Q is for Quiet
One thing I love about cooler weather is that we sleep with our windows closed at night. Our bedroom is on the second floor, and faces the full afternoon sun, so in summertime it can be pretty warm. We don’t like to sleep with the air conditioner on (our electricity bill is high enough without doing that!), so if it’s cool outside, we sleep with the window open. I love the delicious feel of the cool air when I’m sleeping, but boy, it gets loud. We live in a pretty busy part of our suburb. You can hear the freeway noise, plus the noise from the busy road nearby, and then there is the noise of people in the apartment parking lot nearby. It’s a lot. Mostly I put my head under the pillow to block it out, but it’s not as restful as having the windows closed would be.
From about mid-October to about mid-April, however, it is cool enough that we don’t need the window open, we can close the blinds up tight, and let me tell you, it is DELICIOUS to sleep in a quiet, dark room.
Do you sleep better in winter or summer? Do you like to sleep with your windows open? Does the outside noise ever disrupt your sleep?
28 Comments
Suzanne
I love sleeping with the windows open! It’s so refreshing! But I am a very light sleeper so the smallest sound will wake me up.
J
It’s a connundrum for sure. I love the feel of the cool air, but the noise wakes me up. Bah, humbug!
Ally Bean
I sleep better when it is cool [cold even] in the room, so it can be in the winter with the windows slightly ajar or in the summer with the AC cranked down. Noises that I cannot identify keep me awake, but noises like dogs or the cars on the nearby highway or neighbors coming and going don’t wake me.
J
I used to be able to sleep through these things, too, and always preferred sleeping with the window open. As I get older I don’t sleep as well, which is frustrating!
Elisabeth
I think I sleep better in the winter (dark and cooler), but I do find it hard to get up in the mornings because even with the heat on our house is pretty chilly in the winter.
I don’t consider myself a very sound sleeper. Sigh. But I use a white noise machine which helps some. When the kids were little they had box fans in their rooms and I couldn’t hear a THING over those. It was the perfect white noise, but now I just have a little machine. It signals “sleep” for me, but doesn’t necessarily block all the noise. If one of the kids gets up and isn’t feeling good I always hear them.
J
We use white noise as well, which I like as long as it is really low. Otherwise it wakes me up.
Being a morning person, I like the dark mornings because I’m able to sleep in a little later. It’s hard for me to sleep when it’s light outside.
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
We always sleep with our windows shut. We have really good insulation in our house, so it’s pretty comfortable year round. And we live in a quiet neighborhood.
Noise is my #1 complaint about the Airbnbs that I’ve stayed in. The places are always really nice, but I feel like they always have thin walls/bad windows/are located right next to the freeway/etc.
J
Interesting…I haven’t had this problem with Airbnb, but perhaps that all perspective. It’s so loud around here, the places we have stayed seem very quiet.
nance
In our neighbourhood, houses are only a driveway’s width apart. Backyards are small, only six or eight steps until the property line, then another six or eight and there’s the neighbour’s home. I’m lucky to live in a relatively quiet neighbourhood, but if someone is having a party or cookout, or if someone is playing music outdoors (or loudly indoors), we all hear it.
I love fresh air, but you’re right–it lets in a lot of noise, and I have to get used to outdoor noise all over again when spring arrives. Lawnmowing can drown out the television. The garbage trucks waken me. Birds in the spring is a noise I have to reacclimate to every year. (So worth it!)
I like sleeping with windows open whenever I can. Even though I’m always cold, I like a cold room at night. Bundling up in covers is cozy, and I sleep much better. I close the heat vent in the bedroom during the winter.
J
I love a cold room, cozy under the covers, dark and quiet. So nice!
Meike
I sleep like a log, no matter open or closed windows or noise. When I sleep I sleep. I do like the windows opne and unless it’s raining the weather is good enough all year where we are. Depending on where the wind comes from we get noise from the freeway and the traintracks and it really bugs my husband. I am always surprised how much difference a little wind can make.
J
Oh goodness, I used to sleep like that. Sigh. Sounds like heaven.
Margaret
I live in a very quiet cul-de-sac so I usually have my window a little open; I love the fresh air and coolness! I sleep so much better in the fall/winter when it’s dark and cooler. Even with a heat pump, summer is hard for me. Too much light late at night too, even with a black out blind.
J
Margaret, we’ve been considering a heat pump. I’m not sure how well they handle the heat when it gets above 100 outside.
Ernie
We sleep with the windows open when the weather is warm or a little cool. We avoid the AC as much as possible. I don’t like the birds waking me up. We sleep with a noise maker that gives us white noise all year long. That way the kids coming home and going out with friends late doesn’t keep me up. Coach usually manages to hear them come and go. I’d rather sleep and find out who stayed out too late the next day. 😉
J
Oh goodness, I can never sleep when my daughter is out late. Pathetic, I know. I’d rather have your ability.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
I am hear for all the quiet moments. I am struggling alot with noise. And I am sleeping always with my oropax to get some sort of sleep. There are certain times and places where I can sleep without oropax but they are rare.
I like to sleep with the window open but the husband doesnt for various. reasons. I usually open the window before I go to bed and sometimes leave it open and the husband closes it. when he comes to bed.
I think queitness is something we are missing in. this world. I feel like people today can’t sit in quietness. Always a phone call, came or music.
J
I love quiet too, often I work with it silent, though sometimes I like to have the radio on to NPR or music. I will confess that when I take my walks, I don’t really enjoy the quiet. I like to listen to a book mostly, sometimes a podcast.
San
I love sleeping with the window open. I think I had my bedroom window open almost all summer. Now it’s getting too cold at night to do that though.
J
I love it too, except that it gets too loud sometimes!
Jenny
Well, we have to run the AC pretty much year-round. On the nights it’s actually cool enough to turn it off, it’s a HUGE treat. But then, I agree with you- it is noisy. We don’t live on a busy street or anything, but it’s noisy enough. It’s kind of a relief to close the windows, turn the AC back on, and sleep in a cool, dark cave.
J
I love the cool dark cave! The perfect place to sleep.
Daria
I love a cool, dark, and quiet room!! I also love open windows, even if it’s just a crack, to let in fresh air and let out stale air. My husband, T, is of different opinion but over the years he came to appreciate open windows lol
J
A cool, dark, quiet room with an open window is PERFECT. The closest we get is when we leave the side window open, which brings in a bit of fresh air, but it’s still dark and quiet. I guess our main problem is that our bed is RIGH under the window, and we have so much furniture in our room that there’s no other place for it.
Melissa
I always sleep with the windows open. We insisted our apartment be built with fly screens for that reason. Even in winter I tend to wake up overheated if I don’t have the window just a little bit open. I’ve really struggled while we travel with places that either you can’t open the windows and/or they are so hot and there’s not way to turn down the heating.
J
Thankfully we have screens on our windows, so we don’t have bug issues. It’s the noise that bothers me. Sigh.
Stephany
I love having the windows open, but I get a little paranoid about the cats and them somehow busting through the screen in the middle of the night. LOL. So I rarely keep the windows open at night, even though I have very cautious cats and I don’t think that would happen?!?!
J
Stephany, what if you just crack it open to get the fresh air, but not wide enough for them to do anything?