Problem: I’m being driven mad by voices speaking to me thru white noise. Need white noise to sleep
Psychiatrist today suggested:
- normal human speech has typical rhythm, cadence
- fans, white noise audio files are always looped, rhythms in it
- brain is hearing those patterns as human voices
- I need to introduce staggered rhythms to disrupt
Possibilities:
- Willie Nelson, William Shatner speak with atypical cadence. Play at same time as white noise
- phone app that vibrates atypically
- machine in room that generates atypical rhythms, vibrations
Options, ideas? I’d like not to go further insane
Do you find the sound of rain and distant thunder relaxing? If so there are plenty of recordings on YouTube and YT music that are hours long and not loops. Search for keywords with “rain forest”.
Ocean sounds don’t exactly have a specific rhythm, and are a popular white noise that people have used to go to sleep.
Idk about staggered cadence, as that kinda sounds like overengineering a solution to me. But when I’m having trouble sleeping because of thoughts racing in my head (AuDHD, common problem for me), any audio with human speech is pretty good at disrupting that. My go-to is softly spoken ASMR videos, but I’ve also fallen asleep watching chill cartoons like Futurama and 90s Batman. I’ve also had it work with audiobooks but this is suboptimal because then I lose my place.
My theory is that it works because my thoughts are like a voice in my head being spoken by my internal dialogue, and it’s hard to hear two people talking over eachother. So introducing another voice occupies the language-processing part of my brain and therefore blocks my ruminating thoughts.
So far, new ideas are Buddhist podcasts, asmr videos, futurama and 90s batman. None of which I’d consider on my own. Thank you, internet, for randomly specific variety!
Documentaries. I used to play How Stuff Works at bed time.
Audiobooks, especially text-to-speech ones. I use Pocketbook to read novels to me.
Physical activity. Something strenuous enough to physically exhaust myself once or twice a week makes it a lot easier to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Dunno about staggered cadence but when I’ve been hearing voices I’ve found listening to very boring Buddhist dharma talks on podcast to help. They block out the voices and the dull, drone of the bikkhu lulls me to sleep.
Worth a try?
