Does anyone else struggle with silence, particularly when trying to sleep?

Does anyone else find absolute silence difficult to deal with? In particular difficult to sleep in complete silence?

I think it started from a young age, being obsessed with music. Falling asleep with music.

As an adult, I still struggle with this and need some form of audio to drift off, be it music or something else.

More recently, I find stand-up comedy works best - it’s light-hearted and doesn’t require too much thought.

watson387,
@watson387@sopuli.xyz avatar

I have tinnitus, so absolute silence is never enjoyable for me. Music works extremely well; I fall asleep with the tv on.

LachlanUnchained,

I Think I might too. Need to get checked. Always a low humming. Sometimes high pitch ringing. But I meant more of not being able to settle my mind.

watson387,
@watson387@sopuli.xyz avatar

Well, I have ADHD so I can identify with that also. lol

sunaurus,
@sunaurus@lemm.ee avatar

When I read the title of the post, I immediately wondered if anybody else with tinnitus had commented yet.

“Silence” sounds amazing, would love to try it some time 😅

jocanib,

Put your hands over your ears and drum your fingers on the back of your head for 20-30 seconds.

It doesn’t last for long but (if it works for you), blissful silence.

AlexWIWA,

I’ve been using a fan. It almost entirely hides the ringing

DreamySweet,
@DreamySweet@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I need constant noise from something like a fan to sleep.

TheDubz87,

Try a fan. And this one’s weird, but I have an analog clock in my room and the rhythmic ticking helps me sleep.

chrisphero,

I know were you are coming from and I know a few people who have a clock in the room and sleep… but I just can’t… the rhythmic ticking drives me crazy haha

podcast or audio books are my go to - sometimes I’m stuck on the same chapter for weeks

NotAPenguin,

I can't handle the constant having to rewind and going wait did I already listen to this last night? that happens if I listen to podcasts or audiobooks to sleep.

Maybe I should just find a podcast I don't care about actually hearing everything in that I could use for sleep.

Celivalg,

I usually put on some PBS Space Time, not quite podcast, but I often don’t look at the visuals when trying to sleep. The videos are short (about 15min) , but provided it’s between 23:30 and 00:30, it usually takes only about 5 minutes before I fall asleep.

Used to do audiobooks, but that would fail if I was too invested in the book…

chrisphero,

I know what you mean, so here are my solutions. My podcast are either about F1 or gaming - so very generic and I have different ones. The topics are very similar, but with different persons and opinions, it’s never the same - so ideal for drifting off.

For audiobooks, I mostly listen to books, I’ve already read or listend to previously. So you know the rough story, but some small details are always missed. My prime example are the harry potter books by stephen fry… I fall asleep within minutes haha

NightOwl,

I have an air purifier in my room that is always running so filling the room with humming and providing clean air.

LachlanUnchained,

I feel like the thoughts in my head would drown it out.

ToastyBanana,

Others have made great points; I’d like to add my favourite: you can play rain sounds from Spotify (and iOS devices can do this without any subscriptions from the Hearing CC toggle)!

It helps me during nights I have a lot on my mind :)

saddlebag,

Buy yourself a white noise machine. I’ve been using one for almost 10 years, it’s helped my sleep routine immensely. I prefer it to something with talking because the fluctuations of something like comedy would disrupt me. Also, I think that concentrating on something like comedy makes me want to watch it and I would woke up.

The next thing is an eye mask. Even if your room is mostly dark, I’ve found it helps me to stay asleep.

neo,
@neo@lemmy.comfysnug.space avatar

Absolutely. A consistent noise like a fan is best, but music is good too.

fiat_lux,

The noise in my head is plenty loud already.

Wooly,

Yes, but more so because of my tinitus. It fucking sucks, I can’t really focus on reading books because the silence is deafening.

chrisphero,

I also have a sometimes hard time falling asleep, I guess I think and overthink everything too much…

So my go-to are audio books and podcasts.

LachlanUnchained,

I am a wild over thinker. Problem I have with audio books and podcasts, is i miss too much of them by falling asleep. Haha. Even with the sleep time on like only 30min.

chrisphero,

I mostly listen to audio books for sleeping that I’ve already read or listened too before, otherwise it has the opposite effect haha. This way I don’t care if I miss something or re-listen to something.

Sometimes I fall asleep within the same 5 min for a week 😂

Blizzard,

Try weed. Not right before sleep but a bit earlier, while watching those stand-ups for example.

LachlanUnchained,

Yeh. It’s amazing. I have a medical license for it. But sometimes I want to not sleep haha. More about the silence being frightening. Rather than not being able to sleep. Haha.

e-ratic,
@e-ratic@kbin.social avatar

My routine is a joint a couple hours before, then put on some rain sounds in the background while in bed. Instant zzzz

spitz,
@spitz@lemmy.ml avatar

I find it helpful to listen to .mp3s of people talking about something I’m interested in. I can focus on that and drift off to sleep and wake up not even realising I fell asleep. Also, I’ve found a hindu mantra that helps sometimes. It’s so hypnotic, it just carries me into the navel of sleep.

Mechanize,

If silence is the real culprit you should try out a white noise generator, generally speaking it should overload/excite you less then music or human voices and could help you sleep faster.

Where I live silence during the night is not really an option, and I had had problems only when on vacation “away from civilization”, but small stuff like white noise, a fan or similar low but continuos sounds helped me out without asking for my attention (which happens with movies, music or similar).

There are even apps that simulate different kind of sound and let you mix them (like rain, birds, wind) but I didn’t have enough patience to really dig on this solution.

LachlanUnchained,

I think it’s more getting out of my own thoughts. And I feel white noise etc won’t shift my focus from that.

shawnsg,
@shawnsg@kbin.social avatar

blameitonjorge, nexpo, night mind I've found work great as they talk in a very mellow manner. As long as you're ok falling asleep to the type of stuff they talk about lol

spauldo,

My father and my son both can’t sleep without a fan. Ceiling fans don’t count because they’re too quiet.

When we moved from the middle of town (a block from the railroad tracks, no less) out here to the country, my girlfriend had trouble sleeping because it was too quiet. Then she had trouble sleeping because of my snoring. You just can’t please some people :)

I can’t sleep if I can hear voices. Other noises generally don’t bother me, but my brain tries to listen to whatever is being said.

Xiphorang,

Yes, I can't stand complete silence. I have a fan going at pretty much all times, summer or winter, and I definitely can't sleep without it. I have a white noise generator, but I prefer the fan because I'm so used to the airflow that the room feels dead and suffocating without it now.

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