Yeah, tinnitus.

Oh man no. Not like that. White noise or nature sounds is great. One thing is I run a fan often in the summers and it is a bit annoying to adjust to not having it but its not so big a deal I feel I have to use it. Its like a treat for myself to put on some nature sounds but I rarely do it. I love having a fire with ocean rains and a light storm combined. Im actually sorta the opposite of you. Sounds that actually have engaging audio drive me nuts and its kina worse the lower it gets. The most annoying thing is to have this sound of a show or voices that is just barely loud enough that I can hear them and its keeping me from actually sleeping. Have had to remind my wife a bunch to put on her headphones as she always thinks she can just lower the volume and it will be fine. But the lower volume is as I said. Worse.

I live in a city, of course there’s noise, mostly road noise from cars going past tbh

I have sleep with me podcast

I’ve had some success with binaural beats. It’s two pure sin wave tones - one in each ear. The tones are out of tune with each other so it has a bit of a wavy or pulsing sound. But they’re close enough to sound like one note and not two. Apparently the difference between these two waves gets entrained into your brain waves even though you can’t hear it. My favorites are 94 hz carrying a 3 hz differential, 96 hz carrying a 4hz differential, and 115 hz carrying a 5 hz differential. I’m using an app called Binaural Beat Gen by TMSOFT. Anyway the very low brain waves are delta waves associated with deep sleep. In a way, it’s hacking your brain to sleep.

White noise. I cant stand random volume changes, otherwise I wouldn’t mind soft music. I also cant stand the sound of my own breathing, so silence isnt an option.

I’d prefer to sleep in total silence, but since that’s not an option where I currently live, I have a white noise machine.

I have the TV on in the other room while falling asleep. I live alone, so nobody is bothered by it

I used a fan for almost three decades. About a year ago, I fell asleep without my fan accidentally and I have not slept with one since. #JustTinnitusThings

It takes practice, like anything else. Doing something makes you better at something and not doing something will make you worse at it. In this case you have been conditioning your brain to need ambient noise. There is a line between it being a small help on some days and it being a crutch you’ve built your life around. Sounds lile you are in the latter camp.

Before I got married, I always put some snoozefest video to fall asleep to. Now I fall asleep by itself. Frankly, I am not even close to my wife who falls asleep in 5 minutes if she leaves her phone alone. But 10 to 15 mins is guaranteed for me.

It took practice too. After I stopped doing it, sometimes it would take me more than half an hour to fall asleep. Especially if something is bothering me. Overtime I have developed ways to take my mind off these thoughs by focusing on music or sounds around me.

Yes.

There’s a retirement village nearby, and EVERY MORNING around 4 o’clock, some motherfucker with a huge rubbish truck goes in.

The driver parks.

The driver walks over to the large industrial bin.

The driver opens the lid to see if it’s worth putting the contents in the truck. If it is, he lets the lid SLAM down, then pushes the rusty metal bin over the bitumen road towards his truck GRRRRNNNNNNNTTTT (because the wheels on those things never work).

He then gets back in his truck, does the little garbo magic with the mechanical arm thing, the truck lifts the bin, and he bangs it against the top of the truck receptacle a few times for shiggles BANG BANG BANGGGG, then moves the mechanical arms to place it back down on the bitumen with a gentle kiss BANG!

He then gets out of his truck, and pushes the now empty industrial bin over to where it was GGNNNNNNKKKKTTTTTT and positions it gently against the brick wall there BANG!

He then gets back in his truck, and reverses out the driveway DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT, and finally fucks off.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of people live there. If I can hear that truck as a neighbour, how much worse must it be for the oldies trying to sleep there?

Give me the sound of rain or white noise or give me death!

Yes I use a fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMfPqeZjc2c

For the past two years. Without it, I have intrusive thoughts and anxiety. The sound makes me able to dream and to remember my dreams. I feel protected. Like I was in a bubble, sheltered from reality.