Related Articles

Related Conditions

Sleepless in the city (and the country)

Beau Derbes lies in his bed, trying to fall asleep. The room is dark aside from a thin strip of light sneaking past the blinds. His eyes are slowly getting heavy, and he feels himself begin to float away when, out of the darkness comes a terrible squealing sound.
Skkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Skkkkeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwww
A car with bad brakes.
He’s awake now, and as he continues to toss and turn trying once again to fall asleep, he can’t help but think, “Why did I move to this city?”
Derbes, a recent graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans, doesn’t have a diagnosable sleep disorder.
His problem: he’s a city sleeper.
“You have sirens and cars with loud bass and then there’s the constant light from the street,” Derbes said. “Of course it’s going to affect me a little bit.”
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, nearly 80 percent of U.S. citizens live in urban areas. Derbes, 23, has lived in downtown New Orleans for the past five years, though he was forced to relocate to Nashville, Tenn. for several months following Hurricane Katrina.
Large cities have the challenge of keeping environmental and noise pollution out of residential areas, said Eric Damian Kelly, PhD and professor of urban planning at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.
“A major purpose of zoning has always been to separate incompatible uses,” Kelly said. “A well-conceived modern plan will typically try to separate industrial operations with lots of truck traffic by a significant distance from residences.”
“Unfortunately, as we all know, air does not do much to buffer or attenuate sound,” he added.
To combat this, many communities require raised areas of packed dirt called berms, which bounce sound back and upwards, along the borders of noisy areas. The U.S. DOT has provided funding for many sound walls along major urban freeways to muffle the noise, Kelly said.
Unfortunately, there are no berms to quieten the noise of living in a port city known for its nightlife. That poses unique problems each night for Derbes, who lives several bocks from a popular bar district and several blocks from the Mississippi River.
“The docks can get really loud at night,” he said. “You’ll hear big steamers with horns, the loading and unloading of the crates and the working of the crane which makes an eerie ambient noise.”
Then there are the party people.
“Every night I hear tons of drunk people screaming,” Derbes said. “If they’re not yelling, I hear them going to the bathroom right outside my window.”
“I’ve tried to just meditate on it but it’s still a hindrance,” he said jokingly.
Like many others, Derbes said he needs as little sound and light as possible to sleep well, though he knows there are exceptions to the rule.
“There are some people who listen to those CDs of street noise instead of listening to waves and crickets.”
Alex Standridge, 26, of Nashville, Tenn. is one of those people.
“It’s too damn quiet and too dark in the country for me,” he said.
“For me, I honestly prefer living in the city because you get more white noise and that helps me sleep.”
Standridge, a father of two, is used to sleepless nights, though since moving to Nashville from rural Arkansas several years ago, they’ve been fewer and farther between.
“Unless I was right by the railroad tracks, I can’t imagine having a hard time sleeping in the city,” Standridge said.
“In the country it’s the lack of noise that most people notice. You can hear people coming from miles away.”
And that,” he said, “is kind of creepy.”
**
Here are some ways you can cut down on city lights and noise when you’re trying to sleep:

• A White Noise Machine—The sounds on these machines can vary between natural sounds, rushing air and yes, even city traffic. Prices range from $15 for a discount machine to $300 for a top of the line machine.
  
• Ear Plugs—From the industrial ear plugs you’d wear at a rock concert to one-time-use foam rubber plugs, there’s enough variety to accommodate even the person who sleeps next to the railroad tracks. Prices vary between $5 and $100, with the cheaper models available at most drugs stores.
  
• Sleep Mask—Masks come in a variety of colors and textures. They range from $5 to $25, and because most block out 100 percent of light, you can use them to nap during the day.
  
• Light Blocking Curtains or Drapes—Made of heavy fabrics, light blocking curtains or drapes prevent unwanted light from waking you up. Depending on the material, curtains cost between $50 and $200, though premium drapes can cost much more.

Original content created for Isleptgreat.com
Eric Damian Kelly, PhD and professor of urban planning at Ball State University in Muncie Ind.
Beau Derbes, New Orleans resident
Alex Standridge, Antioch, Tenn. Resident
USDOT http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census/cps2k.htm