Sleep Hygiene >> Noise

Have Soft Surfaces in Your Bedroom to Absorb Sound



To help you sleep peacefully, the inside of your bedroom should be an enemy of sound.

 

This means that you should eliminate hard surfaces as much as possible. Hard surfaces reflect sound which increases the chance the noise will make it to your ears and keep you on edge.

Strive for soft surfaces instead. If sound enters your bedroom from outside or is created inside (from, say, a snorer), soft surfaces can absorb much of the noise and lessen the amount that reaches your ears.

This means that hardwood floors are not a good idea, at least for your bedroom. Instead you should have carpeting with a thick underlay to absorb as much sound as possible. Thick drapes / curtains are effective at not only blocking sound from entering through the windows, but they also absorb sound made within the bedroom.

On the walls, avoid hard surfaces like large mirrors. Consider using wallpaper since it will help absorb some noise. Or better yet, use wall fabric, which is like wallpaper except that it's fabric and more noise absorbing than paper. Fabric wall art is also a good noise absorber.

Then there's Acousti-Coat. According to their website, it is "a heavy bodied, water based flat latex paint formulated with hollow ceramic microspheres, sound absorbing fillers and resins. Acousti-Coat is for use on interior surfaces including ceilings and walls, plaster, primed metal and wood. Acousti-Coat can reduce sound transmission and reflection by 30%. Echo within the room is reduced dramatically. This product is an easy to apply surface coating and an inexpensive solution for reducing sound transmission."

Checklist for having noise-absorbing soft surfaces for your bedroom: