As I get older, I wake up earlier. I feel like I’ve been sleeping harder too, at least for that five-hour chunk of time when I first fall asleep. But in the winter months and with two antsy cats (one of whom likes to cry at 4 am), I do get up earlier and earlier. It sucks, but I also work well in the morning, so I get a lot of sh-t done here. I’m also one of those compulsively on-time people. I’m actually compulsively early for appointments, it’s just who I am. And I hate compulsively late people, I find it so disrespectful. Why bring this up? Rachel Brosnahan, star of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, has a feature in Self Magazine where she talks about sleep habits, her compulsive lateness and more. Self is actually doing a recurring feature called “Sleeping With…” where they talk to celebrities about how they wind down in the evenings and more. I find it really interesting, but I love to talk about this kind of mundane sh-t. You can see the full feature here. Some highlights:
On her backward skin-care routine: “I shower at night, rather than in the morning. If I’m taking a shower at night, which I almost always do, then I will wash my face in the shower with Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser. When I get out of the shower, I’ll use the Cetaphil Gentle Makeup Remover. I do this very backward—I know you’re supposed to take your makeup off before you wash your face, but I wait until it’s kind of all over my face, and then I take it off.
On her post-shower essentials: “After I shower I’ll usually lie down with my dogs. I like to cuddle with my dogs at night—that’s kind of my consistent form of self-care. I have two dogs, and they’re not always allowed on the bed, but if they’re clean then they are. At some point I kick them off onto their own beds. I like to do a quick stretch to wind down, especially when I’m working in a corset and high heels all day long. At the end of the day, my feet hurt so much. Sometimes I’ll step on a ball, or I’ll do some twisting in bed.
She falls asleep with a script a lot: “Sometimes I’ll learn my lines in bed if I have a big scene, either while I’m doing a mask or just as I’m lying there. I have, many times, fallen asleep with a script on my face, especially with Maisel. But I do often fall asleep learning lines, which I know isn’t the greatest because it keeps your mind moving—that it engages your brain right as you’re trying to slow it down. I find that sometimes, especially if it’s a very stressful week at work, I wake up in the middle of the night running lines.
She doesn’t have a TV: “Once I’ve started my shower and skin-care routine, after that point, I don’t watch any kind of TV. I actually don’t have a TV in my house. I haven’t had one for seven years…I don’t think I would ever have a TV in my bedroom. I try not to look at my phone late at night, but I feel like sometimes, in the process of thinking and reflecting, I’m like, “Oh, sh-t, I forgot to answer this email.”
She has a noise machine: “Depending on what’s going on in the neighborhood, sometimes I’ll sleep with earplugs in as well, or a noise machine. It’s super simple, but I really love the Dohm White Noise Machine. It just has two settings; it’s not anything complicated. It’s just white noise on a high or a low setting so that if my husband is awake and doing things in the house or my dogs are moving around, I can still sleep. I love it, and I travel with it when I’m in strange hotel rooms or apartments. I’m not a great sleeper, in case you couldn’t tell.
She’s always five minutes late: “When I’m not working I set one alarm or I wake up on my own, if I have the luxury. But when I’m working I set three alarms because I’m so afraid that I’m going to sleep through one or be late for work, even though it’s never happened. I always set three, and they’re 12 minutes apart. I’m about five minutes late for things, no matter how much time I give myself. I could wake up five minutes before I need to walk out the door and I’d be five minutes late. I could wake up an hour before I need to leave and I’m five minutes late. I hate being late and I stress about it all the time. If anyone has any advice, it’s my New Year’s resolution every year.
Hate people who are late like that, but I think I have the answer for Rachel: it’s not some weird twist of fate that she’s forever five minutes late, it’s that she’s bad at estimating how much time it will take her to go somewhere. That’s my problem too, and it’s why I’m always early: I always overestimate how much time it will take, and she always underestimates. Just a theory. As for the white noise… yes. I CANNOT sleep when everything is silent, nor can I sleep when someone is moving around in another part of the house. I need white noise. I choose a box fan in my bedroom, kept on low, because not only is the white noise nice, but it actually circulates the air in my bedroom and I love that too. It’s nice to work with white noise as well – I have a fan in my office too.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I have to sleep with a fan because my ears are always ringing, I should probably go to a doctor and see if I have tinnitus but I don’t even think they can do anything about it.
I have tinnitus due to hearing loss from a severe ear infection. And yes, my doctor and my audiologist says there is no cure. However, the following suggestions they gave me have helped me manage it: 1) Increased exercise/bloodflow to ears 2) Reduced caffeine (I only drink green tea, no coffee or soda) 3) white noise at night like you described, like a fan.
Two years in, I really only notice it in the morning when I wake up and it’s totally quiet (inevitably my husband always seems to switch off the fan in the middle of the night) or when I pause in the middle of doing something and just *think* about it.
Good luck with your diagnosis… You’re not alone!
Tinnitus is capable of self diagnosis, and if you have it, chances are it will never go away. I’m sorry you have to deal with that
That’s not entirely true. I struggled with tinnitus for several years and it cleared up in its own just completely randomly. To protect my hearing and prevent it from coming back I’ve been really careful with listening to music, I keep music at max. 75% of the volume and always wear earplugs at concerts and stand away from speakers. Not sure if this will do anything or if my tinnitus will come back but I’m glad it just went away overnight
Bryn, I had the same issue a couple of years ago. When I finally went to the doctor it turned out I just had a lot of wax buildup; they flushed my ears out and the ringing went away completely!
I have a sound machine and a travel sound machine. I’m a very light sleeper and everything wakes me up. The soothing water sounds block out most noises, although I can still hear jarring noises like the sound of a door shutting. When my family of 5 goes on vacation, I’d never get any sleep without a sound machine and benedryl. Lots of people have sleep issues.
I have to sleep with a fan on. If I’m traveling I use a pink noise app on my phone. I can’t sleep if it’s too quiet.
I became light sleeper so now I use earplugs and mask for eyes, best choice ever, I started to sleep better, because I don’t hear anything, I don’t see anything.
With earplugs, for me, it just makes me feel like I have a horrible head cold; but an eye mask, best thing ever!
Ha, I’m a heavy sleeper, but I also use a sound machine and an eye mask. I have nightmares during my sleep cycle, and sometimes the sleep mask prevents me from getting physical (as in, jumping out of bed to attack whatever threat).
I can answer her question: I’m always 5 mins late, even if I start earlier, because every time I start earlier, I ADD some step that I wouldn’t have done before.
It’s the strangest thing, but it happens EVERY time I wake up earlier. I don’t know why it happens. Like, I’ll feel great about myself for starting early, and think, “Wow, I have so much time, I’ll do this too!”
And then I’m back to being late. So Rachel, write down what you need to do to get somewhere, and stick to that. Procrastination is mostly just us prioritizing something else over coming on time.
I was going to say I think it’s an ADD type thing. My brother has it and he’s exactly like that. Not that everyone who does this has ADD, but I think it may be common for those who do.
I used to be late to everything, but don’t have ADD. For me it was frequently because whatever I was late to, I didn’t really want to go to. Also, there was some lingering agoraphobia. It just takes a lot to leave the house. I’ve also read that it’s a bit of an ego thing. ‘I’m more important than you, so I can be late’. I’m more conscious of that now, plus I’m super aware of how slow I am any more, so now I’m always right on time or early, mostly early.
Most Late People are typically late because of being overly optimistic (or bad at time planning).
We mean no disrespect! We just assume everything will be perfect! And then, it isn’t.
I really loathe the “it’s disrespectful” narrative. It’s not disrespectful. Because it’s not on purpose! (Well, with most people it’s not on purpose. Some people do go out of their way to be jerks.) But generally it is a character trait like any other.
I’m rarely late any more. Instead I’m usually half an hour early, with something to read. Because I know.
But please don’t take it personally unless the later person is an azzhat in general. I’m sure all y’all punctual people have unfortunate personality quirks as well.
That’s the key, bring a book. I always bring a book. Occasionally I resort to my phone if I forget to bring something to read.
Love my Dohm sound machine. Highly recommend.
Totally agree. I have the Rohm (the portable version) for my baby and for travelling and it is amazing. We got white noise machines for our infant, and then I started using them and will never go back to total silence.
Ugh, I should have stock in the Dohm. Currently have four and bring them everywhere. I am such a light sleeper and used to use earplugs but when I had my first I had to stop so I could hear her wake and I would wake up at every little sound she made so my anxiety and exhaustion went through the roof. Got the dohm when she was a few months old, initially for her just to sleep better because the vacuum would always soothe her, and haven’t looked back. Now we have one for every room and now that my kids are older I use earplugs in addition to the sound machine and I finally sleep for at least a few hours in a row lol. I freakin love the thing.
When I moved to Paris everything was too quiet to sleep. I used to think I was a heavy sleeper but if there was ever a blackout and the electricity went off I would shoot out of bed. In Texas we have ceiling fans, it’s a normal part of life so I guess I’ve just always had that in the background and when it stops, my brain freaks. The same with air conditioning. I’ve also noticed in America there’s a hum of electricity. It’s hard to explain but it’s consistent. That same hum isn’t in France. It drives me bonkers because it’s so quiet and because we’re packed like sardines, every door, every floorboard, everything bothers me. So I have this annoyingly loud white noise app on every night and fan. But I still have bad sleep. I hope it’s just me getting older. I used to be able to sleep for 12 hours, now I’m averaging 4-5 hours and it takes me more than 30 minutes to fall asleep. I’m hoping the move back to America (the space, no neighbors surrounding you) will fix that. I think mattresses in France are too firm as well. I have yet to find the equivalent of a pillow top. As you can tell I have no idea and I empathize with her. I couldn’t imagine trying to fall asleep with a husband or another person making noise in the house, much less my tossing and turning when it takes me an hour to fall asleep. I guess I’m destined to be forever alone.
That sounds absolutely awful, Ashley. I used to have horrid sleep but since I started Adderall I crash at the end of the day and hardly ever have bad sleep. I’m not saying to start Adderall but just that I empathize with you. When you can’t get enough sleep or quality sleep, it affects every area of your life. Hopefully things will change for you soon.
Ashley, for the hard bed problem, you can buy a 4″ foam topper and just lay it on the top of your mattress. I got mine from Overstock, and I LOVE it. I like the firm “foundation” for the bed, and the softness of the foam. Crazy, but it feels like I’m on a cloud lol. Couple it with a feather-light duvet… heaven.
I used to be a champion sleeper (10-12 hrs!), but since menopause, it’s crap. Can’t fall/stay asleep. Tried Benadryl (as I have allergies, so I just figured I’d take it at night to sleep), but that gave me horrible nightmares after a while. After trying a lot of things, incl. sleep apps and such, I went on Ambien. I fall asleep usually w/in 15-20 min. and sleep for 6-7 hrs. Rare occasions, 5-6 hrs. At this point, I take what I can get lol
jan90067–do you happen to know the brand of foam mattress topper that you purchased? I would so love to get one. I’m another person who’s suffered for years with a too-firm mattress. It’s gotten so that sometimes I wake up with super sore shoulders (I’m a side sleeper). I never knew about the existence of mattress toppers until just last month, if you can believe it! And yours sounds divine.
Menopause is The. Worst!
I’m terrified of ambien. I’ve seen people become the hippo (or whatever it is they call it when it makes them psycho). I’ve tried it and it has worked, but… it freaks me out. Plus I am lucky to get 6 hours and that seems like a pretty high cost for six.
Benadryl works ok. MMJ (especially edibles) works ok. I got some Chinese herbs that worked ok, for a while.
My monkeybrain is so hyperalert that eventually it figures out everything anyway. So I can’t do any particular thing for more than a few months max. Because it wants/needs the hyperalert, to keep me safe. (Meantimes, I just want some sleep! LOL. I guess.)
Sweet dreams, all!
@some chick: have you tried taking melatonin? It’s already present in your brain which uses it to induce sleep. It’s pretty effective, non-addictive and doesn’t leave you feeling groggy during the day. You can get it at most pharmacies and health food stores.
I can sleep the whole night most of the times but falling asleep i have to either listen to one of those sleeping stories on my phone or listen to some tv show like family guy or American dad to quiet my mind. Yea i know I shouldn’t sleep with laptop by my bed but I’m such an overthinker I need to distract it and just listen to some gibberish.
I just left instagram and facebook a little over a month ago and am back to reading in bed. When I read I can sleep right after without any sleeping aid.
Fan does nothing as I need something extra.
I’m trying to fight this process though.. 🙄😐
Oh my God. A chronic 5-minute delay is beyond disrespectful. Be an hour early if needed, and stop being an arsehole.
Easy to say.
Not necessarily so easy to do IRL.
Maybe try to consider that everyone is different, and some things are harder for some people than others. And that assuming we are all the same maybe makes you the “arsehole.”
Because I would bet folding money that there are some things that you are not perfect at.
lol I sleep with earplugs every night because living in a dorm ruined me. Then we had a very old cat who yowled a lot at night so it just stuck.
I also have two fans going and a sound machine playing fan sounds. I’m a light sleeper and I don’t get enough restorative sleep even on a good day, so I’m not here to screw around haha.
I also sleep with earplugs every night. Husband and boxer dog have a snoring competition each and every night. It’s to the point now that I can’t sleep at all without them.
I am a terrible sleeper. I can go to sleep, but have trouble staying asleep. Ever since I had kids, I can’t sleep with any other noise because then I’m extra-vigilant while I am supposed to be sleeping, for fear I miss one of them getting sick or needing help. It’s not rational, I know. I also have chronic migraine, so even if the stars align and all the conditions are perfect, after four or five hours my neck and head start to hurt so much I have to get up and stretch or lie on a heat pad. I end up sleeping in chunks – like 4 hours at the start of the night, two hour awake time, then one or two more hours (depending on the time) at the tail end. I’m perennially exhausted. Every doctor has told me I need more sleep (and I agree), but between the mental hyper vigilance and the pain, this is all my body can muster.
I think the Mom Sleep thing is something a lot of us deal with, tbh. My youngest two are 7 and 12, so it’s not as bad as it used to be, but I’m still having problems with being too light a sleeper. Here lately we’ve had bad winds and the neighbors’ windchimes have been signalling to my brain “It’s your alarm! Wake up!” All. Night. Long.
@meghannotmarkle, My kids are 5, 11, and 15, and I thought I would be beyond the “Is the newborn crying?” Stage at this point. Part of it is temperamental; I’m naturally a bit high strung and I know it. And I would be like you, hearing the wind chimes and wondering if it were my alarm! It’s harder in the summer when you want to open windows and cool off naturally at night; hearing every neighborhood dog and car starting starts to wear thin! We have AC and some nights I just keep the windows shut and the AC on (but at a higher set temp) so I sleep better.
Lucky me.. Silence is what I need to sleep… If there’s white noise from a fan or something I just have trouble falling asleep… . I couldn’t live in a big city, I would never sleep… Even the ticking of an alarm clock annoys the hell out of me and prevents me from falling asleep… After falling a sleep. not even an earthquake wakes me…. Earplugs make my ears ache with pain, I can’t even listen to music on my earphones.. It’s painful…
Same. Even a distant hum or buzz drives me crazy. My husband used fall asleep to music before we got together. Poor guy, he can’t do that anymore!
Music I can stand… It is not noise, so to speak… But the older I get, the worst it is.. I used to need music or TV to fall asleep, nowadays they keep me awake..
I don’t know how anyone can sleep in earplugs. They make my ears ache so bad that it’s all I can think about.
The wax ones are great. The ridged/foam plugs are unbearable – the former makes me itch, the latter causes severe pain
Ticking clocks are THE WORST. I love consistent white noise, like a HEPA filter or a dOhm, but ticking clocks make me feel nearly homicidal. I have had to bury clocks under towels at the bottom of drawers when staying in guest rooms at people’s houses before. I still have good hearing and, unfortunately, have problems with ear plugs, so even the tiniest faint ticking of an old alarm clock without a quartz movement drives me bananas in a silent room. Traffic noise, wind chimes, anything outside I can tune out unless it’s super loud, even snoring I can live with, but there is just something about that ticking sound, OMG.
I am an excellent sleeper. But ticking clocks are my Kryptonite. They drive me insane: I can hear the tic toc getting louder and louder and louder.
I usually don’t have trouble falling asleep, but if I do, I’ll put a TV show or something on a very low volume on my ipad, and then I usually drift off. If that doesn’t work, I’ll find an ASMR or relaxation video on youtube. I seem to do better with faint background noise than with silence.
I don’t do late.
I only go into work part-time now and I don’t travel nearly as much as I used to but if I have to be somewhere, I set 2 old fashioned radio alarms in my room AND I set the oven timer in the kitchen because it’s loud and annoying and it will get me up to shut it up.
One of my buddies has a glass of water before bed so when the alarm goes off he has to get up. I’d probably wet my pants doing that but he’s young.
I also agree with thinking you can do one more chore because you’re ahead of schedule and then I run out the door and finish my make-up at the red lights.
What I won’t do is sleep with dogs in my bed.
I know! Some of you love dogs more than yourselves but I just can’t.
I used a fan for white noise for a while but now it’s just my little humidifier. Added benefits.
How does someone not have a t.v.? I think she’s lying.
When my older girl was in college, she wore a tee shirt that said, “Kill your t.v.”
She watched t.v. every chance she got.
I do love Mrs. M. but I hate how long t.v. series take to put out a new season.
Good Girls is back and I just watched the entire latest season of Grace & Frankie.
Watching Better Call Saul but these shows seem to take 18 months to put out a new season. Boo. 🙁
I don’t own a TV!
I either watch something on my laptop or I read books or live life without any tv series or films.
TV is stressfull to me.
Wilmarama – same. Haven’t had a TV in my home for 15 years, even with multiple roommates during that time. We agreed we didn’t want to irritate each other with a tv blaring only what one person feels like watching. I love having a mostly quiet and peaceful home, free of loud and annoying commercials, and still watch (only) the things I really care to see on my laptop or phone. I save money without a cable bill to pay. Instead of spending regular chunks of time planted on a couch in front of a TV, I move around listening to podcasts or music, read, cook a lot and get out of the house.
The side effect, though, is now I sometimes get anxious when visiting a household that has a loud TV buzzing in the background with people talking over it. It’s similar to the frustrating distraction of eating in a sports bar-type restaurant with your company staring over your head at whatever game is on, rather than engage in conversation or enjoying the meal. But people can set up their homes however they like, cause we all have different preferences. It’s funny to think someone might think I lie about not having a TV! I just don’t.
I have a TV that I only use with my chromecast 😀
There’s actually research done showing that people who are always late and always early percieve time differently. It doesn’t have to do with doing much or little before something, it’s the rhythm in your body that’s different.
Time is not as accurate as we believe and we percieve it differently. Litteraly, our brains are a little different.
Trauma can also alter your time perception in everyday life. It alters the brain.
Also, people who have longer circadian rhythms (25-26 hours instead of 24) are prone to being late all the time for some reason.
I’m like that and sleep is really difficult for me because of it.
And if I don’t cheat myself with turning the clock back once in a while or use light therapy, I will continue to live in a different state than the rest of society. But it’s hard.
As for always being late: never have a watch with the exact time. If its 10 am for everyone else, its 9.50 for me or I will be late even though I plan my ass off.
Wait whaaaat is this about a 25 hour circadian rhythm? Do those people also need more sleep in a day? I feel like that’s me. I’m always late too for all the reasons that people have said here (underestimating how long things take, adding one more thing I wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t had the extra time) and if I’m honest I also just really hate being early to things and waiting. I really hate waiting. I just sit there thinking about how I could have done x, y or z and stewing about the person or thing I am waiting for. So I understand the chronically early people saying it’s disrespectful, and I apologize on behalf of us late-rs.
Yes, I have circadian rhythm of 25 hours. It doesn’t effect how much sleep I need, just that my body wants to sleep one hour later than average. We have peaks and lows on cortisol and other hormones during the day/night and my peaks are 1 hour “late”, lol.
It also means that if I was to let go and not have a strict sleep schedule and not use light therapy – my body would have a delay of 1 hour every day, which would mean day 1: 1 hour, day 2: 2 hours, day 3: 3 hours, and so on.
My circadian rhythm would make me sleepy 1 extra hour for every day.
It sounds crazy, but its more common than we think.
And circadian rhythms also change during a life time.
Teenagers have a completely different one and actually struggled a lot more than we think to get up early.
Wow that must be challenging. In college I resorted to my preferred night owl state but I don’t think I would have ever naturally drifted later and later so that I wasn’t going to bed until the morning. I have heard about the sleep research of kids and teenagers that was done that resulted in a school district in one state in the U.S. pushing back start times and I think CA ultimately passed a law last year requiring later start times.
I have to sleep with a fan and music on as well. It’s been -25c here for a few days and I still had to have the fan on.
I am in the always 5 minutes early camp. It is so disrespectful to be late all the time. Stuff happens and occasional delays are understandable but to do it consistently is rude.
I now tell the always late people in my life that the time to meet/be there is a half hour before the actual time.
I hope you’re there a half an hour early too, otherwise that’s no better than being late.
No, there are three people in my life who are chronically 30 minutes late. I know that whatever time we agree to, they will show up a half hour late no matter what.
For example, if we agree to meet at 6, I know they really won’t be there until 6:30. I’ll plan my arrival for 6:30 instead of showing up at 6 and having to wait a half hour.
I’m a punctual person, but 5 mins doesn’t bother me. I had a friend who was always 15 to 45 mins late and it drove me nuts. Part of it was her belief that she was low maintenance and it took her 5 mins to get ready (not at all accurate) blended with her belief that every place took 10 mins to get to.
@dlc — Same! My chronically late friend’s chronic lateness wasn’t the only reason I let that friendship fade out, but it was a decisive factor. Like, if you’re consistently a half-hour late and you know that about yourself, maybe set an alarm or something to remind you to leave the house a little earlier? The worst were the texts: we used to exercise together, and if we were planning on meeting for a walk at 9, I’d always get a text at 9:15 saying “I’m running late!”
And I always felt like, yeah, I know you’re running late, because I’ve been standing here for fifteen minutes waiting for you. Obviously we all have flaws, but I didn’t like feeling disrespected every time I made plans with her.
Hold up! She got married? Is it to the guy from the Magicians? *checks internet* Yes, 2016.
My son has a white noise machine and it is so soothing. Now I want one!
I’ve had a lot of sleep disturbances lately and it’s so frustrating. It can take me a while to fall asleep and then I’m asleep for a couple hours and wake up and it can take a while to fall back to sleep. It’s become worse lately and I’ve also been dealing with a lot of anxiety and panic, just started seeing a new therapist. I use Melatonin but it’s a low dose and sometimes it helps other times nada. And then sometimes I feel sleepy/in a fog during the day. I bought a weighted blanket hoping that might be an answer, nope (to be fair it might not be the right size).
I have the same issue, when I am especially stressed or anxious I get more sensitive to noise and am therefore unable to sleep/more restless/light sleeper. Has your therapist suggested a night routine or do you have one? That’s what my therapist suggested to assist with the sleep issues. While not the perfect solution it does help me wind down and I find that I am able to sleep a bit better if I do my ‘wind down’ routine consistently. I hope you find something that works for you!!
I’ve been sleeping with fans since I was a child. Worst case scenario there’s only a ceiling fan (it better work properly and not be intermittently knock knock knocking around lol). Best case is that the ceiling fan is on high and perfectly even and a floor or desk fan aimed my direction. 😀 Awesome sauce.
I moved to an apartment that was behind a supermarket bad mistake! After getting absolutely no sleep for weeks on end due to delivery trucks coming and going I bought some Bose earplugs. They changed my life! They play ambient sounds like rain or waves and pretty much block out everything.
I swear by That and a sleep mask for a great sleep especially if you want an afternoon nap and there is noise about!
I was never a sleeper-inner but having kids and then going through early menopause wreaked havoc on my sleep. My body and brain only seem to want 6 hours, max. I’m pretty much always tired.
As for the late issue, I’m that person who’s early for everything, and my husband’s that person who’s always late. It isn’t that he’s disrespectful — it’s totally the way his brain works. He will know that he needs to be somewhere by 6:30, and it’s like his brain only registers “6:30,” so he assumes that’s when he needs to leave the house. Or if he does realize he needs to leave earlier, he doesn’t think about all of the steps required to get somewhere on time. Winter is the worst. He can never seem to factor in the time required to get his boots and coat on, scrape ice or snow off the car, drive behind crappy drivers on not-totally-cleared streets, find a good parking spot, etc. It can be very, very annoying 😀 but he honestly isn’t trying to be an idiot.
I used to be an amazing sleeper… Not so much any more. If I’m stressed or anxious, I’m especially sensitive to noise. I live in an apartment building in NYC and my upstairs neighbors go absolutely insane at times so I sleep with a noise machine, humidifier, TV on, my Casper Glow lamp, and my dad bought me this amazing bluetooth sleep mask off Amazon that completely blacks out your vision AND plays music/audio at the same time. It’s incredible. But talk about sensory overload! Sometimes if I’m feeling especially sensitive or on edge I’ll take an Ambien, it’s really good but I’m terrified of getting dependent on it.
Growing up in NYC, I never had an issue with noise until I turned 28. Age is starting to take me, lol
Can I tell a recent story about traveling without my dohm sound machine and trying to use the white noise app on my phone but every time my phone screen went black it turned off the app. So I found white noise on apple music but it only played for 10 minutes so then I created a playlist of the same 10 minute white noise sound and settled in…only for the white noise sound to SLOWLY FADE OUT for 5 seconds at the end before going to the next 10-minute sound. So right around when I would be nodding off the sound would cut out and I would jolt awake. All travel white noise app suggestions welcome. Thankyou
This is my fear when I travel: How am I supposed to enjoy my vacation when I’m so tired because I can’t sleep without white noise or music or something?! Well, hello, “Long Ambients1: Calm. Sleep.” from Moby. Each track is about 45 minutes long, and I have yet to hear one transition to the next. I would never listen to this for enjoyment; it has a purpose, and that purpose is to sleep (or meditate). I even managed to sleep on a plane with this playing on my earbuds, and I **never** sleep on planes. Guess I’ll have to revise that statement …
My husband recently bought sound machines for us and our kids. It has everything from white noise, to different sounds of fans, sounds of rain, etc.
IT IS LIFE CHANGING!