Feeling Worse From Construction Noise

[Batik]

There's construction work going on near my bedroom window, 6 days a week, starting horribly early - and I'm sleeping a lot at the moment, until 11 or 12. At least, I'm trying to. Anyway, right now it's horrendous, some sort of heavy duty hammer drill noise, and it's doing my head in. I remember someone on an ME forum saying that a low dose of diazepam (Valium) could help with sensory overload. Is it worth trying here? And howndoes it work? I won't be able to use it every day, too addictive, bit it could at least get me through the worst days.

[Kellysavedbygrace]

Sorry to hear you are having to endure that stressful noise. It makes me cringe just to think about it for you.

That's a great idea. I'd try it.

Sensory overstimulation and hypersensitivity are a huge problem for me- one of my top 5 most debilitating symptoms. Hmm... Maybe I should try that sometime. I don't have Valium but I have Xanax. Imagine that would work in a similar way.

[kitt]

Batik,

Ugg...What a nightmare. I also have the extreme hypersensitivity to noise and light.

At Radio Shack they sell earphones for people who fly a lot.

I know people who swear by them, as they supposedly cut out all ambient sound. They're expensive...I think they're about 150.00

They ear covers are large but fairly flat with a band that fits over your head (hairband style).

Good luck with this.

[Dizzysillyak]

Theanine, found at most health food stores, is an alternative for Klonopin so that might work. The first time I tried it was when I'd been sleep deprived for a few weeks. I took 100 mg every 3 - 4 hrs for a couple of days and then I stopped needing it as often and only took it for sleep.

Valerian root is good too but stinks. I used to make a tea from it. Hope you feel better soon ... D

PS. I take Klonopin nowadays instead of Theanine because it works better for my myoclonus. The downside is that if I have to go up on the dose for any reason, stress, too much coffee, sudden illness, etc etc it takes me awhile to get back down to my regular dose because I feel shakey. So it definitely has addictive qualities.

[Batik]

Valerian sounds like a good compromise, I might try that on Monday. I coped today by putting on masking noise, one of those nature sounds things, but it wasn't ideal.

[Batik]

Monday, hah. They're there today, which isn't allowed. I reported it to the local council a couple of hours ago, but no joy yet. Damnit, I needed the sleep.

[Dizzysillyak]

Bummer .. I hope you can get this stopped ... FWIW, have you tried listening to some relaxing classical music while this is going on. I found out that if I listen to this type of music it occupies my thoughts so much that I can pretty much ignore everything around me. I found a relaxing classical music CD I like from Walmart dot com by googling relaxing classical music. Only the music on this cd works like this for me tho. Others were too stimulating and Kenny G was too jazzy ... tc ... d

I hope it's not a problem that I posted this here. Walmart allows you to listen to the tracks if you click on the cd.

http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/4532730/the-best-of-most-relaxing-classical-music-in-the-universe-reviews/reviews.htm

PS. I'm not a medical professional so keep that in mind. But if I were you, I'd pull out all the stops right now in order to get some sleep. For me this would mean taking a little extra melatonin, Klonopin, Theanine, Natural Calm, Benadryl, etc etc .. Not sleeping will make all my symptoms worse so I don't allow that to happen anymore.

When I complained to my doctors about this at one piont I was told not to worry abuot it. That eventually I'd sleep ... what a load of dark stuff ... lol ...

[Batik]

I've been using a nature sounds generator instead, one of the rain settings. I'm not so good at listening to music while doing something else, especially if it's music I've played (around half that CD!). If I want music, I'll go and sit down at the piano.

You're right about the sleep, it might be sleeping tablet time tonight. The problem isn't getting to sleep, though, it's the sleep I currently need in the morning. I'm on 11 hours or so at the moment, and sleeping tablets are designed around 8 hours. Plus I can only take temazepam for 3 days running, and that construction work has been going for months and will likely continue for months. It took the Council 5 hours to respond to the call, as they forgot to pass on the first two messages, and by that time the work had finished for the day anyway. Anyway, I'm already on two antihistamines, and I produce plenty of melatonin as I use darkness therapy. But you're right about sleep being crucial.

[blueskies]

I lived next door to a block of apartments going up. They took 15 months to build. And there was only about 12feet between my edroom window and the building as they built right to the boundary line. Although I'd often go into my lounge room to sleep when the noise started there were many days when because of noise sleep was impossible. Looking back I know I should have purchased good quality ear plugs (or even those ear muffs worn by workmen to protect their ears). I became even more sensitised to noise during this period and can see in hindsight how the year plus of noise still impacts my pots symptoms. I can now tolerate very little noise before coming over very potsy and foggy and confused. We couldn't move or I would have done it. We'd just bought our apartment and no tenant was going to pay to live next door to that.

I dream now of living in the country with no neighbours -- no noise and no bright lights.

[ramakentesh]

Good old sympathetic excess. Does that to you.

As dizzy said - some fine relief from valarian tea but dont mix it with caffeine as they combine and valarian can act as an inverse antagonist (or is it agonist?) of the adenosine receptor.

[Batik]

Yep, I'm going for valerian blend capsules. I have a reasonably good valerian tea, but my bladder would not be impressed if I drank it late in the evening. This morning I woke early, anxious too (bloody hormones), and there was that lovely noise again, so I took some valerian, waited a bit, then a low dose of Valium, and eventually got back to sleep. I fell asleep really early last night, odd reaction to trying d-ribose I think, and must have slept at least 14 hours in total.

Tried earplugs the other day, found they hurt my ears (never used to) and didn't reduce the sound anyway. I'm getting mixed results with the masking sound, sometimes it too makes me edgy. Maybe I'll try one of the other sounds, ocean or something.

Valerian and caffeine - what quantities are we talking about, and how close together? I sometimes have a cup of hot chocolate, no later than mid-evening.

Blue - ye gods, how awful. If you've been left with hyperacusis, have you tried white noise therapy? I got that from a hearing therapist years ago when I was having trouble with hyperacusis and tinnitus. She prescribed little in-ear white noise generators and a specific course of treatment. It worked nicely.

[looneymom]

Be careful with the valium if you decide to try it. My son was not able to walk about 48 hours afterwards. Don't want to alarm you. Medicines affect all people differently. Just be careful.

[Batik]

48 hours? Yikes. How much did he take? Thankfully I respond well to the lowest dose, 2mg, and I've used it on an occasional basis for years. It can be over-sedating if I take it with cocodamol, but I can't tolerate the latter at the moment anyway. I'm careful with it, both in terms of not using it too often and in terms of being careful about over-sedation.