Thread: How silence/noise affects chance of lucidity

My condolences. I hate sleeping in a noisy environment!

On one hand, this is indeed affecting your chances of lucid dreaming because it is distracting you, but on the other hand, the noise is only a distraction because you are making it one.

If the home was perfectly silent, it would be easier in that a present distraction would not be there anymore, but other things on your mind other than sleeping or lucid dreaming could still distract you in the same way.

The noise is a distraction because it is important to you. This is because you have correlated it with decreasing your chances of sleeping and lucid dreaming. That is understandable. However, consider this: would the noise be important to you if you were not trying to sleep or lucid dream? If so, consider these reasons why, because these are also reasons why the noise is important to you, and therefore a distraction. If not, simply removing the correlation between the noise and your chances of sleeping and lucid dreaming will make the noise lose it's importance, which will make it so that it is no longer a distraction.

Just accept the noise, taking comfort in the fact it won't affect your chances of sleeping or lucid dreaming if you do not make it important.

In addition to Dolphin's excellent answer, d3nd3, you might consider masking the noise with white noise of some sort.

A steady noise that is slightly louder than the sounds you hear can help eliminate the distraction. There are plenty of white noise machines on the market, but I've found that a good fan running in the room can be enough in itself (though I use a fan and a white noise machine myself, as I am easily distracted).

~Another thing to do is get some earplugs. When I'm setting up conditions as best as I'm able (with kids in the house), I go into the spare bedroom for 2nd half of night, put in ear plugs and use an eye mask. (if using earplugs regularly good to put some olive oil in ear occasionally to prevent ear wax compression). Can be very frustrating where after a long journey back to sleep you then are awake in response to noise in the house.
Yet I agree with Dolphins thoughts. Its possible at other times to not feel at all reactive to various sounds in the environment. I know people who manage to use sounds around them as a support in sleep practices, much the same way that the breath can be a support in meditation.
I try to create the best conditions I can and then work as well as I can with what happens (which is beyond our control).
Good luck with

All valid good ideas. Here is another thing you can try. Redirect your thoughts that arise when you hear a noise. The normal process is to try and determine the kind of noise and if it effects on you. If instead you practice telling your self that the sounds are from inside a lucid dream, and make up fictitious answers to your minds probing, you may be able to benefit from the noise.
Say you hear the shower start up, do not think, "darn that is the shower, I am awake, so and so is making noise." Instead you hear the shower and fill in the idea that it is a sound coming from inside your dream. Shower starts: "oh! I must be dreaming! I can hear the sound of a waterfall. It is so vivid I must be very close to seeing it too!"

I agree. All good ideas. I've been using earplugs when I hear people moving around. I have bought both the foam kind and the silicone putty type. Ultimately the silicone putty type is more comfortable for me as the foam kind make the insides of my ear feel almost raw or something after a while. I'm living in an apartment right now so it can help. And sivason's idea is pretty great. I'd like to incorporate that myself. When I can hear things in the future I'm going to attempt to perceive the unwanted noise differently and use it to my advantage.
Also, as mentionedy by Sageous, I have been using an air filter to create some white noise. It is helpful, though the sound of it turns up in my dreams. I'll be talking to someone and hear this loud noise and only realize what it is up awakening.

Plus 1 here on the white noise thing!