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becomingmore sound sensitive. white noise?

bensmith

Senior Member
Messages
1,547
trying to see if white noise will help cancel out hte constant traffic outside. has anybody had trouble with white noise? I am not sure if i'm crashing hard(am) or if it's the white noise giving me grief. trying to sleep with ear muffs but side sleeper.

I wear plugs all the time as well.
 

PatJ

Forum Support Assistant
Messages
5,288
Location
Canada
White noise is terrible for me but I've seen other posters say it helps them. If you feel worse with it, then it's probably from overstimulation.

Here is some information about Dr. Cheney's ideas about excitatory neurotoxicity (when the seizure threshold is lowered and excess sensory input can cause neuron death). Note he recommends the medication klonopin but some people here on PR consider it to be a little bit (or a lot) of hellish misery in a pill when they've tried to stop taking it. For some it has taken years to stop taking while enduring side effects. Others though have benefited from it.

I accidentally discovered that taurine helps to reduce some of my sound sensitivity, especially with rapid and repeating noises like fans or the compressor noise from my fridge. I take roughly 500mg of pure taurine powder twice a day.

I wear ear plugs when I sleep. A buckwheat-hull stuffed pillow allows me to make a little depression for my ear when side-sleeping so that I can sleep without pressure on the ear that's against the pillow.
 
Messages
87
I have a very busy road right outside by bedroom and have to sleep with headphones all the time.

I found white noise far too harsh. I suggest you look at pink noise or what I found the most preferable brown noise which manages to drown out heavy lorries but is "softer" and less stressful. I found CDs on ebay.

I have found cheap Sony earbud type headphones the best option as a side sleeper too and the inevitable damage that can occur when using an expensive model.
 

bensmith

Senior Member
Messages
1,547
i thik i'm like tat too @PatJ and yes benzos are horrible fo me, give me democi visions. honestly. i don't think i have tuarin but i'll check i have many pillis

I'LL try it maybe @themjay if i can find my ear buds. i'm sorry you know this pain too it's so unfortunate and pain ful!

i can only meditate now i'm so ill. and sleep. do you guys think it's worth pursueing alternative housing? not sure if i can manage but maybe it's worth the effort? i'm worried about the traffic noise as i continue this decent.

i might be able to move in with a friend, although i'd have to pay him and i have no idea what shape i'd be in trying to move even if i just drove hte town over to live with him. he is pretty quit. i'd have to live off of replacement shakes although i know many of us have before, id' be first time.

the road is so loud. bikers, jbrake trucks going to work sites, drag racing, people blraing lyoud bass music. it is horrible. im sad it's the base i know i could stablize if it wasn't for that varible. i've tried wearing those big ear muffs with ear plugs but they seem to hurt and help.

i guess is it ok to just have an unmanaged trigger?
 
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xebex

Senior Member
Messages
840
I use Noise cancelling headphones, my sound sensitivity is much better now and if I do need them I can also play gentle ambient music too. For me the main contributor to sound sensitivity is glutamate sensitivity I also found it got a lot worse when I took NT factor which is frustrating is it’s generally quite helpful to many.
 
Messages
54
Location
USA
My 'sound sensitivity' is, at least in (large?) part, due to the high frustration level experienced from discordant noise, and competing audio demands for attention - that is, I find voices so distracting that it is proving difficult to maintain focus and short-term-memory. This suggests that it is not sound itself which is my problem, but the interruption of my attempts to retain focus. This, I think, is born out by the 'soothing' effects of white noise, such as minimalist meditation songs. Even recordings of rain, thunder and all, I find conducive to rest.
I don't know if this helps, or just muddys the waters.
But I too typically wear earplugs in noisy places like restaurants.
 

Reading_Steiner

Senior Member
Messages
245
Have experienced both ... the type that patj mentioned I believe it is caused by excited microglias in a certain part of the brain which is explained on youtube by mike vanelzakker
I rarely experience that but I would describe it as everything feels too loud and rough to listen to.

The other type you talk about I have it most days lately, people talking loudly nearby annoys me and break my concentration very easily, also sometimes when people talk to me its unpleasant, feels like energy being sucked out. I think this is because when we hear unexpected voices it activates a lot of electrical activity in the brain automatically as a response. If I am listening to a video or TV the same thing doesn't happen, so it don't tired me out, can listen to micheal while writing here for example.

Obvious answer is go to a quiet place... I spend lot of time outside of town. I need to get to my room at the end of the garden but i'm hypersensititve to one or more things down there and I probably gotta rebuild half the building to fix it. In the meantime my productivity is very low. Theres car traffic noise there but its usually quite ignorable and like I said its not a voice so I can probably tune it out.

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This is best way to be able to ignore minor to moderate external sounds... you gotta use an earphones that its compatible with though which can be hard to find or expensive, I have been doing this for a long time ( before cfs ). Its easier to use them with earphones that are straight ( put them in the same way as the old ipod earbud ) rather than the ones that hook over your ears... but often harder to sleep with straight ones.
 
Messages
54
Location
USA
“feels like energy being sucked out”
I’ve tried to explain that to family, but they just don’t get it – I must be just trying to avoid them, yes?
I sometimes use the analogy that they are taking up too much of my bandwidth. That too, of course, doesn’t go over very well.