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Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

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Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#131

Post by Izkata »

Zircom wrote: post #50
eliseumds wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done pretty much everything I could imagine to try to identify the root cause, no doctor could give a reasonable diagnosis. My tinnitus started after a night with earplugs, but it could have been a coincidence since I also used noise-cancelled Sony headphones. Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Not to be rude but you ascribing an equal likelihood of causing tinnitus to one night of using earplugs(which BLOCK sound from your ears) vs presumably regular/sustained use of noise cancelling headphones(which BLAST sound into your ears) borders on ridiculousness and make me think you're just trolling..

Earplugs go into the ear similar to earbuds, but are squishy and meant to be rolled thin so you can get them in a bit further (then they decompress halfway inside your ear and fill in the gaps). If you push them in too far I imagine they can damage the eardrum, which could cause tinnitus.

After trying earplugs myself a few months ago, I decided it was too risky to sleep with them due to the pressure I felt in my ear (the one against the pillow) when I lay on my side.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#132

Post by sarchertech »

gonehome wrote: post #85
sarchertech wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. That's hugely hyperbolic. But in the city there really are constant sirens, car horns, diesel trucks, construction noises, roadway noise etc... The most comprehensive study done on this (admittedly a long time ago in 1970) shows a clear correlation between po…

It does sound ridiculous but I’ve lived in DC, London, and SF now and all were quieter than the suburbs I’ve lived in. Mostly because of lawn stuff and garbage pickup. Also probably a factor that I’ve been in new city buildings with good insulation and not on the ground floor.

If the insulation isn’t the same, you can’t really compare the 2. I could take a nap in an active construction site with good enough earplugs.

Garbage pickup is once a week, and the truck is close enough for me to hear it for maybe 15 minutes. Double that for recycling pickup.

I live a few miles from the city center, in just about the densest area where people still have lawns. There are maybe 5 houses close enough to me that I could hear a leaf blower from if I’m inside the house (loud enough to notice). Even if each one runs a lawnmower and leaf blower for half an hour each week, that’s 2.5 hours per week tops (only 2 of them actually use leaf blowers, and most only cut the grass 1x every 2 weeks). Also in most of the country mowing only happens a little more than half the year.

Compare that with road noise, and sirens, which I hear far more often.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#134

Post by jader201 »

sammalloy wrote: post #10

> road noise during the day My understanding is that the vast majority of road noise is caused by vehicles outfitted with non-standard tires. Where I live, 90% of the road noise is caused by lifted trucks using massive off-road tires on local roads and highways. It isn’t clear if this against the law all over the country, but in various US states, the police will issue tickets. There are several employees of local bu…

The worst is jake braking [1] that tractor trailers use. I live about 300 or so yards from the highway, and constantly hear this noise during the day.

https://youtu.be/xm0TSzagk-o?t=103

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#135

Post by exikyut »

bogota wrote: post #84
gonehome wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find by far the biggest disruption in US suburbs is lawn equipment. Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. Often for hours. Moving from Palo Alto to SF things got way quieter.

They may be louder but do you have a dump truck waking you up at 4am several times a week? I really don’t know what to do anymore. Obviously they need to pick up trash that early to beat the traffic and save a few bucks /s. But the city doesn’t care and I’m constantly told that condos/apartments are a more sustainable way of living. Thats great but I’m about done with this nonsense and about to move out to the burbs…

"Normal" suggestions: earmuffs or earplugs; soundproof your bedroom (IIUC certain types of window roller shutters can mitigate noise); move :/

Insane suggestion: record the dump trucks every night (using good microphones - maybe even hire some), build up a compendium of recordings, get a really good speaker and amp setup (absolutely no buzzing/hissing/hum etc), then play the recordings in a loop progressively increasing the playback volume throughout the night so it's as loud or even louder than the actual dump truck when it arrives. In this way you may be able to acclimatize (exposure therapy). It's quite reasonable that you might need to raise the volume very slowly to begin with (maybe even have the playback volume effectively muted at the start of the night) such that it's still very quiet by 4am and you might still get woken up by the dump truck and then need to stop the playback for the night to get back to sleep; the idea/hope is that you would be(come) able to increase the volume to the necessary level by 4am and stay asleep, this may take a few goes. It's also possible that quality of sleep might not be absolutely 100% to begin with (perhaps turn down the volume/progression if this is the case). It might work though? (I wonder if this would fall within the 2-week habit-forming period, such that you'd acclimatize within a fortnight...)

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#136

Post by quadrangle »

sarchertech wrote: post #67
gonehome wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find by far the biggest disruption in US suburbs is lawn equipment. Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. Often for hours. Moving from Palo Alto to SF things got way quieter.

>Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. That's hugely hyperbolic. But in the city there really are constant sirens, car horns, diesel trucks, construction noises, roadway noise etc... The most comprehensive study done on this (admittedly a long time ago in 1970) shows a clear correlation between po…

Cities aren't loud, cars (and trucks) are loud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8

Video discusses this thoroughly. There ARE quiet cities amazingly enough. And suburbs are a HUGE source of the noise IN the cities they surround because it's the car traffic from suburbs into the cities that makes much of the noise.

Cities ARE loud, but they don't HAVE to be.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#137

Post by sarchertech »

arrosenberg wrote: post #118
sarchertech wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. That's hugely hyperbolic. But in the city there really are constant sirens, car horns, diesel trucks, construction noises, roadway noise etc... The most comprehensive study done on this (admittedly a long time ago in 1970) shows a clear correlation between po…

IMO it's more that the city sounds all blend together into one harmonious cacophony, whereas in the suburbs, it's mostly quite except for that one incredibly loud, obnoxious sound. Always Sunny has a great episode about this.

I don’t doubt that people are more likely to notice sounds in the suburbs because they aren’t habituated to them. But saying the suburbs are louder is like saying it’s actually quieter to live next to a gun range than it is to live next to the woods, because when the occasional hunter fires his gun you are more likely to notice it.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#138

Post by pastaguy1 »

drstewart wrote: post #2

This is one of the things I struggle with the most in life. I feel like most people don't seem to care about noise pollution and zero care is put into designing living spaces or cities to minimize it. I've moved into apartments and nearly cried because I realized that there was some noise pollution that wasn't apparent when I visited it (e.g. a water boiler that ran constantly at night, road noise during the day, etc…

This isn't exactly what you mean, but as someone who also has not a great reaction to that type of thing, i can't believe how accepted it's become to just fire up tiktok _anywhere_.

I'm aware the internet and phones made noises before tiktok, but something about this app compels people to forget the sound-vironment is a shared space, it seems.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#139

Post by writeslowly »

eliseumds wrote: post #30
nanidin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earplugs gave you tinnitus? Do you mean earbuds? Earplugs are typically hearing PPE.

I've done pretty much everything I could imagine to try to identify the root cause, no doctor could give a reasonable diagnosis. My tinnitus started after a night with earplugs, but it could have been a coincidence since I also used noise-cancelled Sony headphones. Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe you first noticed it while using earplugs (since they’d block out basically everything else) and now it’s become difficult to ignore? I had something similar happen with noticing floaters in my eyes constantly over the pandemic

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#140

Post by chaps »

kdmccormick wrote: post #82
tayo42 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this "conversation" with my neighbor (it was more like me being yelled at) It kind of blew my mind they didnt care about noise interruptions at all hours and told me its my problem. Like maybe if you got a full night of sleep you wouldn't be so angry? I guess this study supports that. The noise in my current apartment is endless, car alarms, screaming and crying kids along with their loud toys, idling cars, the…

> instruments being practiced As a musician... although I understand that, in the end, instrument practice is still noise, it hurts to see this listed among the rest of your items. Last year, I had to move out of an apartment complex because our neighbors would not tolerate even 30 minutes of practice a day (in spite of the ~2 daily hours of lawn care racket, but whatever) and complained to building management. I get…

Also a musician, but also noise sensitive. To a degree I think the difference is that practice noise is completely different from playing a song from start to end. It's kind of like someone on the train talking on the phone -- you only hear their perspective and it really messes with your head since you naturally want to make sense of what's going on. Practice is scattered, filled with experimentation, and repetitious as hell. But it's difficult to fill those patterns in because practice playing is inherently unpredictable, ie frustrating.

Also, whatever instrument you're playing, I guarantee you the difference between everything else is that your neighbor can feel the music even with bulky headphones. There's a very unsettling feeling you get when you can't escape that, especially when you work from home. Maybe consider getting quiet equipmen -- you're a software developer, so you can surely afford it.

Like, I don't necessarily care that the toddlers stomping around above me are having fun, learning new things, etc etc.. they're still stomping around. Don't be that person.

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