[ay]

Try “3M earplugs yellow” on amazon. They are pretty much fully immersed in the ear (for me), and the insulation is very good. The pressure - yeah it took maybe a few days to get used to, but…

The effects for me (living in Brussels city centre, so quite noisy - police, ambulance, sometimes loud tourists past midnight, and a bit of construction at 6am nearby to keep it real :-) ) were very pronounced:

From needing 9 hours and feeling groggy in the mornings anyway, to easily going on 7-8, feeling very refreshed and alert each day.

A cool side effect was that this superpower works also while traveling - so, I no longer care how noisy the airco is in the hotel room, being next to the lift, or having the window above the lively bar.

The only downside with those earplugs that they are good maybe for 3-4 nights and then are too squished to be useful; but the upsides more than make it up for me.

[rickydroll]

I've tried the squishy foam earplugs, and they always fall out. Other suggestions, such as silicone and custom earplugs, are something I'm going to try. Let's see if they help.

However, what destroys my sleep is the light from early morning, streetlights, and the neighbor's porch light. Unfortunately, our bedroom faces southeast and features French doors that open onto an east-facing three-season porch, allowing sunlight to stream in. Yeah, I've got curtains everywhere, and I have room-darkening curtains on order. If those don't work, the next step is putting solar panels over my bedroom windows. I figure if I'm going to keep light out, I might as well put it to work some other way.

As an experiment, I'm using my car camping mattress in my office, which is the quietest room in the house, and I'm blocking the light from the windows with curtains and cardboard. So far, it's the best sleep I've had in years. There's a bit of domestic disharmony now, but hopefully my partner and I can work out a compromise on light-blocking curtains and keeping them fucking shut.

[plorkyeran]

Have you tried a blackout sleep mask? I had to try a few to find one which consistently stays in place overnight and doesn't put any pressure on my eyes, but once I found one it solved all light-related problems for me.

[rickydroll]

I've tried them, and they don't work for me. They trigger a bit of claustrophobia. I sleep with a full-face CPAP mask, and I'm not sure I can take anything more strapped to my face.

[thinkharderdev]

My wife started snoring pretty badly while she was pregnant so ended up buying these earplugs https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPH7HNT1. I've never been able to sleep in the foam earplugs as they either fall out or the pressure starts to really irritate after a while, but these don't put pressure and they stay in all night. They're also really block out noise.

[rickydroll]

Thanks, adding them to the list of things to try

[jks]

These custom earplugs are the most comfortable I've ever worn:

https://www.elacin.com/your-perfect-fit/leisure/relax-sleep/

[rickydroll]

Nice. Which model do you use? And do they sell them in the U.S.? Not that I would mind making a trip overseas and getting away from the insanity here for a little while, but it adds to the cost.

[jks]

I have the "Relax & Sleep" pair. I got mine from a Finnish reseller, and thought they were a global company but they seem to list only European locations. I believe thomann.de delivers to the U.S., but that's little help since the point of these would be to get them made individually.

I would assume that your local audiologist or music instrument store will know what the U.S. equivalent to these is. It seems to me that Elacin's biggest market is musicians who want a comfortable pair of earplugs with a flat frequency response.

[modo_mario]

It's rare for me to encounter another Belgian on HN but I'll definitely try this. Sleeping roadside till i have my upper floor renovated has been a disaster for my sleep and functioning.