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Original poster

Do you have to fall asleep to noise / tv etc?

59 replies

TheOwlChronicles · 19/06/2023 09:24

My almost 17 year old falls asleep every night to background noise on his iPad. He props it up on his bedside table and it plays a documentary / film/ running commentary all night as he sleeps

I need total peace to sleep and I can't understand how he can have something playing all night but at his age, I let him get on with it now

How about you? Do you have to have complete silence or noise to sleep?

OP posts:

FirsttimemummyLDN · 14/08/2023 21:17

I listen to podcasts or familiar tv shows to go to sleep. I am currently overdue with my first and really anxious about doing this with a baby, thinking I will probably be too tired and won’t need that comfort anymore 😬

reallyunderstandsometimes · 14/08/2023 23:54

qazxc · 14/08/2023 20:02

Yes I am the same. Documentaries with a narrator, audiobook, asmr/ hypnosis/ meditation videos on you tube. I set a timer on my phone so that it switches itself off after 30-45 minutes.
If I try to go to sleep without it, my brain will rev up into overdrive and I get jittery and anxious.

If I did that I'd know my brain would be waiting for the 30 minutes!!

Fiddlersgreen · 15/08/2023 00:00

WickWood · 14/08/2023 19:46

I hate it, I like the room to be pitched black and silent. My OH has to have some sort of documentary or science video on the TV or his phone, he falls asleep quickly, so I wait until he falls asleep and then I switch it off. I highly suspect he has ADHD too!

I could have written this myself.
DH just started snoring so I’m safe to turn the tv off now

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Onceuponaheartache · 15/08/2023 00:01

puts hand up

I have done this for donkeys years. Started when I moved from London to the countryside and couldn't cope with the infinite silence.

These days I suffer with insomnia and it stops me tearing myself to bits whilst trying to switch off. It is always something I have no particular interest in or it has the opposite effect.

Dd also has to have noise, she was an appalling sleeper from 8 months til 6 years old due to a medical issue. She used to get massively frustrated so we used to play the Julia Donaldson story cds and the music that accompanied them to help distract her. As she got a bit older we moved on to Roald Dahl and now she is on her third playing of the Harry Potter audio books.

My fiance can fall asleep on a washing line so doesn't get it but has no issue with it.

travelogue · 15/08/2023 00:08

Yes. I have tinnitus like a PP and background noise helps me not get wound up about it - that's definitely counterproductive when it comes to sleep!

travelogue · 15/08/2023 00:10

I listen to weird ASMR people talking about nonsense with headphones as DH hates any noise!

GallopingSeahorse · 15/08/2023 00:14

BusyCleaning · 14/08/2023 19:55

Yep, tv on every night, on dim. With familiar programmes only.

I simply can’t sleep if it’s quiet, my brain goes into overdrive and won’t shut up, no matter how tired I am.

I remember as a child I used to read until I physically couldn’t keep my eyes open. I’ve never been able to put my head on the pillow and switch off. I wish I could!

I still have to read myself to sleep, and I’m 51. Since childhood I’ve had existential horrors after turning the light off.

mibid · 15/08/2023 00:15

I used to need total silence but DS liked the sound of a fan when he was a baby. I'm now conditioned myself to only fall asleep with a fan going.

If I'm away from home with no fan then I'll play rain/wave sounds.

ShowerintheDark · 15/08/2023 00:18

I need pitch black and silence. I do however like to hear the rain outside pattering on the window. If I am going through a particularly stressful time, rain sounds can help, but there's never any that sound as good as the real thing!

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