out focused on the thoughts in my head I can focus on something else. Ken Burn’s Civil War is the number one sleep inducer of all time and I say that with affection, it’s a wonderful doc. The score and david mccullough narrating are so relaxing it just does the trick. I’ve probably watched it 10 times end to end because of this.
It all depends on what is comfortable to you. When I was younger and drove a semi, the sound of an idling diesel lulled me to sleep (Had to keep the truck running for either warmth or cool depending on the season). If someone parked their truck outside my window now I'd probably want to punch them in the throat As a kid I lived in a house with a tin roof over 2x12's with no insulation, so like Puffman suggested....YouTube recordings. I have used those with varying degrees of success. I don't think something like this is a "One size fits all" deal....I can easily fall asleep listening to distant thunder rolling, someone who has been in combat may relate that same sound to enemy artillery and find it less then relaxing. Comforting noises can be very different for every person. Just a thought...have you ever used a hypnosis recording? That's another thing that has worked for me and I actually learned to put myself under (And to sleep) with the techniques they use.