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@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

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

    • sunaurus@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • LachlanUnchained@lemmyunchained.netOP
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • TheDubz87@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • chrisphero@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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

        • Celivalg@iusearchlinux.fyi
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          1 year ago

          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…

    • NightOwl@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

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

  • linuxduck@nerdly.dev
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    1 year ago

    I have tinnitus. Had it my whole life. I live with a fan running in every room except the kitchen and bathroom. They are on 24/7 365. The silence literally makes my head feel like it’s about to pop

  • Gabbro@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I fixed that problem…I never hear silence!

    All I hear is eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

  • ToastyBanana@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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 :)

  • DarkThoughts@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    More the opposite. I can’t stand all the noise. Especially during spring & summer when you have to open your window during the night.

    • LachlanUnchained@lemmyunchained.netOP
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      1 year ago

      Growing up, my bedroom faced a main road (even though it was a decent way aways), always want the bedroom window open. Doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

  • Wooly@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

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

  • Log1cal_Outcome@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    I usually fall asleep to a podcast. One that is interesting, but not so interesting that it’ll keep me up. A history podcast or something like that.

    • Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I do this too. Unmade Podcast is my sleeping podcast. 2 dudes talking podcast. It’s a little hard without it.

      • Log1cal_Outcome@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        I quite like We Have Ways podcast, although they never balance their mics so one of them ends up blasting my ears waking me up while you can’t hear the other one at low volume 😂

  • kakes@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    As a teen, I needed complete silence/darkness to sleep well. Then I met my now-wife, who needed a TV on to sleep well.
    It took a while, but we eventually compromised on a fan for background noise.

  • negativeyoda@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I have horrible tinnitus after years of searing guitars. I have to sleep with a white noise machine or I am completely tweaked

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    If I’m not asleep by a certain time of night, “hour of the wolf”, then I find it very hard to sleep without something in the background. Usually I use the sound of a babbling brook that I recorded while in Iceland.