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Street noise can slowly wear down your nerves. I live in SF, and when I was dating my GF (now wife), she had an apt on a busy street (Oak Street); I live in an

• great_kraken 11y ago
  I moved to NYC a few months ago, from Long Island, and I have been experiencing morning headaches. If I look at my sleep logger app, I notice that after around 5-6 AM, my sleep quality goes way down and moves into mostly light sleep, almost no deep sleep or REM. There's definitely something to be said about how street noise affects our sleep patterns. For me, I'll have to try using earplugs more, but the stress on my ears isn't so nice because I'm a side sleeper. I wish I could just go to bed earlier, but I work on a remote team which is half in LA, and it would be counterproductive if I wasn't able to stay up past 10-11 PM... not to mention my schedule would conflict with that of my friends and roommates.
  • bonniemuffin 11y ago
    Have you tried adding white noise, like sleeping with a fan on? I find it just as effective as earplugs, which make my ear canals hurt if I wear them all night. For me, it's not the volume of noise that hurts my sleep quality; it's the variations in the noise.
    • great_kraken 11y ago
      Hmm, I used to sleep with a fan on back in college for the heat and I did get used to it at the time. Maybe I'll try some white noise. Thanks.
    • SeanDav 11y ago
      Consistent white noise absolutely works.
    • scurvy 11y ago
      FWIW, pink noise helped tremendously with my urban-noise-induced tinnitus at night.
    • sathackr 11y ago
      agreed. I grew up sleeping 35ft from a busy highway with rumble strips. A 5000btu window unit air conditoner 3ft from my head drowned it all out. I sleep with a small fan running in the corner now and use a white noise app on my phone when I'm away from home.
  • chairmankaga 11y ago
    I'm also a side sleeper and had trouble with normal earplugs. A month back I bought these DIY custom molded earplugs. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003A28OW6 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003A28OW6 I use them every night with no discomfort, they do a better job of blocking out noise and they stick in all night regardless of my tossing and turning.
    • great_kraken 11y ago
      How long do they last you, on average? I've seen these before but worried about them breaking down. I may look into getting some custom molded silicone sleep plugs in the future, I have some noise attenuating ones already for concerts and they're pretty comfortable.
      • chairmankaga 11y ago
        I've had them a little over a month and show no signs of breaking down.
      • PhantomGremlin 11y ago
        Here are dirt cheap earplugs for you, Home Depot sells many similar variations by 3M: http://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-Orange-Disposable-Earplugs-7-Pairs-Pack-92077-7-20DC/202080168 http://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-Orange-Disposable-Earplugs-7-P... You can take a pair of scissors and slightly trim from the big (non-rounded) end, so that they aren't long enough to interfere with side sleeping, but they are still long enough that you can easily pull them out in the morning. I haven't tried custom silicone earplugs, but these disposable ones are very soft and comfortable. You twirl them into a smaller thickness and they gently expand once you insert them. I started using them a number of years ago when the guy in the house next door got a very loud dog that he insisted stay outside at night and/or early morning. So of course the dog did nothing but whine and bark! Fortunately he finally got rid of the dog. A single "disposable" pair of plugs can last a week, or even a month if you want. The sound effectiveness decreases slightly over multiple uses. But that's OK. They start out really quiet, they claim something close to 30 dB. So if they're only 15 dB after multiple uses, that's OK. You probably don't want total isolation anyway.
  • lgieron 11y ago
    Extended use of earplugs (say every night for a couple years) can be a contributing cause to developing tinnitus.
    • driverdan 11y ago
      Source?
      • nordsieck 11y ago
        https://www.reddit.com/r/tinnitus/comments/34k8si/does_sleeping_with_ear_plugs_cause_tinnitus/cqz5tgs https://www.reddit.com/r/tinnitus/comments/34k8si/does_sleep... It looks like it's not earplugs, but sensory deprivation that can cause tinnitus. If you're listening to a normal volume of noise for at least a few hours a days, it won't be a problem.
    • dazc 11y ago
      Dunno if this is true but if you're already afflicted prolonged use of earplugs will make it a lot worse, in my experience.
  • Futurebot 11y ago
    I've used ear plugs for a long time; they really help. My current favorites are the Moldex 6604 Sparkplugs. Even as a side-sleeper, they work great for me.
  • mleonhard 11y ago
    This white noise maker has worked well for me for 8 years: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LQI2S0 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LQI2S0 They work by increasing the volume of the background noise. Sounds that would normally affect or you sleep end up blending in with the background noise.
  • osxrand 11y ago
    Try this site, I use it occasionally to help me ignore the fan / vibration noise in this building and it works really well (for my purposes at least). There are plenty of different presets to choose from or tune your own. http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/throatSingingDroneGenerator.php http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/throatSingingDroneGenerator... I use that one, Darkness, overall volume up a little and first two sliders down a little. Works like a charm.
  • dakna 11y ago
    I'm a side sleeper as well and I have been using Ohropax Classic earplugs for years. They are made out of wax, so you can roll and bend them a bit. This way they fit in my ears, nothing sticks out. German company, but available in the US: http://www.amazon.com/Ohropax-Reusable-cotton-Plugs-Carrying/dp/B00S58SRZO/ http://www.amazon.com/Ohropax-Reusable-cotton-Plugs-Carrying...
• colanderman 11y ago
  Many municipalities have limits but find it difficult to control loud bikers because when the police attempt to stop them, they speed away dangerously. Enforcement needs to change, but it's likely difficult in the US where my understanding is tickets/suspensions can't be issued just based on who owns the vehicle, they have to be issued to who was operating the vehicle, which is much more difficult to prove without stopping the vehicle.
  • beachstartup 11y ago
    > difficult to control loud bikers because when the police attempt to stop them, they speed away dangerously i don't buy it. people who run from cops get the helicopter called on them. loud bikers have always gotten a pass from cops for some reason. it's another example of uneven enforcement of laws which erodes the confidence and trust people have in police.
    • Caprinicus 11y ago
      You only ever hear about people who run away from cops badly. Motorcycles are usually long gone before the police have a chance to call a helicopter, which they would be able to outrun anyways if they were on a straight road. To be clear though I don't think that's the reason loudness isn't enforced. I imagine it more has to do with the fact that they aren't watching for it since they don't have any way to easily test it like speed.
      • ratsimihah 11y ago
        What movie is that in?
        • rco8786 11y ago
          Loads. They're all on YouTube filmed with Gopros. Seriously bikes run from cops all the time. They're gone in a flash.
          • 11y ago
• Tharkun 11y ago
  > The first time I slept over at her place, I got barely any sleep. I'm guessing you meant on account of the noise. And weren't referring to a great next of sexy fun.
• jeffwilcox 11y ago
  I also lived once in an apartment that was on a noisy street, I did all sorts of research on decibel limits in cities and briefly considered starting to record and trend using a decibel meter - then I remembered I have a day job. At least in Seattle, there is an ordinance, but it isn't enforced often, and the most clear rules are some silly "if you can hear a sound system from 75 feet away from a car 'clearly'". I reached out to the public non-emergency PR part of our police dept, essentially their summary was 2-fold, as I remember: 1. The most common noise enforcement calls were construction vehicles and semi trucks using jake brakes, both of which were a priority when there was opportunity to enforce (i.e. a pattern) 2. Many vehicles are very loud, whether legally authorized or not: sirens and emergency vehicles, Harley's, etc. Vehicle enforcement is rare. (They would not say never enforced, but that's the feeling I got) In my opinion, the only thing louder than the motorcycles were all of the city buses. :(
  • xxpor 11y ago
    Fortunately, the new buses are MUCH quieter. Once all of the D60HFs/D40LFs are gone, the problem should be solved.
• superuser2 11y ago
  Silence is extremely unsettling. At my parents' suburban home I need a window open or a fan running in the room or I have no chance of sleep. If the power goes out and the fan stops I wake up immediately. I've never slept better than with an open window at a Beale Street hotel in Nashville and street musicians below, or in downtown Chicago with the soothing rush of cars and sirens.
• saosebastiao 11y ago
  By control them, I hope you mean impound them, fine the owners tens of thousands of dollars ($1 for every ear they've assaulted should be enough), and permanently revoke their motorcycle license. Those exhausts are already illegal, but the punishments are a joke and the enforcement is non-existent.
  • driverdan 11y ago
    > Those exhausts are already illegal In most places they're not. The sound limit is quite high.
    • isolate 11y ago
      It's ~90dB and bikers routinely retrofit their bikes with loud, illegal exhausts that are louder than that to show off and because they believe it makes them safer on the road - "loud pipes save lives". 100dB+ is common, that's 10x louder than the already generous limit.
      • djaychela 11y ago
        100dB isn't 10* louder in terms of perception, 10dB will be heard as a doubling in volume to a human listener (despite being 10 the energy as you correctly state)
    • mikestew 11y ago
      In the U. S., the EPA specifies dB limits on exhaust noise. 84dB, I believe, but I'd have to look it up to be sure (IIRC, 84dB is what's stamped on my stock exhaust). There are local limits as well. The limits just aren't enforced as a primary offense unless the cop really just uses it as an excuse to check for DUI. It would be a nice start if national parks started turning them away at the gate, as Glacier NP has talked about doing. I'll laugh my ass off when I see Harley and Harley-wannabe riders doing u-turns at national park entrances.
• tahssa 11y ago
  > they seriously need to control those. Good luck with that. It's fairly common for riders to knock the baffles out of the tail pipes to intentionally make them louder. That's why police officers can be seen sticking their battons up those fat tail pipes as a check. Whatever new tech one could make will surely be circumvented too.
• ris 11y ago
  "On that topic: I wish we could have acoustical limits on vehicle noise." I'm fairly certain there will be in your country. There are in the UK at least - it's a requirement that's supposedly checked when vehicles have their annual roadworthiness test. The problem is A) it's a subjective measure, open to the testers judgement and B) there's nothing stopping the owner re-tuning their vehicle before & after the test to get a pass. So ultimately, it's just not policed. Let me preface this with "I do not have any data to back this up" but my gut tells me about 90% of road noise is caused by 10% of traffic. In London at least. "Those loud motorcycles with the fat pipes: they seriously need to control those." I'm totally with you on these, but really it's any of these two-stroke bastards, even mopeds these days. The fashion is to tune them to the point of nuisance.