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The Effect of Noise on Sleep

empirical.health

191–200 of 202 posts

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#191
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I work in hospitals all day and people are always stomping around and moving heavy equipment. But you never hear anything coming through the ceiling. Contact your state representative and ask them to do something about the building codes. It's a completely voluntary problem. American buildings are noisy because we decided that was okay.

>Contact your state representative and ask them to do something about the building codes. It's a completely voluntary problem. American buildings are noisy because we decided that was okay. Congratulations on finding an equally terrible and bad for everybody apartment-living analog to the sort of suburbanite Karen opinion that underpins meddling HOAs and busybody municipal codes. If you want a quieter apartment pony…

You should probably read The Market for Lemons. It's incredibly difficult to predict from the buyer's perspective how noisy an apartment will be. This is [one reason] why we have regulations.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any advice on how to eliminate noisy neighbours that would randomly drop their shit at random intervals in the middle of night and let their child to stomp around every late evening?

I used to live in a wooden construction apartment, with neighbors above me. They themselves stomped a lot, both late at night and early in the morning, somehow. Then they had a kid, which grew up and of course would run around the house at any hour. I was getting terrible sleep and it was driving me crazy. All I could really do was move, and I made sure the next building was reinforced concrete, and that I would be o…

Another thing to avoid are hardwood floors. I live in a concrete high rise but that wasn't enough to deal with a neighbor upstairs who would stomp around in shoes on the — admittedly very nice looking — white oak floor. It's basically a giant drum. Even vinyl is quieter.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#193
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've also been doing small improvements to my sleep over the years and share some of your recommendations! What's worked best for me have been: 1. Good mattress and pillow (this is a 101 kind of thing). 2. Having the right temperature (same as above). 3. White noise. I also use a white noise machine and the White Noise app on iOS (which I bought for like $1 years ago and still use it). Ironically, I don't use white n…

What is the purpose of hearing the white noise? Is it to shield from other sounds? Or to distract from thinking? Are you focussing on it or not?

The brain can easily tune it out and it masks another intermittent sounds.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#194
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving fast and breaking things has a place. It’s just an error to think it applies to everything. There’s a reason why it’s usually relegated to relatively low-risk applications. I doubt you’d advocate an avionics engineer to take the same attitude.

You're the only one who said break things

It’s natural consequence of risk-blind policy making.

The idea that we can move fast and not break things without understanding the systemic risk is naive. I’m fine with moving fast if we understand the risk and the risk is borne by the appropriate parties. Your previous comments are a little too hand-wavy to indicate a nuanced understanding of the risk.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there were an expert or researcher interested in these areas: residential buildings, shops, parks, churches, and schools. You mean an expert in acoustics related to those areas? There are lots of experts and researchers. Take a look at the Acoustical Society of America, the Institute of Noise Control Engineering, and Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation for starters. Penn State, Unive…

Oh, but I'm in Singapore.

https://acousticssingapore.com might have some leads.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, but I'm in Singapore.

That might make you want to look at that list of organizations and then seek similar organizations or schools in Singapore, if you didn't already try. Good luck with the hum.

Thank you!

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#198

I wish they’d make car alarms illegal. afaict they do nothing. no one looks. It does not stop car theft or breakins. all it does ruin everyone’s sleep. Especially in 2025, if you want to know if your car is being whatever triggers an alarm then have it send you a message that only bothers you and not several hundred other people. There is your new startup idea for ycombinator. car alarm app with optional $$$ track do…

I promise you there are still plenty of places where if a car alarm goes off, that people are paying attention.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#199
post #198

I wish they’d make car alarms illegal. afaict they do nothing. no one looks. It does not stop car theft or breakins. all it does ruin everyone’s sleep. Especially in 2025, if you want to know if your car is being whatever triggers an alarm then have it send you a message that only bothers you and not several hundred other people. There is your new startup idea for ycombinator. car alarm app with optional $$$ track do…

I promise you there are still plenty of places where if a car alarm goes off, that people are paying attention.

I promise you there are not.

In fact, I'll challenge you to find some data supporting your promise. I can't find any. I find some that says steering wheel locks work. I find some that says stuff that shuts off the car works. But none that finds that alarms do anything.

"Highway Loss Data Institute studies show no overall reduction in theft losses for vehicles with alarms" (from 74 million car insurance data)

https://web.archive.org/web/20040804022308/http://www.silent...

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/05/car-ala...

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