Ear... that is.
(By the way, I still haven't forgiven whichever one of my brothers called me in from outside and made me watch that scene from that Star Trek movie with KHAAAAAAAAN and the thing I will not even mention here but YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT and NO THANK YOU!)
I don't know if I've mentioned but I've started working with a new psychologist as mine is retiring. This new person has some great insight and ideas and I feel like things are shifting with his support, which is great.
Last time, we talked about me not doing well with heat and how I haven't managed to sleep with fans on and that I sometimes have to turn my fans etc off in the evenings as I've had the noise going on for too long and I need a break.
He explained that lots of times when systems are overwhelmed, especially if chronically, like mine, they are extremely easily irritated by things like noise and have a greatly reduced ability to tolerate things like heat. (Add this to my understanding of thyroid issues and bodies and temperature, plus bodies aging, plus the climate just... well, let's not go there right now, ok?)
He said he felt it was quite important for me to be able to have a calm space and to feel as cool as possible in there and to cool my body down by whatever means - cold shower, etc.
He talked about using earplugs to help with the fan noise and so I did a little bit of research and spent the most money I've ever spent to buy some apparently really good at knocking down certain types of noise earplugs. (In ear, not over the head - I find them too heavy.)
At some point last week I popped those earplugs in after a couple of hours of fan noise started to bug me (box fans are noisy y'all but man they move air!)
First thing I noticed, other than yes, the dampening of that particular noise, was that I could now really really hear ALL of my sort of... own noises? Like... breathing, or swallowing, or whatever one does and usually can ignore. I googled and it's called the "occlusion effect" if you feel like getting Sciencey!
I put on a show (on my laptop) and that was enough to distract me from the fact I breathe! And yes, I could still hear the show but not the fans. That's part of the design and part of the "beyond me" smart science stuff. Sound frequencies or something.
So here's the weird part. There were other noises I did NOT expect to be amplified by wearing these earplugs. Like me walking. No, seriously. I got up to go to the bathroom and the noise of my slippers walking on the floor was SO loud I actually took my earplugs out to see if I was possibly stomping? But nope, just a weird sort of echo I guess. I do hope it's not that loud for my below neighbours though... that was a weird one.
Oh and as a warning, if you half forget you're wearing the earplugs and go to brush your teeth with your electric toothbrush? Yeah, you're going to have to stop that real quick like! Now THAT was loud holy smokes.
I have wax (I think?) earplugs that I use camping or if I need to sleep with someone else in the room/bed, and as I type that out I'm not sure why I haven't tried them for this? Other than disposable maybe? Or because of whatever the results of my research said? I do like the wax ones, maybe I'll try them, dunno....
I did try sleeping with the fan going and earplugs in and I'm maybe trying to condition myself to get more used to it, but the variation in the blowing of the air kept me just awake enough I wasn't able to quite relax. Which is funny because windy nights with gusts of wind and an open window don't seem to bother me.
I'll maybe try a few more adjustments on the warmer nights to see if I can fall asleep with a fan on, but so far, these earplugs have helped me at least one day, even if I did nearly fall over when I tried to brush my teeth!
So, yeah, working on both cooling and calming my system and myself.
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