Introduction
The author himself suffered from insomnia and shallow sleep for a long time and still has such symptoms from time to time.
Noise reigns as the number one cause of difficulty sleeping.
I have never been bothered by noise, as I am more likely to have trouble sleeping due to worries or trying to force myself to sleep when my body is not tired to begin with.
However, many people suffer from this problem, so I thought of soundproofing measures from an auditory design perspective.
Conventional Soundproofing
1 earplug
This is a familiar method. The occasions when earplugs are used to completely block out sound are, for example, snoring, traffic noise, and other noise caused by other factors.
Some people ask if footsteps can also be soundproofed, but footsteps are vibrations and cannot be soundproofed. This must be tolerated, but I can't get used to that vibration.
I was once bothered by it.
I personally don't like the idea of stuffing things in my ears. It is too tight and makes it difficult to sleep.
2 Masking sound
These sound masking speakers are available on Amazon and other retailers for general household use.
The built-in sound is a white noise similar to that of air conditioning, which is used to mask the target sound.
There are also angle-adjustable and omni-directional types that can be used to precisely mask the sound you want to mask.
Examples of products
White Noise Machine elesories https://amzn.asia/d/iMtNBix
White noise has also been applied to masking services for offices.
We have heard some say that this dramatically improves sleep effectiveness.
However, it seems difficult to deal with sudden sounds and vibrations.
This is true even during the day, but it is also true during the night.
That is true even during the day, but why are we more sensitive to sound when we sleep?
The Ear Crisis Management System Replaces the Eyes
When we perceive a crisis, we sharpen our senses to sense it.
We sense tremors during an earthquake, smells during a gas leak, and sounds during a major shock.
This is a digression, but at the time of an earthquake, I hear the sound of a building creaking, which I feel before the shaking. Then, there are times when I feel small changes that I do not know if it is precognition or not, and immediately after that, the earthquake occurs.
I wonder if any of you readers have had such an experience.
When such events occur during the day or night, which function detects the crisis is hearing.
Its role is especially pronounced when we sleep.
無防備になると聴覚が極度に発達し小さな音も拾います。
This is evidence of a growing capacity for risk management.
Back in the days of the drums, when humans were still living in trees, we were always next to danger.
It was not a peaceful place to sleep, and you never knew when an enemy might attack.
This is when hearing was developed. Thanks to our sense of hearing, we have been able to detect danger and survive until today.
The same may have been true during the war.
In other words, an auditory anomaly means that we are in danger.
It may be an exaggeration, but even the slightest sound can be picked up to alert us that we are in danger.
In fact, small noises are so noticeable during sleep that it is not surprising that they are disturbing our sleep.
In addition to the above measures, you may sleep with music or sometimes video content playing.
Soundscape design measures will show you how to mask the environment without polluting it.
It depends on the individual, so don't complain lol.
Soundscape design measures First one.
Open the window.
This is something you may be surprised to find you are not doing.
The sound you hear depends on where you live, but let's leave that aside. Even just opening a window a little will let sound in.
If you live in a house with a main street nearby, opening a window a little can sometimes have a big effect.
On the other hand, even if your surroundings are quiet, if you open a window, you will hear what is called background noise.
Since our homes are now quite hermetically sealed, it would be a bit of a relief to just hear the background noise.
Traffic noise can fall under the category of pink noise, emitting a frequency that is said to produce a pleasant feeling called f/1 fluctuation.
This depends on the distance from the house to the street, but you may be able to hear it as pink noise on medium to high floors and in dwellings that are a bit further from the street.
What is pink noise?
Second.
Listen to environmental sounds in your ear
This is a way to draw attention to the sound in your ear so that you are not distracted by the noise around you.
Place the terminal in the direction of the target noise.
The type of ambient sound can be whatever you like, but I often use urban noise or late-night forest sounds.
However, be careful about the volume when listening close to the ear.
A good rule of thumb is to set the volume at half of the maximum level.
Although it varies from person to person, this level of volume is considered to be just right without being too loud.
The way we feel the sound varies from person to person. We recommend that you develop your own comfort level.
About Kamiyama Soundscape Design Office
Kamiyama Soundscape Design Office improves the sound environment of offices and provides a comfortable and wellbeing environment with music and acoustics.
While music distribution services and natural sounds are used in office spaces, the noise problem caused by these sounds is serious, and the current situation is that people are operating as they are without consultation.
In order to improve such a problem, we provide sound sources developed with our original acoustic design and unique technology.
However, we do not just provide them as they are.
We adjust the acoustics according to the characteristics of the space to realize the best sound environment there.
What we mean by spatial characteristics is the "sound" that occupies the space.
For example, it is quiet indoors but the traffic noise outside is too loud, background music is too loud and noisy, footsteps are noticeable, etc. If the sound occupying the space is recognized as noise, we will take measures to mask the noise.
Although recent masking technology seems to solve the problem, it has been reported that the masked sound has become a noise in the long term.
It may seem that it is just a sound, but it is a sound that we hear 24 hours a day, and it can affect our physical and mental health in the long run.
Comfort comes from the "ear environment," which means that designing the information that comes in through the ears leads to a healthy lifestyle.
If you would like to hear our sound masking sound, please click the link below to make an appointment for a demonstration.
Demonstration Request
We are happy to provide content demonstrations upon request.
Please feel free to contact us at the link below so that we can design an acoustic space that fits your budget.
https://www.soundscapedesigner.jp/blank
Please note that we may not be able to accept orders depending on your budget.