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Comment by mmh0000 | Hacker News Reader

I’ve spent years “fixing” my sleep. Things I recommend:

* a sleep tracker. I love AutoSleep - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/autosleep-track-sleep-on-watch...

* Any kind of white noise. I use an air purifier at home, and a little pocket size white noise machine when I travel.

* find and eliminate any noises in your home. Computers, fridges, squeaky doors, etc.

* find and eliminate any lights. Especially stupid power and status LEDs. Bedroom should be pitch black at night. Electrical tape works well for this.

* Blackout curtains

* cheap eye mask

* Magnesium Glycate supplement

* Earplugs- https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0015TBGR6

* And finally, a recent addition that I’ve fallen in love with is sleep ear buds: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DT9GBFQ2

Although, I would wait on getting sleep ear buds, Anker just announced a new model with ANC and a similar price.

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Any advice on how to eliminate noisy neighbours that would randomly drop their shit at random intervals in the middle of night and let their child to stomp around every late evening?

Unfortunately, the best way to cure this is "don't live underneath other people".

I second this. If you really have to live in a flat, top floor is always the superior option.

Literally the superior option.

Not unless you live in a country like Germany where AC is the devil and the top floor is always incredibly hot.

I used to live in a wooden construction apartment, with neighbors above me. They themselves stomped a lot, both late at night and early in the morning, somehow.

Then they had a kid, which grew up and of course would run around the house at any hour. I was getting terrible sleep and it was driving me crazy.

All I could really do was move, and I made sure the next building was reinforced concrete, and that I would be on the top floor. The unit also ended up being on one end so only one wall shared with a neighbor.

It was instant relief and absolutely worth the move. It sucks though because obviously not everyone can live on the top floor of a building. If you're a heavy sleeper then I guess this is less of a problem, so I hope we have enough heavy sleepers in society so there's less competition for top floors. Probably wishful thinking though because the top floor is desired for other reasons unrelated to sleep.

Another thing to avoid are hardwood floors. I live in a concrete high rise but that wasn't enough to deal with a neighbor upstairs who would stomp around in shoes on the — admittedly very nice looking — white oak floor. It's basically a giant drum. Even vinyl is quieter.

Ear plugs! https://acscustom.com/uk/products/other-products/sleep-sound

That would be my no 1 go-to, if I didn't have to remain alert for my 3 year old sleeping next door (he can seep through the noisy neighbors though!)... (btw our neighbours are underneath and they cook at night, and talk very loudly)

Unfortunately, ear plugs would not help against low frequency bass noise, which this noise typically is.

Ear plugs should reduce intensity of sounds across the board. Yes, they’re less effective against low frequency noise, but reducing the intensity any amount goes a long way – the logarithmic scale is real!

I also personally find high frequency noise to be more disruptive: a car speeding by making wind noise is a lot worse than a large truck rumbling by slowly. Lower frequency is lower energy, after all

You know, I work in hospitals all day and people are always stomping around and moving heavy equipment. But you never hear anything coming through the ceiling.

Contact your state representative and ask them to do something about the building codes. It's a completely voluntary problem. American buildings are noisy because we decided that was okay.

You assume I'm in US, while I'm not. Not even EU. I know building owner personally and the only factual way is to evict those people. The only problem is that building owner is leasing them an apartment, and you can't evict people basing on household noises, even if they are driving me insane.

>Contact your state representative and ask them to do something about the building codes. It's a completely voluntary problem. American buildings are noisy because we decided that was okay.

Congratulations on finding an equally terrible and bad for everybody apartment-living analog to the sort of suburbanite Karen opinion that underpins meddling HOAs and busybody municipal codes.

If you want a quieter apartment pony up to live in a nicer one. Don't force the rest of society to shoulder the expense.

You should probably read The Market for Lemons. It's incredibly difficult to predict from the buyer's perspective how noisy an apartment will be. This is [one reason] why we have regulations.

> Any advice on how to eliminate noisy neighbours

... Not from a Jedi. :p

No need for fancy light sabers, put them to the sword.

I've also been doing small improvements to my sleep over the years and share some of your recommendations! What's worked best for me have been:

1. Good mattress and pillow (this is a 101 kind of thing).

2. Having the right temperature (same as above).

3. White noise. I also use a white noise machine and the White Noise app on iOS (which I bought for like $1 years ago and still use it). Ironically, I don't use white noise but brown noise, which is slightly more soothing to me.

4. Air purifier, not necessarily for the white noise it produces because it's pretty silent, but because that way I guarantee that I get at least 8 hours of purified air a day.

5. Black out curtains.

6. Eye masks. I actually wear two at once -- the first one to block any lights, the second one to press against my eyelashes, which I find it better for sleeping.

7. Magnesium Glycinate. I've tried different supplements, different forms of magnesium, and even different brands, and the one that I currently use has worked wonders for me. Made me go from being a light sleeper to a medium-heavy sleeper.

Haven't tried earplugs, but I don't really feel the need to. Another thing I tried (but never noticed a real difference) was using a small piece of tape on my lips to avoid opening my mouth.

> Ironically, I don't use white noise but brown noise, which is slightly more soothing to me

In case you or others didn't know, iOS has a built in noise generator with different presets under the accessibility options. Sometimes I use it with AirPods and active noise cancellation and it pretty much guarantees I can get a solid block of sleep, at least as long as the batteries last in one go.

The feature is called "Background Sounds"

What is the purpose of hearing the white noise? Is it to shield from other sounds? Or to distract from thinking? Are you focussing on it or not?

The brain can easily tune it out and it masks another intermittent sounds.

I may suggest custom ear buds. Best $200 you'll spend. The original method is a wax form, but now there is a 3D scanning tool to map the shape of your ear.

2 euro silicone ear plugs from Aliexpress easily beat the custom ear plugs I had.

I have the same experience. Custom ones literally made my ears ache. Probably the harder material. Note they were made out of 3D scan of my ears..

Currently using Hansaplast Lärmstopp.

... or just buy silicone ones from the pharmacy (the ones for swimmers).

I keep some of these on me at all times in case I end up next to any loud speakers.

Same thing - I've been adjusting my sleep since first Sleep Cycle came for iPhone. I started with a "smart" alarm and learned alarms are harmful. I didn't need an alarm, I just needed 7-8h of sleep. I was going to bed 1-2AM.

I'm doing all of the above with the following differences:

- I use AirPods pro. They are not that comfortable, but leaving a Audible low in background helps falling asleep and also getting back to sleep rather than picking random problems to solve and eventually waking up. It was "life-saver" when I started my first company before learning to manage stress.

- I used these 3M sleeping ear buds and they were the most confortable https://www.amazon.com/3M-Disposable-Earplugs-Quiet-Sleep/dp...

- Extra pillow over head, helps a lot (I have no idea why)

What does AutoSleep offer above and beyond Apple’s Health app?

I have (and recommend) a white noise machine at home, but when I travel, I use the awesome MyNoise app, which lets you EQ the noise precisely so you can target the specific annoyance in your environment.

  > What does AutoSleep offer above and beyond Apple’s Health app?

In my experience. After initial setup, it is way more accurate.

Apple commonly says I get more hours of sleep than I know I do. Apple counts just being relaxed as sleeping. Whereas I can tune AutoSleep to correctly identify the difference between me sleep and just being super relaxed. Thus I get a much more accurate image of what is working

Also the apple sleep graph is actually terrible. Almost impossible to understand when wake up are occurring.

I will definitely check it out then as I am frustrated by the same problem where Apple shows me as asleep when I am meditating myself back to sleep. It even shows me as sleeping when I have pushed the crown to see the time!

Would like to second ear plugs, it took some testing to find the right softness/size because I have very small ear canals, but these slim-fit earplugs have been life-changing for my sleep: https://a.co/d/38Kftbm

The earplugs don't completely cut out environmental noise, but they dampen it enough that I don't find myself being awakened by any bumps in the night.

And snipping down the tail ends of the earplugs with scissors helps reduce pressure if you're a side sleeper.

I can't stand earplugs, and think of ear buds as counter-productive. I've used (silken) eye masks, but have no use for them anymore, because successfully blacked out everything.

Don't know what to make of white-noise, do purring cats count? Or really relaxed snuggling with sexy gals after having fucked each others brains out? Or both?

I have a street in front of my bedroom and I'm wondering how well ANC earbuds work in that case. Will it be completely silent or will there still be some kind of whoosh-sound?

A large quantity of disposable earplugs is so cheap that I'd recommend you try that before investing time and money into ANC earbuds.

My spouse snores loudly, and a $15 container of 50 pairs has lasted more than 2 years, and saved our ability to co-sleep (I was only a couple nights away from moving to our guest room). We're also on a street with a very permissive speed limit, and we're under the approach path of the nearby airport, and it's never a problem.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051U7W32 I got these, $15 for 50 pairs; the GP comment is $40 for 200 pairs which is a better value but more investment if you wind up dissatisfied

It won’t be completely silent, if only because ANC always comes with low-level white noise.

I second the disposable earplugs recommendations.

Appreciate the list. How do you eliminate fridge noise (besides replacing the fridge entirely)?

Getting blackout curtains and killing off any stray light from clocks was huge for me.

Sleep eye mask

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