Noise cancelling headphones! Oh Joy! (and other ways to block sound)

@Yann04 just to say sound is by far my biggest problem also. And the lack of control over it is so distressing too, when people can, in effect, assault you just by going about their lives in a normal way.

I am in charge of how much light &I get, but everyone else controls sound & smell.

it’s awful

but those plugs plus Howard Leight maximum ear defenders or Bose noise cancellers depending on the type of sound & whether I can tolerate the pain of the clamping of the ear defenders , I have found reasonably helpful.

FWIW… someone mentioned the Sony mx5. I got them I don’t find them nearly as good as Bose.

I should say though that I think my ear canals are about med sized so those plugs go quite far in

 

did you try…

• getting a cheap foam pillow,

• lying on it on yr side with the muff on,

• drawing round the outline of the muff- so you know its position
  
  
• then gouging out a hole in the pillow for the muff to fit in

I did that it worked ok but a bit fiddly and messy I just made a little slit then pinched it out in lumps with my fingers.

I also have tried it with a large square feather pillow making a ‘well’ in the feathers for the muff to sit in.

actually as Im writing Im wondering if a haemorrhoid cushion might work.

I have one I will check it out.

 

I think part of the issue is frequency of the sound. I find low frequencies like engine or lawn mowers are almost eradicated by Bose nc700 or QC ultra noise cancellers, (I have tried other cheaper ones but found them nigh on useless).
but they almost useless on voices. Plugs are better for that/high frequency sound.

But I find no ear plugs work for low frequencies esp the ones that come by vibration/comduction -which are hellish.

I think what is helpful does depend though on whether a person’s problem is sensitivity to certain types of sound, or whether it’s just sound itself as it is for us. Some people use white noise machines for example. Which just makes no sense to me whatsoever.

sorry to rabbit on but no one outside here understands.

 

I actually have one of those neck pillows which works pretty well. But I can’t sleep long on the same side or my side gets super sore since I’m bedridden all day so I have to kind of move around and thats impossible with that pillow.

 

Yeah. All sounds are terrible. To me a hum is less bad than acute blips, so if i could I wouldn’t mind having whitenoise just for caregiver visits to drown out their sound.

 

Saw this recommendation in another group: industrial earmuffs!
33-34 dB reduction, and very cheap compared to headsets.

https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/b00037383/

 

yes I have some of those 2 they're the ones i've got hanging on the wall downstairs for if someone starts drilling unexpeectedly or the neighbours start yelling at each other - Mine are in a rather splendid lime green colour

That said the ear plugs i linked to upthread are 33dB reduction, so no better, & I hate these industrial ear defnders. With the wholey passive noise reduction they have to be really tight to stop air getting in so the pain of wearing them if i have a headache already, its only slightly better than the noise they're blocking.

My howard leights are even worse for the 'head in vice' experience, although they have changed shape more recently so might be more comfortable.

 

I had not considered the pressure! Might still be worth trying them due to the low cost - maybe they are of use in a niche scenario..

 

This is the kind of thing I use. It’s a godsend.

Personally the first two days it kind of hurt then I got used to them.