Four Soundproofing Tips To Help You Get A Peaceful Night’s Sleep

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Well over 55% of the world’s population now live in cities, this means that the need for apartment living is growing.

Unfortunately one of the by-products of squeezing a lot of people into limited space is that it leads to an awful lot of noise.

City living is anything but quiet, even in the middle of the night!

Sleep is very important, and a lack of good quality sleep will put you at much higher risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and type two diabetes. A lack of sleep can also be a contributing factor for mental health problems.

So if your sleep is being disturbed by city noise (or anything else!) here are four soundproofing tips you can use to make changes to help you sleep better:

1. Change Your Curtains

A good pair of curtains are crucial for a good night sleep.

Thin curtains allow both light and noise in.

Investing in a pair of thick well insulated curtains can make a world of difference to the quality of your sleep.

The best curtains to choose for soundproofing are acoustic curtains (read more about soundproof curtains at Soundproofpanda.com). These are designed to deflect sound and minimise echo and can help reduce the impact of noise external to your window. As well as they they will also block most light coming into the room too.

When installing a soundproof curtain make sure that:

1. You use a strong, well secured curtain pole – insulated curtains are heavy so some curtain poles may not be strong enough to hold them.
2. Ensure that they more than cover the window, ideally you want at least 30cm over overlap at either side of the window as this will help reduce the amount of sound and light that gets through around the edges.

2. Soundproof Your Door

Doors are often one of the primary areas from where sound leaks into a room.

This is because internal doors are made of thin materials and are usually hollow, supported with basic cardboard lattices which offer no sound resistance.

The three best things you can do to soundproof your bedroom door are:

Change Your Door

Mass blocks sound. Hollow internal doors have very little mass so consequently do a poor job of preventing sound from getting through.

If you have noisy housemates then noise coming through your door can easily disturb your sleep.

The simple solution to fixing this is to change your door.

Swap it for a solid wood door, it is also a good idea to have it fitted by a joiner so that they can ensure it properly fits the frame with no unnecessary gaps around it which would allow sound in.

Use Weather Stripping

Weather sweeping is a very cheap and very effective soundproofing solution. It is designed to stop drafts getting in around doors and windows but in doing so it also does a great job of preventing airborne sound getting in through the cracks around your door.

Simply peel off the sticky back and stick the weather stripping inside the frame of your door where the door will meet the frame.

This will seal up your door frame when it is closed thereby preventing airborne sound from getting into your room and making your noisy neighbours conversation far less audible as they walk past your room in the middle of the night!

Use A Door Sweep

One area of your door that you can’t really use weather stripping on is the gap at the bottom.

Some ill fitting doors can leave a big gap, as much as a couple of centimeters, at the bottom which is an easy access point for noise.

A door sweep can resolve this.

A door sweep is a bit like a thick brush which fits on the back of your door. As the door is close it sweets the floor creating a seal between the door and the floor and closing the gap underneath the door.

3. Use Rugs

If you have noisy downstairs neighbours thick rugs can make a considerable difference. Placing a few thick rugs on your floor will help deaden and muffle any sound that makes it into your floor.

4. Try White Noise

If you have tried all off these techniques and are still struggling to get a peaceful night’s sleep don’t worry there is still hope.

White noise can provide a great solution.

White noise works by creating ‘white’ background noise which drowns out irritating noises which may disturb your sleep.

You can get white noise apps on your phone for free or some people use things like radio static for the same effect.

 

Thanks for reading, I hope these tips help you to take steps to get a much better nights sleep!