I started using a white noise machine and fans on high when I lived down the block from a hospital emergency room. It sounded like a jet engine in my bedroom, but my brain learned to interpret the white noise as profound silence. I moved away from the hospital zone but still use the white noise to sleep.
this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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As a teenager in the '70s I used to fall asleep to albums and the radio on headphones. These days, I need silence!
I sleep with noise but I don't need it to sleep. I just leave my windows open and get the ambient sounds of the city at night: traffic, distant music, fireworks, snatches of conversation as people walk by.
But I also go camping and the sounds of nature are just as fine: coyote howling, wind through the trees, crickets and birds and raccoons
I rarely get true silence but when I do... I still fall asleep just the same.
Can’t sleep without the TV on, ever since I was a teenager. I have playlists of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, the entire chronological timeline of Star Trek, Star Wars extended universe, Stargate, and many others. I rotate through them.
Yes, either the fan, or gentle psybient music, something. Because it's never silent, and earplugs make me cough, I need sleepy sounds.
ETA I also love when a neighbor has a party, sleeping to the distant sounds of a party, music and all, relaxes my mind so much. I think my subconscious must figure things are ok if people are partying. I have had sometimes the opportunity to sleep above a dance club and that also was so nice.
I didn't do it for noise initially, but I've become quite dependent on the fan noise from my air purifier these days.
Podcasts can help me fall asleep when I can't, but that happens rarely and does not feel like a good thing to me, as it's usually being stuck in bad thoughts.
Yep, HomePod has a 'babbling brook" loop. I used to use "rain on a tin roof", but Apple is a jerk and doesn't make bringing your own sleep sounds easy.
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Yes. I have a list of YouTube channels that make content suitable for me to sleep to.
English isn't my mother language so I think it's easier to me to pay attention when I want to but just turn off my brain when I feel like it's time to sleep
My window unit on hot days. Also some tv show I’ve seen before.
Been falling asleep to music recently, using Finamp and set a timer for 90 minutes because sometimes it takes me 30+ min to fall asleep. Wear one ear piece, so it's not to drown out noise, just something to fall asleep to
I sleep with a fan going and some zen-like meditation music on my computer.
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My husband usually falls asleep to tv, so I usually put on instrumental music on earbuds to drown it out. I'll stay up way too late listening to tv otherwise.