I recommend a white noise machine. I’m sensitive to noise and live in an apartment with a fair amount of noise coming through from other places. Running a fan helped a lot, but the air was annoying at times too. You can get white noise machines for like 20 dollars, although I can’t vouch for quality. Mine cost ~$60.
FWIW, I found that an air purifier produced exactly the level of white noise I needed. Obviously, not a very flexible device, but I didn’t need flexible, I just needed a steady source of soft noise to mask noisy neighbors.
That’s a great link—I’ve just had a bit of aplay with it. It plays the sound in-browser, with great controls over the sounds. plus it has a bunch of other sounds too—rain, waves etc… and you can buy the albums. I’m thinking of downloading the pink-noise version for my go-to-sleep sounds… it’s much better than the sloshy-water noises that come as standard with my alarm.
I found that pink noise is more pleasant to the ear than white noise, and if you work primarily at a desktop machine you could get a free application that produces it.
I recommend a white noise machine. I’m sensitive to noise and live in an apartment with a fair amount of noise coming through from other places. Running a fan helped a lot, but the air was annoying at times too. You can get white noise machines for like 20 dollars, although I can’t vouch for quality. Mine cost ~$60.
FWIW, I found that an air purifier produced exactly the level of white noise I needed. Obviously, not a very flexible device, but I didn’t need flexible, I just needed a steady source of soft noise to mask noisy neighbors.
And this way I also have clean air.
Here’s a free source of a few different flavours of noise. There’s also a phone app for a small cost.
A remarkably good source of water sounds.
http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/waterfallNoiseGenerator.php
That’s a great link—I’ve just had a bit of aplay with it. It plays the sound in-browser, with great controls over the sounds. plus it has a bunch of other sounds too—rain, waves etc… and you can buy the albums. I’m thinking of downloading the pink-noise version for my go-to-sleep sounds… it’s much better than the sloshy-water noises that come as standard with my alarm.
I found that pink noise is more pleasant to the ear than white noise, and if you work primarily at a desktop machine you could get a free application that produces it.
Likewise good quality earplugs and/or noise-cancelling headphones.