Getting desperate for quiet
Sunday, December 4th, 2011 at 10:12 amI’ve said before that this is a quiet street. And by Bangkok standards, it is. You won’t go deaf living here, there’s no demolition site or nightclub within earshot, no through traffic, and people mostly observe the legal hours for use of power tools. There are hours, sometimes hours at a stretch, when it actually is quiet.
That said, between the people who get up early and the people who go to bed late, and their kids and dogs and aircons and water pumps, I can find myself assaulted by noise pretty well all day long, too. And it’s my problem, not theirs. I get that. You can’t expect anyone to keep the noise down because a writer is trying to think or because someone who works from home just wants to take a nap or enjoy a little silence for no special reason. Although, honestly, I think you can expect people, out of common courtesy, not to talk at the top of their voices at 6 a.m. or leave their car parked under your window playing doof-doof music.
Well, I can expect it, but I won’t get it. I will get noise. Not because this is Bangkok but because this is Planet Earth and human beings are noisy. I’m sensitive to noise. I get the impression that I’m in a minority. I like many of the sounds of nature, though, so perhaps I should be living in a cave in Mongolia or something — but that wouldn’t be without its drawbacks.
Anyway, I feel like I’m often fighting noise. Earplugs, rain recordings, wandering the streets looking for a quiet corner of an alley somewhere — sometimes I really do get desperate and feel quite upset by not being able to get away from noise. I found a graveyard, a nice big one, which can be fairly quiet; however, the owners of the graveyard have turned it into a recreation facility with a jogging track, sports equipment etc — and karaoke machines. It’s awesome, actually. But thanks to the karaoke, the quiet stretches tend not to be very long.
There’s a mosque with a Muslim graveyard nearby, and it doesn’t have karaoke — but it also doesn’t look so open to the public, or at least not to the infidel.
I get tired because noises wake me up at night. And then, during the day, when some dog is barking, like it is now, and earplugs don’t keep it out and I just can’t think, I get frustrated and hot under the collar. It’s not that I don’t get any quiet, I just need more than I’m getting.
I need to do something. I can’t make the noise stop, so I need to find ways to deal with it. I’m considering hypnotherapy. I also want to try sleeping pills, something to help me sleep more deeply but without waking up groggy in the mornings. I’d be grateful for any recommendations.
December 4th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Hi Kirsten
I’m new around here; I looked you up because I enjoyed The Etched City so much a few years ago and wanted to see if you had anything else out. So glad you’re working on a few projects! I can’t wait to see what you do next.
I can sympathise with your sleeping difficulties – I’ve always found valerian tablets work for me. They’re natural and don’t leave you feeling groggy the next day. They just sort of calm you down when your mind is too active. I use them when I’m feeling stressed or tense or if I’ve been writing or doing uni stuff and can’t switch off my brain.
Might be worth a try?
December 4th, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Take care KJ, especially as the holidays approaches (which I expect will be much, much noisier). Hope you find a solution soon.
December 5th, 2011 at 7:45 am
Eedamme – Hi, and thanks for the tip about valerian. I did have some ages ago, and had forgotten about it. I seem to remember it working quite well. I’ll get some more and see how it goes!
Charles – actually, holidays are in April, though December can be noisy too, as people take advantage of the cooler weather to renovate houses and be a bit more active in general. School has been out because of the floods, so there has been a sort of extra holiday season, but school goes back tomorrow. This morning is quiet so I’m soaking it up! When it *is* quiet here it’s lovely.
December 6th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
the owners of the graveyard have turned it into a recreation facility with a jogging track, sports equipment etc — and karaoke machines
I can’t seem to fit all of these things into one image in my head. Incredible. I wonder if the dead take advantage of the facilities after dark?
assaulted by noise
I feel bristly and hot under the collar myself, trying to imagine concentrating with all that stuff going on. Valerian sounds like a great option; I’ve also had reasonable success recently with diphenhydramine hcl, which you can get in OTC sleeping pills, and is non-addictive. I think you develop tolerance if you use it for more than 14 days running, though.
I really, really like the rain website you shared in last post – thank you, and good luck with the peace-finding and spakfilling!
December 7th, 2011 at 8:50 am
I hope the dead enjoy it — I don’t think they can be getting all of their proverbial sleep! But maybe it’s nice for them to see so much of the living.
Thanks for the antihistamine rec, I’ll have a look for some of that — I’m sure I’ve seen Tylenol, Advil etc. here.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:51 am
I’m sorry about your noise and lack of sleep; I can definitly relate.
My drug of choice is Tryptanol/Endep, amitryptyline hyrochloride. I have been taking it for over ten years now. Technically you’re not supposed to be on it for more than six months, but apparently I’m on small enough doses that it doesn’t matter.
I also suffer from sleep disorders and stress caused by sensory issues; Endep helps with this. Another drug to consider is Valpro. A ways back I accidently overdosed myself with Valpro over several weeks and was quite astionished that just about all of my sensory issues disappeared, not just the noise related ones. The downside to this is that I lost hair, gained a lot of weight very quickly, and when I cut down the dose back to where it was supposed to be, the sensory issues came back with a vengence. And with bells on.
Amitripyline also helps with stress in general, and goes a huge way towards quieting my various ticks.
Hope this helps.
December 9th, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Thanks, Caitlyn. It’s interesting that a drug can make noise/sensory issues disappear. I’d rather like to experience that state of mind, though without the weight gain and hair loss!
December 10th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
however, the owners of the graveyard have turned it into a recreation facility with a jogging track, sports equipment etc — and karaoke machines.
That is amazing. I’m trying to imagine the quiet old graveyard in my parents’ village with a karaoke machine and treadmills, and it doesn’t quite compute.
I hope you find a way to help with the noise.
December 11th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
I have a list of things I’m cycling through right now (two lots of young kids next door, upstairs; one neighbour who leaves for work at 7 am and another who returns back from work at 2 am and etc, much etc). I’ve been using 5 htp as an alternate to valerian and magnesium for the tension that starts building up when all this happens (including in baths, as epsom salts, which gives me an excuse for hot scented baths). I’ve also stopped reading in bed, and find I’m getting to sleep faster, which means each lot of a scant couple of hours is actually spent sleeping rather than getting to sleep. And I’m still doing all taht walking. Some nights are still impossible and I’m still feeling a bit battered by all the noise, but it mostly works and I mostly get enough sleep to endure and sometimes I get a full night’s sleep and rejoice muchly. The big thing I worked out (the hard way, because I’m sometimes not bright) is that my body gets used to almost everything after a while, so cycling thorugh rememdies is more effective than piling them on top of each other (except for the walking and the hot baths and the magnesium – they go with anything).
December 12th, 2011 at 11:37 am
Alex – it’s kind of the opposite of a quiet village graveyard, but it’s nice. The graves are all covered in grass and plants, with trees among them, so that it’s like a park — and there are a couple of lawn areas. There’s also a nice old Javanese mosque nearby, and the call to prayer floats over the graveyard, mingling with the karaoke at night.
Gillian – not sure if I can get 5htp here, but I’ll put it on the look-for list. Have you tried earplugs? Much as I get sick of wearing them, they definitely help with night-time noise.
December 12th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
I don’t feel safe wearing earplugs – what if I can’t hear an alarm? (the price of living alone, I suspect)
I couldn’t get 5 htp in Canberra. I tried it when I was in the UK, found it helped (I got sleep in London! jetlagged!) and tried sending to NZ for it. It’s legal in Australia because it’s legal in Queensland, but not available for purchase. Or something like that. NZ pharmacies make a killing out of the loophole, because it’s cheaper in NZ than in Queensland.
December 14th, 2011 at 6:55 am
Ah, we don’t have alarms. Mostly I want to block *out* alarms, as there’s a car park behind us and cars do go off now and then.