the curse of being a light sleeper

[gusl]

I'm continuing to wake up at 6:30am every weekday morning (even when I go to sleep after 2am), with the creaking floor of the people upstairs. stepleton suggested earlier that my brain would get habituated, but this does not seem to be happening.

I guess it's time to try earplugs again! The problem is I've never found earplugs that are comfortable for longer than a few minutes.

I also want to talk to the people upstairs, ask them if they would welcome some thick carpeting, or if they can think of some other solutions. The space above my room is a corner of their living room, so it's odd that they would need to use it so much at 6:30am.

http://www.progress.org/2008/noise.htm

"Long-term exposure to environmental noise, especially at night, causes chronic disturbance of the natural sleep pattern -- even if you don't wake up completely," says Babisch of the German Federal Environmental Agency. "Studies in sleep labs have proved that persons exposed to this type of noise show increased levels of the stress hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin. These hormones regulate metabolic functions that affect risk factors such asthe blood fat level and blood sugar level."

Comments

[puellavulnerata.livejournal.com]

Heh. My upstairs neighbors get up at 5 AM, and from the sound of it are regularly fucking and moving furniture at the same time shortly afterward. Since this is about when i tend to go to bed, I find it greatly annoying. There don't seem to really be any good solutions, though.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

A lot of people (myself included) perceive their upstairs neighbours as moving furniture unreasonably often. I think it's probably an illusion: people can't be moving furniture that often! Is there a dimensional warp in the space between floors?

[puellavulnerata.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah. Who rearranges the bedroom at 5 AM on a weekly basis?

[the-locster.livejournal.com]

Earplugs might work for light noise like creaky floorboards, you could try the soft foam type but I find they have low impedance (especially at low frequencies) and work their way out.

Adjust your sleep time to more accurately match when they're quiet - yeh not ideal I know, but life is all about compromises.

Offer to nail down their creaky boards. A hammer and some floor brads (floorboard nails) are all you need.

Increasing melatonin synthesis might help you sleep, try taking a regular vitamin pill (they usually have a broad range of B vitamins) with another pill of just vitamin B6.

Next time rent in an apartment with concrete floors! I live in an old victorian building with the same problem - except now the problem flat is office space and is therefore empty from 6pm onwards. Never again.

If you get really cranky catch up on sleep at a friend's place or a hotel.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

For five years I wore the soft foam type pretty much every night (I moved yesterday -- suddenly, I'm not living just off a major thoroughfare, and I can sleep!). I like the cylindrical ones, whereas the bullet-shaped ones always fall out of my ears within minutes. They're disposable; they last maybe a week or half a week. The silicone ones are too large for my ears (I should try the kids' version) and are more expensive since you need to replace them more often, but may work for you. Also, $.50 per night isn't really anything to lose sleep over.

[stepleton.livejournal.com]

Sorry you're not getting used to it. Sounds like talking to your neighbors is in order. Unfortunately, creaky floors in old buildings mean even the lightest treaders cause frustration.

I "solved" the problem for my downstairs neighbor by compensating him with free internet.

Meanwhile, my new upstairs neighbor apparently rounds out his evening by using his synthesizer to distill the most cloying, sentimental, precious piano music I have ever heard. It sounds like the backing tracks they use in TV commercials for retirement homes. Fortunately, he gets tired of it by 11:30 and trundles off to bed, and I can just listen to my own music on my headphones.

[surrey-sucks.livejournal.com]

I'm too tired to read the article now, but I'm going to bookmark it for later. I've had severe problems with noise (really, really, really bad noisy neighbours), and have moved so many times because of it. Noise has severely affected my quality of life. I'm pretty happy where I am now, though, because my landlords are awesome.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I'm coming up with ideas:
* sound-proof pods around your bed
* measuring noise around the clock, and publishing this data at the level of houses (or at least, street-blocks), in order to inform people in the market for housing

[letters-in-sand.livejournal.com]

I like the first idea. If I'm ever rich and living somewhere permanent, maybe I'll buy a sensory deprivation tank.

Oh wait... I won't need one, because I won't be living in a converted house anymore.

The second idea - not sure you'd have much of a "market" for that. normal people don't care that much about noise.

Not saying that to be insulting, of course. Just a conclusion I've come to as someone who does.

[surrey-sucks.livejournal.com]

Noise has made me miserable, so this is of great interest to me.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

http://gustavolacerda.livejournal.com/698198.html?thread=2529366#t2529366

[surrey-sucks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read the article and posted it and commented in my LJ after you posted it. Really, the article says stuff that I've been saying for years, and had an intuition about. I just knew that constant noise was negatively affecting me, even if I couldn't "hear" it.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I just linked you to my solution (the bottom of this page).

[surrey-sucks.livejournal.com]

Oops!

Luckily my solution of finding awesome landlords worked for me!

[hykue.livejournal.com]

hi there!

I can totally commiserate with you on the creaky upstairs floor thing. My bedroom is right underneath the main hallway upstairs, and there are four people living up there with very different schedules.

Julie :)

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I decided to buy a HEPA filter (humidifier), and run it dry, which makes a loud white noise. It's been working great! I never wake up with the neighbors anymore.