White Noise

[spsn]

i_am_zan knows me so well and that includes my sleeping problem. I've been having sleeping problem for months with sleeping intervals of 2-4 hours (5 hours if I'm lucky), so you can imagine how many hours I actually go on snooze in deep sleep each day despite the effort in sleeping early (obviously I watch so much lesser drama nowadays). I've tried essential oil, which smells heavenly but only works for awhile, unfortunately, but it does make you happier sniffing it; eye mask (those disposable eye masks endorsed by Sho-chan), they're great to make your eyes relax, but it doesn't help you sleep the whole 7 hours non-stop; and the last resort, sleeping pills (I took Benadrill equivalent, which was OK-ed by my bro, the pharmacist). Sleeping pills were a good last resort if you have the entire 10 hours to spend on literally sleeping, because what would happen if you only have around 6-7 hours sleeping time? Yep, you wake up with drowsiness and what do you do for instant recovery? You take coffee, and the cycle continues. I used to be able to sleep despite having coffee during the day (2 cups of kopi-o-kosong aka long black is no biggie for me). However, apparently this ability vanished after I stopped coffee or tea intake for the past 6 months due to my iron defficiency (this effort turned out to be futile as my last test turned out to be STILL in deficit level, boohoo, and now I'm taking iron supplement and awaiting for another follow up test in 2 months time). So, if I take 1 bloody instant coffee now, not even a long black, let alone kopi-o-kosong, I have to be prepared to count sheeps until 2am (or watching mindless youtube clips, or counting more sheeps).

So, obviously my eyebags getting darker and I'm sleep deprived, and work doesn't make life easier, and I'm getting easily provoked and cranky, and my blood pressure rise up (I managed to lower down my blood pressure somehow, a yey at the end of 2016 though, and I pray hard that it remain stable at that level).

Knowing all my health issues (especially when I complain about them every so often, and I do have a lot), and obviously I'm not the only one with the same sleeping problem in my office, my colleague suggested white noise. What's white noise? I also have no idea until I google (hurray for uncle google). The official wiki is here. But in my own definition, white noise is those sounds which are static enough that it can manipulate your psychological mood and lead your brain into a relax and calm state, and without you knowing it, you're snoozing. On top of white noise, there're also pink, brown, and purple noise. What's the difference? Honestly, I have no idea, especially wiki elaborate all those in academic terms. But the gist is, all these noise comes with a function to relax you. Some people use these noises to help them concentrate better and be productive in their study or work... not for me. I tried and I got tired instead, just give me Shinhwa/Arashi/V6 as BGM for my waking up hours, they'll do the job for me. If you youtube white noise, so many things and option will come up, from just statics to rains, nature, fans, water dripping, heartbeats sounds, with 1001 different frequency, volume, tempo, I mean, even rain has so many different sound (with thunder, light rain, drizzles, storms, heavy storms, rain dripping on tile, on tin roof, and so many more) and with duration. I-tunes also have 1001 options for you. And, we also have apps for this where you can record your own white noise, or mix and match and make your own white noise play list (pretty cool, until I don't know how to export the bloody thing into my music player in my phone).

So after 1 week of experiment, I find that I cannot use those itunes music files because they only last for 6-9 minutes and they have the decending sound to nothingness and if you loop it, it'll have stops and intervals. Now I kind of get it why youtube has 3, 6, 8, 9, 10 hours variation of clips. And I need the 10 hours clip to be able to sleep at least 6 hours non-stop. What happen with the shorter ones? I woke up after it finished, and with the looped itunes files, I could feel that the noise is finishing and I ended up not 100% sleeping. I also noticed that I only can take light rain sounds (rain makes me feel cooler, and it confirms the psychological thing when it rains, you just want to cuddle inside your comforter and snooze), and fire crackling sounds at most (it makes me feel warm and toasty, and zzzz). And it has to be in static, simple and stable waves, and no additional bird chirping, thunder, etc. It really goes down to your preferrence. So far, it works, and I hope I can ditch the sleeping pills option with this, and this is cheap and practically free (if you just use youtube and apps).

The clips which are working for me so far are: this, this (my favorite), and this.

I hope by sharing this experience, it can help those who have similar sleeping problems because sleep is important, as important as the rainbow pills in our lives!

Comments

[babicentil.livejournal.com]

Ive had the same problem for 10 years and yes white noise is THE solution, for me at least, better than sleeping pills.
Since I live in the tropics I can just crank up the fan and the AC. They provide me with static buzzing that puts me in a stagnant mood and masks other noises that startle me (car/bike engines, neighborhiod souds etc.)
Maybe you can try the fan/AC thing too in summers. I'm not sure about colder seasons..

[spsn.livejournal.com]

ah, i hate fans especially those that are mounted on the ceiling, it gives me headache when it's on. thankfully my apartment unit is not hot, even in summer, so i'm good :). yeah, so i just on the youtube clip (hurray for unlimited internet plan) when i'm ready to sleep.

one thing that i'm always scared of with sleeping pills is that it encourage addiction, and before you know it, you can't sleep without popping one and that's baddd....

[babicentil.livejournal.com]

i know what you mean, ceiling fans are scary Im afraid my cat will jump on it one night and the whole thing will fall on me :D
i just got myself one of those standing fans for the sole purpose of bringing white nose TBH. i put in on a corner and directed it to the wall.
those youtube clips are great too. there are actually apps for ASMR sounds like rain drops, waves etc but they heat up my phone.

sleeping pills does that, to some people at least. I was like that when juggling work+school+romance (lol what) and it felt horrible.

theres this one tip I got from a friend that works. instead of using air freshener/incense/potpourri, wear a bit of ur fav perfume/sologne/bodyspray before going to bed. just a bit. it makes me relax and the sleep I get feels more "qualified" even when it's less than 6 hours. I dont do it that often tho...

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

I hate it when I'm right like this. *HUGSHUGS*

I am glad you're proactive about doing something about it and glad that though you gave the tablets a go, you decided that it isn't for you. I hate taking meds unless I absolutely have to. Especially when it comes to my children too!

And yeah ... I had problems too, after I did the breastfeeding thing, up at all odd hours, being like a zombie for days ... I found that no matter what I did i couldn't go back to 'normal' sleep.

I think I drank too much coffee and tea. I cut down a lot and I restricted my naps as well. I tried my best to go to sleep at 'normal' times and failed, 8 out of ten times.

Nowadays I'm not so bad. Still sleep odd hours, but intermingle it with days I attempt to go to sleep at the normal times. I try not to struggle too much if I don't sleep. Trying to find it sometimes is the worst thing.

I have two to three cups of coffee over four days. I still need my tea. I try not to drink more than four a day. Coffee - I try not to have it after five thirty or six. I also fail at this sometimes. Ahahaha!

Still so far I've managed.

Love and hugs. I'm glad you found something that works for you. I didn't know it was called white noise ... and yeah rain works for me. And people around me. Not too loud or jarring though. (and birdcall, while I can appreciate it when I am awake ... it drives me batty when I want to try and sleep. Ha!)

*Love and hugs* - take care and much love. -Zan