If you live in a big city, you probably won’t even realize the noise pollution in which you live and sleep until you spend a couple of days in the countryside and that unknown silence becomes uncomfortable for you. There are people so used to noise that they cannot sleep in a country house due to the lack of noise pollution.
Noise as a cause of insomnia
- But even if you have gotten used to sleeping with the noise from the street, surely your quality of sleep is not the healthiest. In any case, noise is one of the main causes of insomnia and can alter the sleep cycle to the point of generating chronic insomnia. Noises that disturb sleep can come from different areas.
- The noise of traffic in a big city can be an impediment to falling asleep and, in the best of cases, to obtaining a restful sleep. The particular location of each house also affects sleep, if you have a train station, an airport or a factory nearby that announces the entrance and exit with a siren. Living above a cocktail bar can turn the necessary process of sleeping into a true odyssey.
- There are other noises that do not let us sleep, closer than the noise pollution that comes from outside, such as noisy neighbors who drag the furniture, who walk in heels, who play the music very loud or who waste passion and decibels at the moment. Of love. If your partner snores, their snoring can also be the cause of your insomnia.
Can noise insomnia be avoided?
- When we face a problem of insomnia we always talk about the need to follow proper sleep hygiene, to prepare ourselves thoroughly to go to sleep and to become aware of the importance of sleeping well. However, what can we do if insomnia is caused by noise? Logically we cannot stop the traffic on the street, nor cancel the night schedule of the trains if we cannot even prevent the neighbors from talking loudly at night.
- Specialists say that one of the most effective and simple measures against noise that does not let you sleep are earplugs. But many people are uncomfortable with them on, so they can’t sleep, and many more fear falling asleep with them on in case they don’t hear the alarm clock.
- The rest of the measures they recommend to avoid noise insomnia are much more expensive. A noise-free bedroom requires insulation, which can be quite expensive, although a cheaper technique is to line the walls with cork. When the noise comes from the street, double glazing becomes inevitable, something that will also have a favorable impact on maintaining the ideal temperature in the room.
