How to sleep through noisy neighbours
A noise you do not expect wakes you; a constant one does not. That is the whole principle of masking, and it is the only thing that works when you can neither quiet the neighbour nor move out.
Mask, do not drown out
The instinct is to play something louder than the noise. That is the mistake: two loud sounds get noticed instead of one, and the volume becomes the nuisance. What works is reducing the contrast — the gap between the quiet of your room and the peak coming through the wall.
A steady sound at a low level raises the noise floor. The door slamming at midnight then goes from “silence, then a bang” to “steady background, then a small bang”. What wakes you is the gap, not the absolute level.
Practical consequence: the right volume is just above the noise you want to mask, no more. If you have to turn it up loud, you picked the wrong sound.
Voices, a television
white noiseSpeech lives between 250 Hz and 4 kHz, and white noise puts as much energy there as in the lows. It is the only one of the three that really masks a conversation through a wall, or a television left on.
The most effective against neighbours, the least pleasant over eight hours.
Footsteps, furniture, a floor
brown noiseImpacts and low frequencies travel through walls better than highs. Brown noise has its energy in the same place: a dull rumble, like distant airflow, that absorbs impacts without hissing.
The most bearable for a whole night, and the right first try.
A street, a junction
light rainTraffic is already a broad, continuous noise; adding a mechanical rush gives you two noises. Light rain blends into it better, because the ear accepts it as one texture rather than two sources.
Also the best option when the window has to stay open.
A party, a steady beat
do not count on itA sound system's bass through a ceiling cannot be masked: it is too loud and too rhythmic. No ambient sound will do it, and claiming otherwise would cost you another night.
Earplugs, or the conversation you have been putting off for three weeks.
The rule of three settings
Volume: turn it up until the offending noise becomes indistinct, then come back down one notch. The sound should be there without you listening to it.
Duration: if the building is noisy until one in the morning, a 30-minute timer leaves you alone for the rest. This is the one case where endless playback is the right setting rather than a comfort.
Where the phone sits: not on the bedside table against your ear, but between you and the source. The sound should come from the same side as the thing it masks.
Two mixes for a block of flats
Party wall
voices, a television on the other sideThe floor above
footsteps, a chair being draggedThe steady noises are free
White noise is one of the four included sounds, with no time limit: you can test masking tonight without paying anything. iPhone and Android.
See the app