Sleep & Noise

To get a great night’s sleep your sleeping environment should be as quiet as is possible. Emergency vehicles, the weather, or the pet’s nails on hardwood floors (gets me every time) can needlessly wake you. To get the prerequisite hush-time are three main options.

Room treatments can be anything from carpeting to heavy sound-proofing curtains to oiling that super squeaky door to the bathroom that everyone uses. It’s worth taking time to inventory your bedroom and see what can be improved.

Earplugs are a solid solution that travels well but one that can definitely take some getting used to. They come in the foam and silicone variety. I’d experiment with each and see if either works for you. Even if you don’t adopt them for day-to-day use I’d recommend always packing them when you travel as you’re likely to find yourself in noisy environments that make sleep otherwise impossible.

White noise generators are an easy solution if room treatments are impractical or you hate earplugs. This is my go to solution and I like a dedicated hardware unit near the bed (again, keep it simple stupid). For travel I rely on a phone app that does a serviceable job. I also find that having a consistent noise starting at night triggers my mind to fall asleep easier. You can easily experiment with a phone app version to see if this works for you.