Personally I have to have something on the go noise-wise. Any kind of white noise or humming machinery such as a hairdryer or fan is even better but I usually just settle for the tv.
Personally I have to have something on the go noise-wise. Any kind of white noise or humming machinery such as a hairdryer or fan is even better but I usually just settle for the tv.
Give me absolute darkness and silence and I'll be gone in under five minutes. Any noise is just a distraction for me.
I can fall asleep with some background noise, but I don't see why anyone would prefer that.
When going to bed I much prefer silence and darkness and I close the bedroom door if my wife is still up later than me to ensure that occurs.
Of course If I'm tired enough then I can fall asleep on the lounge with the television blaring and easily nap for an hour or so.
When I was a teenager I'd fall asleep with my iPod on nearly every night. Surprised I never strangled myself in my sleep, tbh. Now I sleep in total silence, but I can fall asleep in a room with noise in it or whatever. So I answered that I'm open to both.
I prefer complete darkness and no noise (and no windows open), but I can nap in the light. Noise is the deal-breaker. You just focus on it.
I prefer some background noise, which means I usually put something on the laptop while I drift off. Generally speaking it'll be something light which I've already seen, so I don't end up staying awake wondering what's about to happen, but occasionally I'll put some music on. I've made that mistake before.
If I have absolute silence and nothing to offer a low level distraction I'll lie awake all night.
Always used to do so listening to music or watching a film, but recently it's been silence that does it for me, can still go the other way at the weekend though.
I used to fall asleep with the telly on but now I'm very much a no noise person. I have to say it works much better.
Preferably silence but I'll quite happily drop if the weather is being very noisy.
Was always with music until my 20's. Now I have quiet, though the Mrs would stick a podcast on the odd time she can't sleep and it wouldn't bother me. Drowns out the soon to be murdered dog next door.
My childhood room faces towards one of Stockholms busier roads/bridges (even at night), that also has trains and undergrounds coming across it. It's quite far away, like 300-400 meters maybe, and quite far down (the building is up on a sort of hill).
Anyway, it meant the constant murmur of cars going past in the distance when I'd sleep as a kid, the occasional policecar sound, etc. I grew to like that, so now I really don't like it when it's just completely quiet, I really want those big city sounds in the background.
Bit of both. I can easily drift of with no sound at all, but I quite often stick the radio on for a bit of background noise. The overnight shows on 5Live are stonking.
Oh and also, strong winds or rain outside is fucking nice as well.
They come with the added bonus of making me appreciate being in my bed a little extra, as well.
I prefer the quiet. I don't understand people who "need" to put on background noise - it's just wasteful and develops bad habits.
I can't help but think it's more natural to have silence. Surely in the past it would have been silent (naturally, as there wasn't much going on) and also then noise would be a kinda early warning system against predators.
Err no why would it have been silent in the past?
The further back in time you go, the less I imagine our accommodations will have had noise-cancelling insulation (and even walls, etc). Sleeping outside, in a cave or even in a little wooden or stone house or whatever you'd definitely hear the nature around you, specially whenever the weather would be a bit bad.
That said, they didn't have podcasts, short of the town drunk reciting some old tale in the square a little loudly, so there's that.
Sleep mode was a life saver for me through college, though in fairness I didn't even try to sleep until about 4AM. Now it has to be utter silence and darkness, though if I am tired enough I can get to sleep eventually.
If the wife is out out I can't sleep, I'm just overcome with anxiousness that something bad is going to happen (no not cheating) and I lay awake until she comes home. It's crap because it means we're both fucked the day after.
I actually tried TuneIn on sleep mode last time she was out and all it did was serve as an annoyance.
This background noise stuff is mental, surely? If I ever fall asleep with the TV on it just wakes me up after a while.
Complete silence is the ideal, but if I don't have it I'd rather listen to music than have irregular noise.
I've not been able to sleep in silence since my teenage years, to be honest.
I can do both easily enough. For years I used to leave music playing while I went to bed. Heavy rain remains the best.
On my migraine travels I've been told not to sleep with sound/light on as (even though you may fall asleep) you get poorer quality sleep.
I prefer total silence - even my wife's breathing can keep me awake at times. When that happens, I listen to podcasts, which I find aren't as unbearable as rhythmic breathing or ticking.
A ticking clock whilst I'm trying to get to sleep is enough to drive me to despair.
For proper sleeping at night, it must be complete silence and complete darkness and with me laying in exactly the same position. I can't even sleep properly in any bed that isn't my own, such is the pickyness of my brain.
The only place this doesn't apply is on my train commute, where I have developed some sort of immediate sit down/fall asleep reflex, which appears to take no notice of the cacophony of noise and vileness on your average train.
I used to sleep with a ticking clock under my pillow and then it stopped working and I was just resting my head on a piece of plastic. Think a mix of city life and passing out to movies at Uni has made it impossible for me to sleep in silence.
Oh and if we want to talk about complete sleep habits, I sleep without pillows.
No wonder Benny gets all the ladies, they get to hog the pillows.
I sleep without pillows in Hotels because they're normally made of brick and come in 18 sizes while the duvet anchors me down so much I leads me to assume we're taking the precaution that if gravity disappeared overnight, I'd be safe. Hotel sleeping is awful.
I don't mind some noise. I've lived on a busy road that always had traffic in the night, and with a train track at the back of the garden. But I don't like loud music coming from another house, and get really annoyed when some twat's house party is going on too late.
I love sleeping in a hotel. There's something about a different, new, clean feeling room that makes it really easy to sleep.
Noise all the way.
I grew up near a permanently busy road with a few factories behind my house that were consistently working through the night. It was never quiet and always had some noise. When I first moved down to Cheltenham I could barely sleep because of how silent it was, just ended up leaving the television on blaring or sticking some earphones in so I could nod off.
However, this can be my weakness as I usually last all of 2-3 minutes before I fall asleep on public transport. Bed wise, I've learnt over the year that I'm a face down the pillow sort of sleeper, comes from when I used to wake up during the night with a nose bleed, where I'd just push my nose into the pillow so it'd stop and I could nod off without noticing it.
Other then that I often kick and punch out in my sleep and twitch like a fucker before I nod off.
Test.
The state of some of you.
I prefer silence, and prior to this thread I thought that was the case for everybody possibly barring young children (not trying to get a sly dig in here) who might think they're left alone if they can't hear their parents. That said, I can fall asleep anywhere if I'm tired so it's no biggie for me either way (very loud noise aside of course).
This no pillows stuff has blown my mind though. I have two different ones depending weather I want to sleep on my back or on my side.
I have one of those harder ones that's shaped so that your spine is perfectly straight when you sleep on your back or on your side with it, but I sometimes prefer a fluffier pillow if I'm on my side for the reason Benny highlighted with his picture.
Yeah, erm, you do move in your sleep don't you?
Not really since we bought a new bed and the pillows. I might even wake up in exactly the same position I was when I went to bed.
That sleep quality
For w while a used to sleep with no pillow, but I have ready it is better to use a pillow to raise your head a bit as it aids blood circulation in your brain.