Some like background music or sound. Some don't. I'm in the second category. When I play music, as an example, I play it on the loud side so that I can pay attention to hear all the elements. Never as background at a low volume. When I'm not playing sound to listen to, I prefer quiet. Stark silence. Background sound at a low level gives me a headache.

Elmer, my husband is in the same camp. He likes stark silence. Unfortunately, living in a neighborhood there is always noise, from planes, trains, and automobiles, landscaping, home projects, pool heaters, AC units, even our own furnace fan.

I need to hear what's going on around me -- the ac unit, the fan furnace, the ceiling fan, rain on the windows & roof.

A white noise machine would drive me crazy.

Many people do not like unknown noise or erratic noise so they run noise machines to block out the other sorts. Not being able to handle silence, your own thoughts is not a good sign.

We run a fan. I have tried the noise machines but the ones I've tried just didn't sound right to me. I would like to sleep in silence but with a dog and a husband in the same room, that's not going to happen. My hearing is too keen and every little sound wakes me up.

bpath, maybe my words weren't well chosen and overemphasized what I was trying to say. The thought I intended - I don't like background sound intentionally turned on. Muzak or other terrible music in public places is the worst. Sound producing gizmos used to mask other sounds (or the equivalent which don't need a separate machine, there are such sound tracks easily found on the internet to play on a smartphone or PC) are also unpleasant. A passing vehicle (on land or in the air), a worker's noise producing tool (so long as not incessant) and the like are fine so long as the din isn't all day, every day. I'm fortunate to have quiet neighborhoods where noises from neighbors' homes are not often heard and other such noises are limited.

arcy_gw

Many people do not like unknown noise or erratic noise so they run noise machines to block out the other sorts. Not being able to handle silence, your own thoughts is not a good sign.

I never have silence, have tinnitus 24/7 for many decades now. And strangely, have profound hearing loss as well, so hearing is somewhat of an issue for me. I do like the brook sound, to me it is pleasant and peaceful.

Each of us is an individual, and I have no problem with the preferences of others as to how they prefer sound or whether they like sound machines.

I sincerely hope you have a wonderful holiday and get to do what pleases you, Arcy. (As long as that does not include any further misguided putdowns of other people).

A rumble from a motor is my fave white noise, I think. I can easily fall asleep on a plane, and will sit in the back for that reason.

I have to wear earplugs to sleep - every little noise will keep me awake or wake me up. I can still hear the phone or an alarm, tho, they just muffle everything else. Nothing is ever completely silent anyway. Even if you block out all external noise, you can still hear the sounds of your own body.

Hubby has tinnitus - an occupational hazard of drummers. He prefers the sounds of rainstorms. He found YouTube channels that have things like that.

I understand that playing a background sound can help people with tinnitus.

I understand that playing a background sound can help people with tinnitus.

That's why my TV or music is usually on. It helps drown out the inner ear noises.

My family's home from my age of toddler to 19 or 20 had window air conditioners. I became accustomed to the drone of them and don't sleep well without a similar background noise. A ceiling fan on high is sufficient when the direct cooling airflow is conducive to the weather/season. I set a small fan aimed out the bedroom door during the cold season.

I don’t think I would like a white noise machine but I’ve never tried one as I have never needed one. I’ve never really had trouble falling asleep.

I do like quiet and stillness and my favourite time is outside in the winter when it is cold. The whole world seems to be at a standstill and any sounds are extremely clear. Sound carries very differently in cold air.

I only listen to music when I am driving if I am alone as I don’t like having a conversation when there is something playing in the background. If I’m not actually watching TV, I turn it off. I do know people who always have music playing or the TV on.

eta I do like the sound of ocean waves but not from a machine.

With my hearing issues background noise is like an annoying roar. Like roxsol I only listen to music alone. Background music in stores and restaurants is painful to me. Takes the joy out of going out. Some people use their hearing aids from the time they get up to when they go to bed. I tend to remove mine at home when I don't need it. I can't stand the noise of my own chewing when eating ,even with it adjusted to it lowest level. Silence is my happy place. I too love the ocean and anywhere near natural water.

I have two sound machines that operate every night. I have all kinds of choices, waterfall,l thunderstorm, babbling brook but I choose white noise on both. I have tinnitus which got even worse since covid in October so I have a constant ringing in my ear. I play music only in the car and on my hikes and only have the TV on in the evening when I'm watching. I never turn it on during the day.My cats aren't in my bedroom and neither is a phone, landline or cell, or TV. My street can be busy and noisy if a firetruck or police car goes flying by with their sirens blaring.

OH I hate the music going in stores these days. It's OK if I like the song but I would rather no music. I was surprised that the other day when at Walmart (you know they have that Walmart radio mess now) the DJ came on and said that they are now in quiet time for people with "???" I can't remember how they worded it. It was so nice not to hear the music and annoying DJ blabbing for an hour. I think it started at 8 am.

EDIT: OK so I looked it up and it's "sensory-friendly" hours from 8 to 10 am every morning. So, this may help some of you that HATE the noise while shopping. Supposedly it is at all their stores across the US and Puerto Rico too.

I have severe tinnitus (like my father), and this is very disturbing when I am trying to sleep unless I have white noise. As a child, I liked the sound of a fan.

Extreme silence makes my tinnitus much more noticeable. In my case, not being able to handle silence is a sign of my tinnitus and has nothing to do with my own thoughts.

When I travel, I have a lot of trouble sleeping in a strange place to the point where I might get only 2 hrs in, and then I'm a wreck. I especially have trouble with intermittent noise like the HVAC system coming on and off all night. If I can, I turn it off. But traffic noises can bother me as well, let alone sirens and horns and such. So I have found white noise helpful, but white is not the best for me. I find brown noise more soothing. I don't have a machine, but play it on my phone, with the timer set. Don't know if everyone knows, but instead of having the timer count down and ring something, the iphone has a setting that it will count down and then turn the app off.

I also have tinnitus and need a background noise/sound most of the time, altho my tinnitus doesn't bother me as much now as it used to. It was awful at first. Mine is like the "sound of the ocean"....like when you hold a large seashell to your ear, with crickets chirping in the background.

I am a very light sleeper, and I wake up very fast....never groggy, and tho it is very quiet where I live, it doesn't take much to wake me up, but fortunately, I fall asleep easily.

I have tinnitus in one ear since it went dead in 2007. The intensity increases in environments with a loud mix of random sounds such as stores and noisy restaurants with hard surfaces and echoing. Seems contrary but a low-level background sound such as a fan helps cover it in quiet environments.

I haven’t tried the sound machine for my tinnitus, perhaps I will. When DS was young, even 7, 8, thunderstorms really bothered him. The sound machine helped a lot. I don’t remember what setting he liked, it may even have been the thunderstorm setting! He still doesn’t like things that are unpredictable, and thunderstorms certainly are that.

My tinnitus sounds like a very high pitched ringing that never stops, and so you might be able to imagine how irritating that can be.

My house in Cathedral City is extremely quiet, but the one in L.A. is near LAX and I-405. We don't get many planes flying over our house except in extreme weather conditions that force them to change their flight paths, but the 405 freeway sounds like a gentle waterfall, although I can hear it only when I am outdoors, and I like it.

I have tinnitus and have no problem going to sleep. For awhile I was having trouble sleeping, tried a sound machine and didn't like any of the sounds. Instead of relaxing me, they made me nervous. I used to have one that I loved, but lost track of somehow when we moved.

I don't understand why some people get so upset about everything Arcy posts and make a big deal out of nothing. I don't see anything wrong with what she said, and apparently most other people didn't. either. I hate seeing anyone automatically jumped on for everything they post. I don't want to start an argument, I just wish we all could be nicer to each other.

woodrose, sometimes pointing out someone's shirt is on backwards may seem unkind, but it can be kinder than not because it gives them the option to change it should they choose. One can't change something if they're not aware of it.

Insensitivity is insulting, whether it's intentional or not - and also whether or not someone chooses to take offense.

And @ Lars - I also like the sound of vehicles whooshing by on the highway at night. It reminds me of waves on a beach. We traveled and often stayed at highway motels when I was a kid, and that sound always felt soothing.

I don't think it's fair under the circumstances to hurl insults. But I think the unmentioned 800 pound (equivalent to 360 kg for those in metric lands) gorilla in the conversation not previously mentioned is how people tend to react to or call out extreme comments. The person in question often seems to do so in a matter of fact way. I don't always reply but my reaction to comments of that nature is usually something like "Seriously? You can't honestly believe that?"

When I would stay at my Grannies house nature provided the continual din of frogs and cicadas. You only noticed it when it would abruptly stop. It would wake me up. People from cities seem to find country noises hard to manage. I am sitting here hating on the sound of the boiler for the infloor heat. The upstairs forced air heat is worse. I despise that noise. I never turn on music in the house and rarely have the tv on. I am so used to a relatively quiet world. I have had to adjust to the noise of my bipap machine. Maybe that will make me more tolerant of noises. I also have tinnitus-odd so many of us have that. Built in white noise.

Lars, I DO know how irritating tinnitus can be with the constant high-ringing sound that never stops. My house is always quiet and I sit here typing, the ear ringing is so more pronounced. I will never not use a sound machine. Weirdly, so many of us suffer from it and as I said , covid made it louder.

we like the sound of a fan

I’ve been trying to understand what timnitus is. I have a ”sound” that I’ve had as long as I can remember, I always considered it brain noise. Almost like an electrical humming. Sometimes it’s quite pronounced, other times not so much. While I hear it, I don’t exactly associate it with my ears. It’s decidedly different from the ringing in my ears after a loud noise. Is this tinnitus?

if i can't fall asleep, not b/c of thoughts, i will use my 'white noise' app and fall asleep to 'space station'. continual, same sound.

if i hear waterfalls etc., i have to go to bathroom

if i hear voices, wakes me up

just needs to be a steady, same pitch sound and off i go to dream town

I love my noise machine and have it set on a train running down the track type noise. My husband is quite a noisy sleeper and fiddles with his Cpap machine off and on all night. I need the noise machine to mask him.

All the rest of the time, I enjoy quiet. Home alone time is great and I never turn on music or the TV for ”company.” I walk outside every day for at least an hour with only the sounds of nature; there are others exercising outdoors while wearing earplugs. Those are an abomination to me.

We are golfers and enjoy the sounds of the outdoors while we play. It’s very annoying to come in close contact with other players who have stereo-and-speakers built into their golf cart.

I just wish we all could be nicer to each other.

Try saying that to Arcy.

Mine is like the "sound of the ocean"....like when you hold a large seashell to your ear, with crickets chirping in the background.

FOAS, Marilyn's description is the same for me.

White noise lovers here. We have central AC but we like sleeping at 64F during the summer and don't want the cost of ACing the entire 2 story 2400 sq ft house. A modest window AC fills that bill (lower cost + white noise). To keep our BD at 64F during the winter months we close the bedroom vent and use a small fan for the white noise, the outside night time temp keeps our BD cool enough.

My tinnitus can be anything from high pitched whines, shrieking sounds and most usually a refrigerator running. My least favorite is the bubble wrap sound. I have Meniere's. It varies vastly.

Years ago, we had a bed with a bookcase headboard. One night, every time I put my head on the pillow, I could hear a light, crackling type sound almost like an electric wire shorting out. My husband couldn’t hear it, but I could. We got out of bed and inspected every plug-in and light fixture and found nothing. It finally dawned on us it was coming from a freshly opened can of ginger ale that my husband had set on the headboard. The sound was amplified through the pillows.

My favourite sounds for sleeping come through open windows most of the year. Birds, rain, wind, coyotes, frogs.

I went to a lot of loud concerts when I was younger, so I know I have a certain amount of tinnitus, but it's not enough to be bothersome to me.

FYI, tinnitus means ringing, and the most common cause, I think, is when the cilia - a.k.a. hair cells - inside our ears basically is destroyed by loud sounds, and it doesn't grow back. In a way it really is your brain, because the signals from these cells relay sound to the brain, and when damage is severe, the signals get really screwed up.

Geez - thinking about how loud movie theater sound systems have become over the years. Who hasn't been exposed to that?

Any overly loud noise can permanently damage hearing, so I think nobody will escape some damage - unless they've never, ever been exposed to any loud noise, but then there are also a good number of other things that cause tinnitus.

And FWIW, I came across this...

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/scientists-regenerate-hair-cells-enable-hearing

For me, it's something other than the cilia as I have, laying in bed, get the feeling of almost like my eustachian tube filling in and then the tinnitus will get louder. When I was younger, it would sometimes clear and the tinnitus would lessen, but now it doesn't seem to matter. Sometimes I would get clicks and buzzes, but often it's just a very high-pitched ring. I can remember this even as a child, but it used to be very faint. But it's gotten much more persistent in the past several years.

Judi, for a long time I thought I was hearing crickets. I've lived in the country all of my life, and just accept some things as background noise. When I realized it wasn't, and I couldn't get away from it, it really bothered me! I kept a radio going all the time. Finally, have gotten used to it, and seldom think about it any more. I would like to know what real silence is like though.

Yeah, I don't think about it much, but occasionally it pops up front and center and I just can't shake it. I can see how it could be really destructive for some people.

Roxsol, I miss being able to leave a window open at night. Having been around coyotes, I wouldn't feel safe sleeping with an open window.

Judi, I don't think it would help to say that to her. There are some people who seem to say whatever they think. Around here, we call that having "no filter" and I usually just ignore whatever they say and move on. I'm not sure they can help themselves or change their behavior, and I'm sure they don't mean any harm, so I just try to let it go.

Roxsol, I miss being able to leave a window open at night. Having been around coyotes, I wouldn't feel safe sleeping with an open window.

Yikes! It sounds like you have a story to tell.

Woodrose, I’ve slept my entire life, both city living and rural living, with an open window whenever I can. The only thing that has ever come through the window is a bat when the screen came away about a quarter of an inch. 😁 That was an exciting morning.

I often sleep, nap, doze outside at night and can hear the coyotes among other things. My husband has an interest in the night sky and has set two chairs on a scrappy piece of land of ours because it is far from the house and very dark and on a hill. I’ll often go out there in the middle of the night and sit with him. Sometimes, we both doze while waiting for whatever he is waiting for. 🛸 Very relaxing.

We live in the city and windows open or not, the sounds are not nature. They are sirens, doors slamming, dogs barking, fireworks, lawn equipment, boom boxes, etc.

I use a Sound Machine. It mimics a box fan without the air movement.

We're surrounded by water here, so sounds are amplified and can carry really far. There are always sirens, and also parties, etc. with loud music - and fireworks too.

The guys with the souped up trucks and motorcycles are super annoying as well.

I use my window fan all year long. Live in the single most densely populated state and county in the country (NE, NJ), but dead quiet at night except for mating cats, screeching possums, stinking skunks, and yes, coyotes here now too, right outside of Manhattan. People know enough to STF up at night though!

roxsol, I find star gazing extremely relaxing. I seem to sleep better after some time looking at the night sky...

I sleep with the tv on, it eventually goes to the screensaver. Sometimes, I will put on a YouTube video that is nothing more than a lovely scene with rain sounds. Think a fairy cottage in the woods on a rainy day. But sometimes I will put it on a show I enjoy, but have seen before, so that I am not tempted to stay awake and watch it.

I have a pink noise machine. I am NOT making this up. Pink noise is a thing, and has shown to be more relaxing than white noise for certain people. I rarely use it though. My go to background noise maker is the tv and the dog snoring.

I do not need background noise to sleep. When we lived in a subdivision sleeping during the day was difficult what with all the unsupervised demon children screeching throughout the neighborhood as though they had been doused with holy water. But where i live now, its fairly quiet. And I can sleep in absolute silence. I prefer a little noise though. Just no screeching please.

Amy, I know you like pink! If you ever happen to spot Orion in the sky, look at the ”star” in the middle of his sword. It is pink 😀

It’s actually not a star but a nebula..Orion Nebula and has a mass 2000 times of the sun. That’s a lot of pink.

There are several colors of noise per the frequency distribution.

I recently discovered dystopian/apocalyptic/ambient/dark/ethereal YouTube videos and sometimes choose one on the bedroom TV for sleep inducement. An hour-ish duration is common, the TV turns off within some timeframe after the end. Example:

Also space/ambient music such as Dreamstate Logic, Stellardrone, Astronaut Ape, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Endelas, Mystic Crock, Unusual Cosmic Process, Dimmat, Astropilot. Pandora or Spotify playlists.