Continuing the sleeping issues thread from a few posts back – I’ve had some really horrible sleep quality over the years. At one point in my life, I lived close enough to a major highway to hear the traffic rolling by – constantly.
More recently, I’ve had the mixed fortune of living nearby some neighbors that have dogs that are way too active, seemingly way too early in the morning – more importantly – they would bark incessantly. Many times to return inside their owner’s home.
Thankfully, I’ve recently moved into a new home that does not have the incessant and predictable pattern of pre 6am dog barking for a solid hour. There are still sounds outside my home that could wake me up if I didn’t have some of the recommendations I’m going to provide here.
One more common scenario is when I’m traveling on the road – invariably there is a door slam or the proverbial loud talker next door on a conference call letting the F bombs rip across the wire. There’s all sorts of things you get to hear on the road in the hotel…
So what to do with this sort of problem?
Well, I’ll split this into a home game and an away game…
At Home
When I’m at home, I’ve got a very good setup going now that has enabled me to block out the ambient noise from outside. I have a Sonos system setup in my bedroom that provides true surround sound that is enveloping in nature. I’ve managed to curate a few song lists that have truly transformed my ability to quickly wind down and stay knocked out.
The music that I have discovered falls into a few sleep inducing categories
- Subliminals and Affirmation Tracks – I have found that some subliminal tracks work quite well for a few weeks, and then for whatever reason – they no longer have the same grip on my sleep/relaxation patterns.
- Natural Rain – I have also uncovered a few incredible ‘natural rain’ tracks that I will play on a loop for a solid 8 hours – God willing I actually exhaust the track
- Natural Waves – Similar to the rain, I have a few tracks involving waves crashing on the shore. I’ve purchased a few of these with great success, and I’ve also captured a track or two while on some of my more memorable trips. Invariably, I’ll also play these on a loop.
- Lionel Ritchie Love Songs – I mean really, nothing gets better than his soothing voice. That was a joke to see if you’re paying attention. Only Dancing on the Ceiling type tracks here people…
Every now and then I’ll do a commercial or classical play – it usually depends on the circumstances for that night. Generally, though I’ll go with one of the three primary categories outlined above. For whatever, i need to rotate through to another mix/playlist after about 3 weeks.
I’m told that audiobooks can also do well in the sleeping category – I couldn’t do this. At least, I’m currently convinced that I cannot.
I do not run sound over the TV or any screened device – due to ambient light. This disqualifies some decent materials out on YouTube, as they currently require the device to be up and running – this is a problem if you are running it from your phone.
Beyond the music, I have some very heavy curtains in my bedroom that are sun blocking and relatively decent on the sound proofing elements as well. I’ll pull these across the three big windows in my bedroom to shield me not only from outside light, and also the sounds from the outside. Many nights at home, I’ll also close the door to my bedroom to truly seal in the Sonos provided vibe, while blocking out the rest of the world.
Now within the bedroom itself – I’ve taken all electronics offline in my bedroom that having moving parts. So any laptops or devices are running on solid state hard drives with minimal fan / ambient noise going on. All electronics if they are to be in my room, will be silent. Even the ceiling fan that I have is basically silent. I have had shitty fans in the past with the chains knocking and the base unit itself wobbling when it is spinning at its fastest rate – no more of that either.
The volume of the Sonos depends upon the type of night, generally it s loud enough to drown out the outside ambient noise, but quiet enough to hear things in the house – like an alarm.
I’ve toyed with some ear plugs while at home, but that has not really grabbed me as a regular habit. I know Tim Ferris swears by them, I’m just not there yet. I’ll continue to play with these as an improvement approach later this year.
Away Traveling
When traveling I do my best to keep the room setups relatively predictable by sticking with a few key brands that have rooms many times in the locales I’m typically traveling into.
When I check in – I’ll ask for a room on the side of the hotel away from any nearby high traffic areas – like highways. I’ll also ask for a room away from the elevators and ice machines. Depending upon the duration of my stay, I may request and get the top or upper floor to reduce the hallway noise and to eliminate the foot stomping guy that sometimes stays in the room right above mine…
It is amazing how accommodating the front desk can be if you set your expectations upon checking in. Setting expectations and making clear what you want is another future topic. Let’s just say – if you don’t ask/tell someone what you want, you have zero chance of getting it.
Okay, now that I have the room I wanted, and it is time for bed – I’ll do my best to recreate the sound cocoon of my bedroom at home. This means taking the bed (if it is a dual queen gig) that is the most quiet, sometimes it is the one closest to the door if the AC unit is next to one of the beds. If the AC is more centralized, I’ll take the outer bed to get away from the hall door as best I can.
As for AC / heating – I’ll play with the settings relative to the external temperatures to try and minimize the on/off flips – this is definitely something I’ll do when there is one of the in window units.
Now I don’t travel with a Sonos surround sound system. So the next best thing is either the sound coming off of my iPhone speaker or my Bose noise canceling headphones. I’ll wear the headphones if there is a seriously loud situation outside of my room, as they are awesome at knocking all the noise off. If this is the path I take, I make sure that my LINK Apple Watch is fully charged, so that the haptic alarm from my Pillow app can wake me up. More often than not, the headphones come off at night, although I like the surety that the haptic and Apple Watch provide in case I actually keep the headphones on.
The Bose headphones option is not preferred option however, I much prefer the iPhone playing at night at a slightly louder than normal level for the night. It is not as enveloping as the Bose experience, although it does allow for a decent sound to come through the room. The biggest benefit of using the iPhone speakers is that I can hear any alarms that may be signaled while at the hotel. As much as I travel, many times to the same properties, I still get anxious about a possible emergency erupting – and not being able to hear the alarm. I have had at least five fire alarms go off in my traveling career, and thankfully none of them were all that serious.
So what songs do I listen to while on the road? I have a couple of go to tracks that I only listen to when I’m on the road if the current rotation does not work. Generally though, I’ll start with the tracks that I was most recently listening to when I was home the prior night. The continuity is key for me. Sometimes though, the track does not work – so I’ll break out the ‘in case of emergency tracks’ to play – those are nearly always effective at inducing the relaxation and sleep that I need.
So some key takeaways:
Create a surround sound environment in your bedroom
Get heavy curtains and close the doors to your bedroom
Shut down all electronics and ambient noise from within your bedroom
When on the road, have some soundproof headphones or ear plugs coupled with a haptic, such as an Apple Watch that will wake you up
Experiment with various tracks to see what will get you to relax and get to sleep gracefully
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