Adjusting to Urbania

I love trees, forests, nature. Captain Obvious here…

So why have I altered my life so much in the past couple weeks? It’s kinda remarkable when I ponder it, so I tend not to, but I am back to a split life, dual existence. My rent works, it’s not ideal, but what is should we deeply scrutinize it all? It’s a heap load better than the wircus, toxic summer.

Sleeping in an urban environment is challenging for me, I’ve lived in remote and quiet places for most of my life. Some quieter than others, but practically never lived in cities (and not for long when…). The neighborhood I live in is safe and quiet, by city standards. It ain’t the woods though, and thus a variety or clamor and ruckus occurs, disrupting my tender slumber.

I don’t want to become a “fan sleeper” where I need the white noise where ever I am. No judgement on the many that utilize sleep aides, what matters is quality sleep!!

I did some research about white noise makers, didn’t want to buy some stand alone plug in thing (working on less stuff, PLEASE!) so apps were a natural avenue to delve into. Some emulate fans, the AC rumbling, different “colors” of tones (literally, didn’t research that much, thus the quotation marks) and all sorts of stuff. Some apps are quite expensive, needing subscriptions to unlock full features etc.

I found an app called, ironically, White Noise, here’s a quick visual

Not dissing the apps I’ll be deleting after this post, they do other things I don’t need. It’s wonderful to have access to such things, I love that folks are listening to guided mediations to relax, that sorta thing, not my needs.

White Noise, the app, is anything but! It’s a collection of sounds, sure; fans, washing machines, the AC, plenty of “white noise” available, but what I’m having an absolute ball fiddling with, is the “market” (a separate app, more like “open code community”) and the overwhelmingly marvelous access to natural sounds. The app even pins the locations of the sounds captured, across the globe! To emulate some “natural silence” I’ve created a mix of three sounds, and then set it up like so

The app lets users “place” sounds in the field. This is more a headphones thing, or earbuds as those are more popular these days. Spacial audio does some cool voodoo, you can place sounds in the field around you, some systems even on a three dimensional level. We are way past “left versus right” (politics take note!!!) but my simple system plays simply.

I have little speakers on either side of the head of the bed, and as I climb into bed, softly play this mix. Amazon Rainforest Stream on one side, frogs on the other, and running river running right down the middle. When I move around on the bed, I get a little more of this, less of that, and the inverse on the other side, it’s really cool, and though “artificial”, feels very natural, and helps soften the urban edge.

I’ll do more research in time, about exposure to sound while sleeping etc, but for now, while sleeping on Somerset St in between FXE shifts, it’s a win!!!