external noises when trying to sleep

Quest for Lucidity
1

What do you do when you have a boyfriend (spouse, roommate, partner, etc.) who insists on watching TV in the bedroom when you’re trying to go to sleep? I am a person who falls asleep rather quickly but when I want to try a technique and concentrate on what’s going on in my mind, it’s kind of hard to ignore outside sounds like those from the TV or oftentimes, my neighbor’s kids or motorcycle.

I can’t use earplugs on weeknights because I’m afraid I won’t hear my alarm clock and I can’t afford to be late for work (and earplugs don’t drown out the TV 100%, but with my luck they would drown out the alarm clock). Is there any advice other than trying to go to bed way before he does? There are times when I try that method and he still shows up to go to bed before I fall asleep a lot of the time. I’d have to go to bed at about 7:00 p.m. (and I don’t even get home from work till about twenty after five) to truly beat him into the bedroom most nights and going to bed that early just isn’t feasible or even possible most of the time.

Is there a specific type of meditation to help tune out external sounds or some other method I can use to combat this issue? Although my boyfriend is a wonderful human being, he just refuses to alternate nights with me (TV, no TV, TV, no TV, etc.) because he says he can’t sleep without the TV (and I hate going to sleep with it)! He says he will go sleep on the couch if I really want him to, but I don’t want it to come to that…there has to be some sort of solution. :help:

2

Have you told him what you are trying to do? How long on average does it take HIM to go to sleep? Try letting him go to sleep first and then turning off the tv…

3

Is there any chance to watch TV with ear-phones, or to buy some cheap TV-set that has ear-phones plugin?

4

Not sure if this will help, but when I cannot find peace in the bedroom (whether its a TV in the next room or people talking outside) I try to incorporate that into my technique… for example: The other night I could quite clearly hear a conversation out in the hallway. Rather than focus on my breathing or counting, I paid close attention to what they were saying. This soon evolved into the beginning of my dream.

ofcourse it depends on what type of excercise you were wanting to do, but hopefully this was a little bit helpful.

5

i lived in a barracks with anywhere from 3-9 room-mates
for a year or two…
earplugs.
my alarm clock was always loud enough to wake me up. give it a try one saturday?

if all else fails, meditate… just focus on your breathing, or turn on a fan, anything that has plain white noise… and focus everything you have on that white noise. i cannot sleep without a fan on to drown out noises in the street or ambient spooky old house noises ;o)

X

6

You can always ask your boyfriend to unplug your earphones once he gets to sleep… :razz:

7

Cant’ he watch TV with audio headphones?