Building renovations? Swimmer’s ears? Ringing ears? Time to pick up sleep ear plugs! Suffering from loud noises doesn’t only affect your ears physically but has a domino effect that can take you on an emotional rollercoaster.
There are many different possible reasons that you may have a need for Ear Plugs. Perhaps you have very sensitive ears and slight noises that other people wouldn't notice distract you easily and keep you awake. Maybe you're just a light sleeper. Most likely, like myself, you have a partner and he/she doesn't seem to ever stop snoring. Whilst she's out like a light within two minutes and snoring away happily (especially when drunk), you're endlessly listening to her snore on and on as I get more and more irate.
I've always been a borderline insomniac. I feel naturally more awake, alive and focused in the evenings and early hours of the mornings. As a matter of a fact I'm actually writing this at 2.40 in the morning. Due to juggling shift hours with a University degree it's really important for me to ensure that I get to bed early when I need to and to try to get a consistent and decent pattern of sleep to synchronise my body clock with my working and personal life. Due to my constantly changing shift pattern work, it's also sometimes important for me to occasionally get some sleep during the daytime and, living in a big city, this can be quite hard. I had already tried white noise machines, whale noises, hypnosis and various other things but for the most part they just didn't seem to work.
The first time I tried out Ear Plugs for Sleeping was when my partner bought me some really cheap ones as my restlessness at night was sometimes keeping her awake. They worked perfectly, although a little uncomfortable to wear at times. Continually tweaking and adjusting the way I would squeeze and fit them into my ear ended up paying off and I eventually found a way to block out the necessary noise and comfortably lie on my side and any other positions. I then went on to experiment with various other types of more sophisticated and expensive Ear Plugs bringing me to the point of building this ear plugs for sleeping website you can see today. The Ear Plugs I ended up settling for were Howard Leight wax Ear Plugs, however, everybody is different and for most people these would be a bad choice.
After a while it was noticed that the more often and consistently Ear Plugs were used the more effectively and easily I got to sleep, at first with, and then later without them. The only noises you tend to hear with ear plugs are your own breathing and sometimes heartbeat, though it tends to sound much softer and soothing with an almost hypnotic quality. Occasionally you will also hear some noises that come directly from you, such as scratching your head or rolling over on the pillow. Also, I tended to find that alarm clocks weren't a problem and still woke me up, perhaps only just a bit less startling in the morning.
When you are looking into buying yourself some
Ear Plugs for Sleeping it's important to be able to distinguish between the various type that are available on the market today and ensure you get the right ones for the job. For example, to sleep better at night you don't need musicians or motor sport racers Earplugs (design for hearing protection) and you wouldn't need swimmers Earplugs (designed to protect your ears from water). Never be afraid to try to get samples from manufacturers (some give them away and some sell samples).
The most common design types you are likely to hear about are
foam ear plugs,
silicone, flanged and wax ear plugs along with various types of ear muffs. When looking into this in the attempt to get better quality sleep your aim will be to get the most comfortable ear plugs possible. Most people will tell you to go looking for things like a highest independently tested NRR (noise reduction rating), but it's unlikely that it's that necessary.
Comfort really is the key here as you don't want to be waking up because you're earplugs are irritating you! Ideally you will likely forget they are even there and go to work with them on! It's not necessary to completely block all noise and pretty much all versions will muffle noises enough so as not to deem it not to be a problem.
Even though I no longer suffer from the same level of sleeping problems I used to have, I find it hard to prize myself away from them. This is mainly because of the tranquillity and peace I feel from having them on, even if just for studying, relaxation or meditation.
To help relieve the effects of loud noise, here are three ways of discovering the best sleep ear plugs for your ears:
1) Effectiveness.
Most ear plugs on the market are tested and are given a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR). The validity of this number is sometimes criticized as the number is based on experiments done in the lab vs. real life situations. Taking that number into consideration, use the ear plugs in different environments and situations where you will be using them.
Does it block out Justin Beiber music at the library? Does it block out speech (ignoring your wife will never result to anything good)? Can you hear the screech during your travels on the train?
2) Comfort and Ease of Use
Ear plugs are made out of a variety of sources; foam, silicon, etc. To find the ones that will work for you long term, ask yourself these questions:
- Are the ear plugs comfortable?
- Do they hurt your inner ear?
- Can you walk around with them comfortably?
- Will they get annoying or irritating with 8 hours of sleep?
3) Durability
Ear plugs are going to be in your ears for short periods of time throughout the day. After some use, are they getting dirty? How quickly do they become unworthy of your ears? Ear plugs can go from the tool that keeps you sane to constantly thinking about how that disgusting thing in your ear is just sitting there. How long will they last and is it worth the cost of the pair?
One thing you should be aware of before purchasing ear plugs are the uses. If you are interested in purchasing sleep ear plugs, there may be specific ear plugs made for those situations (i.e. tossing and turning, sleeping on your side, etc).
