blocking sound at night

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Like many autistic people, I am hypersensitive to sound, and that causes me a problem at night because I can't get to sleep when there are external sounds.

I'm having a problem because I'm sharing a wall with neighbours. They're not noisy, but, when they use some electrical equipment during the night, it can vibrate or make other continuous sounds, and that can keep me awake. I'm trying to find the best solution to this problem. I've told them about the issue, they understood and made an effort, they use their equipment a lot less than they used to, but they still have it on typically for 1-2 hours at the beginning of the night, or sometimes in the middle of the night while I'm still awake, and it doesn't seem reasonable to raise the issue further with them. Also, I can't wear earplugs: I'm hypersensitive to touch as well as sound, and feeling these things in my ears drives me crazy, they make me feel like banging my head against the wall and I have to take them off quickly.

So, does anyone have any suggestion? How can I have quiet nights and sleep better? I tried to look for ear defenders designed for sleeping, that wouldn't put too much pressure on my skin, but I can't find any. Does anyone know if such a product exists? or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

I so feel your pain Daniel!
I have to have pure, and I mean pure silence in order to go to sleep.
I couldn't do it but I had an Aspie friend who would run a fan to block out background noises.
That constant noise would make me freakin wacko, hate repetitive, continious noises.
Good luck, I hope you find something that helps.
I know how important getting sleep is for me and my tolerance level.

Gosh, that would be awful. That would make me very ill very quickly.

I too am hypersensitive to touch and find ear plugs awful. However I have found the silicon based ones that form a seal over your ear instead I can wear and wear every night, they've revolutionised my life. I can only wear ear defenders some days as the pressure can make me feel sick.

I've found running the brown noise from this site at night really helpful. In fact I often have it on during the day as it makes me more calm when I'm at my computer.

http://simplynoise.com/

It did take me a couple nights to get used to having the sound in the background though but its a lot easier to tune out (for me at least) than a fan or other random noises.

I cannot sleep with light or noise. Any noise bothers me. I never wake up from a restful sleep.....I always wake up as if I've been up all night. My ear plugs block noise but the problem is that they cause me to hear my heart beat. I have the silicone ear plugs that pretty much block out all noise....but when I have them in I can hear my heart beat and that is even more annoying than other noises.

Morning birds chirping are my enemy lol...I HATE birds.

If I sleep in the bedroom at night, I play my rain CD. It's on continuous loop. When I sleep in the living room I put on my Sim Aquarium 3 screensaver. The fish are beautiful but it's really for the gurgling water sound.

The sound of rain outside relaxes me and makes me sleep better too. In fact, it makes me tired even during the day and I have a tendency to sleep much longer on rainy days.

I would play the rain sound that was posted in the white noise thread (I think it was you who posted it, redrobin, thanks for the link!) in the background while sleeping, but then again I think like this:

If I run my PC at night, my parents will become angry (for obvious reasons, they pay for the power after all), if I play it through my audio equipment, I wouldn't want it to be too loud to bother my parents (it is not as close to my bed as my PC which is basically next to it and I often use it when in bed and the audio equipment faces the door, my parents sleep just on the other side of the short corridor in front of my room, there is the bedroom) and more importantly, this is draining power as well and I do not want them to pay more just for this, I would feel guilty and have a bad feeling doing so. I feel like I already drain enough power with my hobby/special interest/obsession which is level design and hence I use my PC non-stop in my spare-time, sometimes at the max. capacity.
The ventilation in our house has a soothing sound (subtle bass), which also does the job a bit, but I really prefer rain sounds. I would put the sound on my mp3-player, but I hate to sleep with something stuck in my ears, so that is no option for me (other than that the battery would not survive the night as it is already quite old and can only stay on for a few hours).

I can also sleep very well if there is no sound at all, ear plugs would do it, but as I mentioned before I dislike the feeling of having something in my ears at night.

Nibs, I think heartbeat is a very relaxing sound, do you notice those silicon ear plugs or are they so soft that you do not feel them at all?

I have exactly the same problem, Iam so sensitive that even when I click my mouse button the sudden noise gives me a slight adrenaline burst, even though I obviously know Iam about to do it.

Now my neighbours kitchen backs onto my bedroom wall, every time they close a cupboard door or put a spoon down on their worktop, it sounds like they are hammering om my wall.

When I decorated, I affixed insulated battons to the wall, then attached insulated sound proof sheeting to the battons which cost me £200, I then fixed wall to wall wardrobes all along that wall, all full of clothes, makes no difference what-so ever.

When I get the front room done Iam going to move my bed into there and just use my bedroom for storage.

try putying the bed egg crates on the wall this may deaden sound

Sometimes i use earplugs if its real bad out there, however i can't use them too often since they hurt my ears so bad.
If i wear them one night it hurts to take them out and the 2nd night it'd be painful to wear them. I roll over and it hurts my ear.
Stim to sleep helps sometimes. Depends on the stim though. If i can hang a foot over the bed, i flap my foot. This stems from when i was
a baby and i used to move my feet in the stroller "as if to music" (according to grandma). Constant stim for me then.

I sleep on my side with my hand pressed hard over one ear until I'm calm and relaxed and then at some point during the night my hand drops from my ear and I fall asleep. I wake up without my hand over my ear so I must drop it but I'm not always aware of taking my hand off of my ear. I can't sleep with ear plugs in....they get itchy and annoying. I also don't go to bed until everyone in the house is already asleep so I don't hear their noises (I only live with my mom now but used to live with my little sister who would go to sleep late-so I had to sleep later).

if there is a room in your house that is less affected, consider whether you can reasonably convert this to be your bedroom.

I used to be like that once.
Then I moved to London. Got used to a certain amount of background noise. Got so used to it that I NEED a generic, non-invasive noise in the background to sleep at all. My pedestal fan is on right now, in fact. The damned thing is about 13 years old, and it doesn't really do as it was meant to any more... but it makes a calming constant sound that helps block out other more irregular noises.

So yeah... try to acclimatise yourself to a regular background noise that you can put on to block out other noises. That right there is my advice...
Might be uncomfy at first, but I'm sure you can do it.



[Edit]: I'm home sick. I've been stuck awake all night due to my illness. I'm exhausted... and some a***holes have just started doing road-works and hammering away with road-drills outside my window. I hope they all drop dead in the next five minutes... or at least that their arms fall off. a***holes. ¬_¬

To all who have replied: it helps to know that I am not alone! Thank you for your suggestions. I have actually already tried a few of them, e.g. stimming to sleep which works to some extent for me - but not when the neighbours' noise is on -.

I wasn't aware of the differences between types of earplugs though. Silicon earplugs maybe something I might consider.

Rattus - you mentioned silicon earplugs that form a seal over your ears. Do you have a weblink to the ones you use?

Daniel

I live in student accomodation, there is so much noise that I wouldn't ever be able to sleep. I have to play classical music on the radio to act as a blanket. I focus on that as best I can.

If not, I have to put up with doors slamming and opening, people walking and talking upstairs, people screaming outside, police cars and sirens (I hate them so much) or people playing music.

I play my own and it does the job for me.

Well if all else fails you could buy the husband some viagra so his wife doesn't need to use vibrating electrical equipment at night.

Or you could try a white noise machine. My doctor's office had one and it worked surprisingly well.