White Noise
Another attribute for great quality sleep is a quiet or constant white,pink, or brown noise room. This one is pretty self explanatory. If a room is noisy it will be hard to get to sleep, stay asleep, or get back to sleep if you are woken up.
The Why: If you take a step back to our more primitive years when you were living out in the wilderness in caves and makeshift shelters, your only defense while you slept to alert you of danger was your hearing. All was quiet unless an animal was checking out your sleep area or an invading clan was overtaking your camp. Taking a step forward, hopefully you live in a pretty safe environment that you do not need to be alert to danger as much. Instead, you have to contend with a partner snoring, pets moving around and scratching, street noise, horns, phone notifications, and other house noises. Have you ever heard a weird noise at night and your blood pressure goes up and heart beats faster? Very rarely do you wake up due to the smell of something or taste. Have you ever had a dream where you could hear your alarm or someone calling your name?
Your brain is constantly scanning sounds throughout the night. To do this it takes energy away from sleep. There are all kinds of things that can wake you up from your sleep and if it’s multiple times throughout the night or even a few times a week, your sleep is going to suffer because each time you wake up you are either cutting short one of your very important deep sleep or REM sleep cycles or if it is during a light sleep phase losing time spent sleeping. Parents can attest to the constant wake ups and its effects.
Your brain grows accustomed to steady consistent noise and does not view it as a threat and just ignores it because it is below the sensory threshold level, but if a car horn or baby cries or your partner lets out a big snore, these sounds cross that threshold and wake you up. This is why for many people they will sleep with a fan on or a white noise machine or nature sounds. It becomes background noise tuning out all of the inconsistent noises that happen through the night.
Snoring
If you have to share a bed with someone that snores it can be a tricky situation on how to handle it. The easy answer is your sleep is just as important as their sleep so sleeping in separate rooms would be the easiest solution. Sleeping next to a loved one offers its own benefits, but if one of you is not getting high quality sleep it can lead to strained relations during the day. One of you will have less patience for the other, there can be more arguments over little things, increase in sad or depressed mood, and low energy and motivation for helping around the house because one of you is exhausted. I do not know the dynamics of your relationship, but it is a conversation to have for the health of the relationship. There are many people that cuddle, be intimate, talk , or read in bed together and then when it is lights out go to separate rooms. Roger Federer one the greatest tennis players, before important tournaments actually rents 2 houses. One for him and his training staff and the other for his family so he is not disturbed. This also can solve other issues like sleeping temperatures, movements, and different wake up times that disrupt sleep.
Noise solutions
Here are some possible solutions to try for co-sleeping in peace and also for undisturbed sleep due to noise interruptions.
- Ear plugs are simple. To take it a step further, look into custom fit ones so you are as comfortable as possible.
- Use a fan for white noise
- Use a white noise machine. These have volume control and a plethora of sounds like waves, thunder, rain, wind, and static to suit your fancy.
- Talk to the offending party about looking into some anti snore products like Zyppah.
- Remove pets from the room.
- Turn off notifications on your phone or better yet put the phone in another room.
- Have separate sleeping quarters if the snoring is too much to handle.
Try This: Address any noise issues that prevent you from sleeping or interrupt you during the night.