My Story with Earplugs
I am a noise sensitive person.
I was lucky to live in the quiet countryside when I was a child, there were only natural sound like chirps of insects, birds, or the sound of wind, rain and thunder, all of which seemed to me like different styles of music of nature. I fell asleep listening to insects and was woken up pleasingly by birds in the morning.
As I grow up, I have to move into the mega city to finish my study, and then started my work there.
Before college, I never share a room with anyone else except my families, so as you can imagine, when the first time I shared a small room with several buddies, it was really hard to adjust to each other's lifestyle. I am a person who likes to go to bed early and get up early. In the evening, after reading an hour's book, I would fall asleep before 11:00 o 'clock, because I would get up before 7:00 o 'clock the next morning to do exercise. However, all my roommates liked playing games except me in the whole dormitory. 11 o 'clock(23:00) was just the time to getting into the game for them. They played video games together until after 2:00 a.m. I lay in bed, tortured by the sound of their keyboard, mouse and shout over and over again. Yes, I had tried to communicate with them. In fact, they were very friendly partners and would like to take care of my living habits. They also promised to control their voices as much as possible. However, when they started playing the exciting PC game, they never remember what they promised.
So I had to try something else, such as counting sheep, listening to light music, or just to ignore the sounds by autosuggestion. Then again, I failed. All of these methods were of no use to me.
By chance, there was a small shop near our university, where I found that they sold foam earplugs that could be soundproof. I was very excited to buy them back, and I was full of expectation to play its magical role in the evening. But the foam plugs bounced back so quickly that they completely inflated before reaching the ear canal. It took me a lot of effort to fit most of it in, but it was so hard and so big that my ears got hurt, and the sound insulation was no different from putting cotton in my ears. I gave up using sleep earplugs, and I realized that how naive I was to believe that something like a sponge could perfectly block sound, and I thought, I'll never try it again. These earplugs were immediately thrown into the trash can.
So I ended up moving out on my own and living in a rented room, which basically solved the problem. Time went fast, I graduated and had to fight for my career.
As the stress of work increased, my anxiety increased and my sleep became lighter. In a big city, there's always a variety of noise that drove me crazy. The noise of the children played around upstairs, the chopping sound from kitchen, the pounding of a fat man walking, the construction downstairs, and almost every day there were noise that I hated so much to prevent me from falling asleep. A hard day's work without a good night's sleep had left me lethargic and a vicious cycle.
Several times, I felt like I was on the verge of breaking down. I tried everything. I've learned about Hypnotic drugs, but they're still somewhat harmful over time; I thought about putting professional soundproof material on the walls and windows of my room, but it was too expensive and complex, so I gave up. After all, that's my rented house, and I was not sure when I might stop renting. I've even thought about drinking more alcohol before going to bed at night to make it easier to fall asleep, but I'm not a big drinker and a small glass of red wine seems nothing to me.
I continued to search the Internet for a variety of solutions, and after a lot of comparison and learning, I found that foam earplugs may be the most economical and effective solution. But, I could still remember the bad experience of the pair of earplugs I used in college, I didn't have much confidence that the solution would solve my problem. However, I had no choice. So I frantically collected all the reputable brand earplugs. I bought them all, and I think I bought at least 30 different earplugs. Yes, I tested each one, and in the end, I found two that really suited me. They were of good quality, easy to use, comfortable to wear and soundproof.
Back in college, if only I had gotten a great pair of earplugs that would fit me, my life would totally be different, I absolutely do not need to suffer those years. You know, a good night's sleep, would be what a wonderful thing in life.
Now, after all these years, earplugs have become a wonderful companion for me. Also, my spouse and I often use it when there is noise that disturbs our sleep. When my colleagues talked to me about how they couldn't sleep well due to the noise, I gave them earplugs as a gift. After using the earplugs I gave them, they thanked me very much. Tell me how lucky they are to get such nice presents.
Like me, many friends and relatives even carry it on their trips. It gives us the confidence to sleep in a noisy environment and focus on study and work. It has made a difference I could never have imagined.
So, I decided to share it with more people, more people like me, who are suffering from noise. I hope this little guy can bring them a good sleep and a good mood!