Sleeping with the windows closed? Earplugs?

[Lord Antares]

How unhealthy would it be to go to sleep every day with the windows closed? Would the lack of air give me headaches in the morning? Or is it fine?

On another note, it would probably be better to sleep with earplugs, but they always give me headaches when used for a couple of hours + it's finicky when you have an alarm clock to wake you up.

[Function]

If it'd be unhealthy to sleep with windows closed, that'd mean that it'd be unhealthy to live with windows closed. And good luck with that in the Winter.

I sleep all the time with my window closed to prevent "premature wakefulness" due to trafic noise, yet do not have headache complaints.

I'm not fond of earplugs; they make me hear everything that's happening in my mouth and ears, and I just hate the feeling of plugged ears

[Lord Antares]

1 minute ago, Function said:

If it'd be unhealthy to sleep with windows closed, that'd mean that it'd be unhealthy to live with windows closed. And good luck with that in the Winter.

Yes but then you would always have to have windows closed in the winters for days on end. I usually get air on cold winter days by sleeping with the windows open.

2 minutes ago, Function said:

I sleep all the time with my window closed to prevent "premature wakefulness"

Every day. That's why I will do it.

 

[DrP]

Have you just moved to a house near a road? Don't worry - you'll get used to it - embrace the noise and try not to let it worry you and you will start to block it out and just ignore it. I have lived in quiet areas and also next to busy roads - it doesn't bother you after a while and you just get used to it.

....and your house isn't a perfect enclosed seal - when you shut the windows and doors you will not suffocate - air diffuses in and out of cracks and stuff.

 

I was once part of a house share with a right whiney little bitch of a man..  he would knock on my door at 11pm to complain about the fan on my PC because he could hear it (barely) and it was bed time.

[Lord Antares]

58 minutes ago, DrP said:

Have you just moved to a house near a road? Don't worry - you'll get used to it - embrace the noise and try not to let it worry you and you will start to block it out and just ignore it. 

It's not the traffic. It's the dogs. There is literally a dosen of dogs I can hear barking and it's erratic and loud and annoying which is why I can't get used to it. It's been going on for a long time.

Usually I just wake up, close the windows and fall back asleep. But sometimes I can't fall back asleep, especially if I have to go take a piss. 

I can hear them through closed windows but they don't wake me up through closed windows (or earplugs). I have gotten used to it but I shouldn't do that. 

1 hour ago, DrP said:

...and your house isn't a perfect enclosed seal - when you shut the windows and doors you will not suffocate - air diffuses in and out of cracks and stuff

I know I won't suffocate. I was just worried it might cause headdaches through prolongued periods of sleeping with the windows closed.

[DrP]

6 minutes ago, Lord Antares said:

It's not the traffic. It's the dogs. There is literally a dosen of dogs I can hear barking and it's erratic and loud

yea dogs barking are a pain ... as you said, it is erratic so you can't let it drone into a background noise. Do they belong to a neighbour you can complain to or are they strays?  If strays then maybe your local council can take care of the problem.

[StringJunky]

1 hour ago, Lord Antares said:

It's not the traffic. It's the dogs. There is literally a dosen of dogs I can hear barking and it's erratic and loud and annoying which is why I can't get used to it. It's been going on for a long time.

Usually I just wake up, close the windows and fall back asleep. But sometimes I can't fall back asleep, especially if I have to go take a piss. 

I can hear them through closed windows but they don't wake me up through closed windows (or earplugs). I have gotten used to it but I shouldn't do that. 

I know I won't suffocate. I was just worried it might cause headdaches through prolongued periods of sleeping with the windows closed.

Being severely deaf my sleeping world is totally silent but I know what it's like when I have to leave my hearing aid in...insomnia! You could wear the earplugs and get a vibrating watch alarm or under pillow vibrating alarm which are more powerful.

[DrP]

57 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

You could wear the earplugs and get a vibrating watch alarm or under pillow vibrating alarm which are more powerful.

Or sort the problem out by telling the neighbours to keep their dogs quite...  lol.

If they are strays then get onto the council - if they are the neighbours then tell them to shut them up or you'll call the police or just take matters into your own hands.

I once had a neighbour's dog that would randomly bark all night  -  I fired ball bearings at the fence NEAR the dog (I wouldn't be so cruel as to hit it). I think this scared the dog and after a little while it stopped...  I think it realised that after it barked, I would fire at the fence (making a loud noise on impact) and it got scared. I think it learn't to  associate it's own barking with the ensuing missile attacks and it stopped.  

[hypervalent_iodine]

I've never had a problem with dogs, but I do have a partner who snores. He's very loud. Sometimes I have to gently kick him to get him to stop, but I've found earplugs block most of it. I like the mouldable swimmers ones personally. They've also been great for when my new neighbors have friends over for drinks on their back patio (the noise goes directly into my room, regardless of how little they make).

I wouldn't worry too much about having the window shut. I also like to sleep with mine open for fresh air, but I don't notice any difference in how I feel in the morning with it shut. 

[Klaynos]

If the dogs are close you can try training them using a dog whistle. Blow it hard whenever you hear the barking. Wikihow suggests this should work, but I've not tried it. 

[Lord Antares]

4 hours ago, DrP said:

Do they belong to a neighbour you can complain to or are they strays? 

Yeah, literally all my neighbours have dogs. They all keep them on the balconies because they thought it would be cute to own a dog but they realized they don't have the time to take care of them. I've tried talking to them, but you know how it is. Dogs are precious, you can't say anything about their dogs. They said they would take care of it but they never do.

2 hours ago, StringJunky said:

You could wear the earplugs and get a vibrating watch alarm or under pillow vibrating alarm which are more powerful.

Yeah, that would probably work, but I'd rather just close my windows than wear earplugs. Since you are largely deaf, as you say, I am guessing you've never tried wearing earplugs (it depends on how long you've been that way). Anyway, my head hurts after a long time wearing those and they're not that comfortable, they can always slip out, they can get wet, etc. I can sleep with them, but they're not my preferred choice.

44 minutes ago, hypervalent_iodine said:

I wouldn't worry too much about having the window shut. I also like to sleep with mine open for fresh air, but I don't notice any difference in how I feel in the morning with it shut. 

Yeah, earplugs are a solution if the noise is coming from withing the house. I prefer the window for outside noise.

16 minutes ago, Klaynos said:

If the dogs are close you can try training them using a dog whistle. Blow it hard whenever you hear the barking. Wikihow suggests this should work, but I've not tried it. 

What?

[DrP]

1 hour ago, Lord Antares said:

Yeah, literally all my neighbours have dogs. They all keep them on the balconies because they thought it would be cute to own a dog but they realized they don't have the time to take care of them. I've tried talking to them, but you know how it is. Dogs are precious, you can't say anything about their dogs. They said they would take care of it but they never do.

Police then? Explain that you have asked politely but they won't stop their mutts barking?

Are you in the USA? You could go to the shop, get a gun and solve the dog problem....  but I'm not sure how legal that would be. ;-)

1 hour ago, Lord Antares said:

 

1 hour ago, Klaynos said:

If the dogs are close you can try training them using a dog whistle. Blow it hard whenever you hear the barking. Wikihow suggests this should work, but I've not tried it. 

What?

Similar to what I did with the catapult...  The irritating noise of the whistle might shut them up if they realise that you stop when they stfu with their barking.

[zapatos]

I'm a big fan of white noise myself. At night I sleep with a fan on, or with a white noise machine or app on my phone. Sudden sounds like a dog barking would wake me every time. Having the white noise takes the edge off enough that those sounds no longer bother me.

It has also kept my wife from kicking me out of the bedroom for snoring.

[Lord Antares]

45 minutes ago, DrP said:

Police then? Explain that you have asked politely but they won't stop their mutts barking?

I would literally have to call the police  on my entire street. Plus, it's not at a completely ''socially unnaceptable'' hour like 3 A.M. (even though they've known to do that a few times), so I doubt the police would care much.

48 minutes ago, DrP said:

Are you in the USA? You could go to the shop, get a gun and solve the dog problem....  but I'm not sure how legal that would be. ;-)

Not in the US, but that reminds me of what happened pretty recently (this summer). There was yet another dog and it was the worst one because it was old and unattented for so it would bark all the time. One time a guy who lived in the same building as the owner of that dog was chainsawing something outside and as the owner came by, he angrily started revving his chainsaw and screaming ''I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR DOG IF YOU DON'T SHUT HIM UP!''. The owner ended up putting his dog down the next day.

I suppose that's one way of dealing with things, but I'm not quite at that level of rage yet.

1 hour ago, DrP said:

Similar to what I did with the catapult...  The irritating noise of the whistle might shut them up if they realise that you stop when they stfu with their barking.

It would do nothing. I would wake up completely by the time I did that. And it would wake up whoever was still sleeping.

29 minutes ago, zapatos said:

I'm a big fan of white noise myself. At night I sleep with a fan on, or with a white noise machine or app on my phone.

A fan wouldn't work at this time of year and onward, obviously, but I do that at summer. I haven't tried white noise on my phone. It sounds like a sane suggestion but I think it would be simpler to just close the windows.

[zapatos]

I use the fan year round. I just don't always have it aimed at me.

[Klaynos]

4 minutes ago, Lord Antares said:

It would do nothing. I would wake up completely by the time I did that. And it would wake up whoever was still sleeping.

 

My understanding is that you could do it whenever you hear barking even during the day to try and train them. The advantage of a dog whistle is that it's annoying as hell to dogs but humans can't hear it. 

On a related note after my PhD I can't sleep without listening to a podcast or radio. I started doing it as a distraction from thinking constantly about research and just not sleeping. Got to pick the right show, something with short sections that you don't get invested in. 

[dimreepr]

8 minutes ago, Klaynos said:

On a related note after my PhD I can't sleep without listening to a podcast or radio. I started doing it as a distraction from thinking constantly about research and just not sleeping. Got to pick the right show, something with short sections that you don't get invested in. 

2

BBC world service does it for me, half-hour segments are just right.

[Lord Antares]

14 minutes ago, Klaynos said:

My understanding is that you could do it whenever you hear barking even during the day to try and train them. The advantage of a dog whistle is that it's annoying as hell to dogs but humans can't hear it.

Oh I didn't know that. If humans can't hear it, it seems like an appealing option. If the dogs can troll me all the time, I can troll them a little bit as well.

[dimreepr]

2 minutes ago, Lord Antares said:

Oh I didn't know that. If humans can't hear it, it seems like an appealing option. If the dogs can troll me all the time, I can troll them a little bit as well.

If you want inner-peace, just saying it or getting revenge isn't the answer.

[Lord Antares]

Please stop that.

[dimreepr]

6 minutes ago, Lord Antares said:

Please stop that.

Why?

[zapatos]

I think he is searching for outer peace, not inner peace.

[dimreepr]

What's the difference?

[zapatos]

Seriously? What is difference between trying to figure out how to sleep at night when dogs are barking, and how to achieve spiritual calm?

[Lord Antares]

I'm not interested in your inner peace advice. I've got quite a bit of peace in my mind, much more than I used to. And this is not a topic where inner peace is relevant at all.