It’s been a rough week. I was surprised on Monday by some exciting new overnight construction work, happening right outside my window. Here’s an announcement about it, on the Somerville web site, and here’s a page with some more information. The work is supposed to be happening overnight, from 8 pm to 5 am, and might continue through to the end of March.
I’m truly hoping that this isn’t going to be going on every night between now and March 31, but I’m honestly not sure. The last time they did something like this, it was emergency work, and they got it done in less than a week. But this seems like it might be a much longer project.
I’ve been spending a lot of time this week trying to get my head around this, and figure out how to deal with it. So far, I’ve been through four nights of it, and it’s been pretty bad.
For now, I’m looking at various options for plugging up my ears and blocking out the noise. I’ve got some old earplugs, that I’ve used in the past, and I’ve been using those this week.
I’ve got some Leight Plugs, like these ones, that I’ve had for a long time. (I think I found them in my parents’ bathroom when I was clearing out their house.) They don’t really work for me. Too small. And I have some Flents Quiet Please earplugs, which I’ve also had for a long time. I bought those myself, and have used them in the past. They work OK for me, but they’re not perfect. (And apparently they no longer make the ones I have. They make something similar, but it’s not quite the same design.)
So I’ve been shopping around, looking at other options. I ordered a couple of things from Amazon, and they arrived yesterday. First, I got some Macks silicone earplugs. I haven’t tried them yet. The silicone earplugs are a bit different from the foam ones. With the foam ones, you compress them a bit, put them in your ear, then let them expand. With the silicone ones, you roll them into a ball, push them into your ear, then mold them to fit. (I think.) I’m curious to see if they work better than the foam ones.
I also bought these Alpine SleepDeep earplugs. They’re reusable plastic earplugs. I tried the M/L size last night. I got a good fit in my left ear (which is the mostly deaf ear), but a not-so-good fit in my right ear. I had to push it in maybe a bit too far to get it to stay in, and I woke up with maybe a little wax issue this morning? I might try again tonight. Or try the small one in my right ear. Or maybe just give up on them for now, and go back to the Flents foam ones for now.
And of course I’ve looked at other options. Happy Ears look kind of interesting. But they also look like they’re maybe a gimmick.
And there are some high-tech options. I remember reading about the Bose Sleepbuds some time ago, and being interested in them. Bose discontinued them, but the rights to the product got sold off and they’re now sold as Ozlo Sleepbuds. I’m curious, but maybe not curious enough to spend $275 on them. The Anker Soundcore A30 earbuds are similar. They sell for $200 on Amazon. (Here’s an article from ZDNet that covers both these and the Ozlo Sleepbuds.)
I wouldn’t mind trying out either of these high-tech solutions, but I feel like I should give the low-tech options a fair chance first. And I feel like maybe just sticking a wad of putty or foam in your ears might be a better solution for loud construction noise than high-tech earbuds. Those might be better for masking/minimizing sounds that aren’t quite at the “jackhammer outside my window” level.
I guess I’m just going to experiment with a few options for the upcoming week and try to figure out what works best for me. I’m really worried that the next couple of months might be a bit of an ordeal.