How to sleep with noise: earplugs, masking sound, or both?

You wake more than you remember

When researchers record sleep in people living near roads, railways and airports, each loud event can cause a short arousal: a shift to lighter sleep or a few seconds awake, often with a jump in heart rate. Most of these are forgotten by morning. A systematic review prepared for the World Health Organization’s noise guidelines pulled together the field and surveys and found that night-time traffic noise reliably raises both awakenings and the share of people who say their sleep is disturbed. The WHO’s earlier night noise guidelines set an outdoor target of 40 decibels averaged over the night for the same reason: effects on sleep start well below what most people would call loud.

What makes a noise disruptive is less its average level than how much it stands out. A car door or a motorbike in an otherwise quiet street wakes people; the same car in steady traffic often does not. That gives you two ways to fight it.

Option 1: block it

Earplugs reduce how much sound reaches your ear. Disposable foam plugs give the largest reduction for very little money. In the US every hearing protector carries a Noise Reduction Rating, the NRR, defined by the Environmental Protection Agency and measured in a lab. Common foam plugs are rated around 29 to 33 decibels. That is a best-case figure from trained fitting, so expect less at home; the rating is still useful to compare one product with another.

Fit is everything. Roll the plug into a thin cylinder, pull the top of your ear up and back to straighten the canal, insert, and hold it for half a minute while it expands. If you can still hear your own voice loudly, it is seated well. Silicone and flanged reusable plugs are more comfortable for some people, especially side sleepers, but block less, and some use a European rating called SNR that is not on the same scale as NRR.

Earplugs are not for everyone. If you need to hear a baby, a smoke alarm or an alarm clock, a high-reduction plug can mask those too. Put the alarm on a vibrating device or use lower-rated plugs.

Option 2: mask it

A steady background sound raises the level your ears are already hearing, so a sudden noise rises less above it. In a small Italian study, playing broadband sound in a noisy room helped people fall asleep faster. A 2021 review that collected every study on continuous noise as a sleep aid judged the overall evidence to be weak, with some studies helping and some showing disruption. That fits the mechanism: masking helps when there is something to mask, and it is no help in a quiet room.

Choose a sound that doesn’t irritate you. White noise is hissy; pink and brown put more energy in the low end and sound softer, which also suits low rumbles from traffic. Keep the volume low — quiet enough to talk over — and consider a timer, so the sound covers the falling-asleep window and stops. Our guide to sleep timers explains the trade-off, and the noise colours guide goes through the spectra.

Option 3: both, plus eye cover

In a simulated intensive-care experiment, healthy volunteers slept with recorded ward noise and light. Those given earplugs and an eye mask slept better and had higher melatonin levels than those without. Hospitals are an extreme case, but the result is a reminder that noise and light often arrive together, especially in cities and on shift work.

Which one for which noise

For a snoring partner or a loud road, start with well-fitted foam plugs. For unpredictable noises like doors, footsteps and dogs, a masking sound works well, alone or with plugs. For a quiet room with an occasional disturbance, try a free app with a timer before buying a machine. When you are ready to compare devices, our white noise machine comparison sets the options side by side, and masks and earplugs covers the blocking side.

Questions people ask

Is it bad to sleep with earplugs every night?

For most people, no. Keep them clean, replace foam plugs often, and stop if your ears hurt or itch. Don't push them deep; roll, insert and let the foam expand in the outer canal. If you get ear pain or discharge, see a doctor.

What does NRR 33 mean?

It is the Noise Reduction Rating printed on US hearing protectors, measured in a lab under ideal fitting. Real-world reduction is usually lower because nobody fits plugs perfectly at 1 am, so use the number to compare products, not a promise.

White noise or earplugs for snoring?

Snoring is loud and low-pitched, which is hard to mask without playing sound loudly. Well-fitted foam earplugs usually do more. Some people combine plugs with a quiet fan for the sounds that leak through.

Can noise wake me without me knowing?

Yes. Studies that record brain activity find noise events cause short arousals and changes in sleep stage that people do not remember in the morning. They show up instead as feeling less rested.