Noise Reduction

Blarghy

My apartment building is currently undergoing some significant foundation repair, which I'm told will entail several weeks of heavy jackhammering and has been starting as early as 8am. This is a problem for me, since I work nights and it is rather hard to sleep through the noise. I've tried to block out the noise with disposable ear plugs, but they were not quite effective enough (though a definite help).

So, would anyone have any suggestions for any more effective noise reduction strategies? The only alternative is for me to spend a couple weeks sleeping elsewhere, so I'm willing to drop a few hundred bucks on whatever would work.

Shogun

http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/shop_online/headphones/noise_cancelling_headphones/quietcomfort_3/index.jsp

I used these for a 14 hour flight to Japan when I was seated basically right next to the engine. I slept effortlessly.
The only problem I foresee is sleeping on your side. They are also quite costly but so worth it.

matt has a problem

There are different grades of earplugs, I believe the highest is 33, they block the most noise. They're usually "construction quality" or something of the sort. Aside from those though, like Shogun said, your best bet would be noise canceling headphones, but those will make sleeping on your side difficult.

You could always try a combination of a white noise generator + earplugs, too.

AtomBomb

I think noise-cancelling headphones are tuned for droning sounds, like jet engines. I don't think they would work very well with jackhammers and truck backup alarms and stuff like that. You could try adding over the ear hearing protection (looks like can headphones) with earplugs. You'd have the same issues sleeping on your side and whatnot, but I think that would work better. Way cheaper, too.

iRevert

What is your budget (Beyond a few hundred..so 2-300, or 4-500)?

Also how is your timing, is it such that you need an alarm clock or will you wake up in time without one?

EDIT:

Whats the NRR on your current ear plugs? If they aren't 33NRR I'd look into picking up a pair of Hearos 33NRR from walgreens and giving them a shot, or better yet a pair of Peltor Blast plugs (again 33NRR) and then if that isn't quite enough pairing them with a pair of Howard Ear Muffs, low pro and non electronic.

I'd mainly check and see what the NRR is on your current plugs and if its a 33 then move onto the next step of pairing them with earmuffs, or if they aren't stepping up to a pair of 33NRR plugs.

Kate of Lokys

When I used to work nights, I didn't have actual jackhammering to deal with, but I was renting a single room in a very small house shared by half a dozen college students at the corner of a reasonably busy intersection, so I understand something of the difficulty involved in getting a good day's sleep.

One thing that made a big difference for me was taking some steps to prevent sound from getting in at all. I was a dirt-poor coffee shop worker, so in my case, that consisted mostly of covering the window with a few layers of towels - it doesn't sound like much, but it made a big difference. (The reduction in light was a pretty nice side effect, too). If you have a bit more money to spend, or if you're unhoopy enough to have insufficient towels, you could just buy a couple of sheets of proper acoustic foam.

Also, it may sound like a dumb cliche, but sleeping on your side with a pillow over your head really does work, especially if combined with earplugs - or, better still, with tightly-fitting earbuds attached to an MP3 or CD player piping out something you can fall asleep to. Instrumentals are great because your mind doesn't get worked up trying to follow lyrics, and you can find them in just about any genre from baroque to metal.

OnTheLastCastle

I've found that with earplugs, they're a lot more effective if you sleep such that they don't touch the pillow which picks up the vibrations in the walls/floor from a thing like jackhammering. This would mean sleeping on your back, basically.

A fan and earplugs solves almost all noise problems in my book. The best I've found have been these rather normal looking purple ones, they're not ridged or anything just straight and about an inch long. I will look at the brand when I got home but I've found them in pharmacies and wal-mart type stores all my adult life in the midwest.

illig

You can actually buy the ear muffs that jackhammer operators use. If they're rated by OSHA to be worn right on top of a jackhammer, they may sufficiently block noise for you to get some sleep. They're fairly inexpensive too. Another option would be to look for shooting earmuffs.

Fizban140

I use to be in the air force, worked around running jet engines all day and then when I went to sleep my room was right next to the runway, my room shook from the take offs. Anyways there isn't any easy way, you just have to get use to it and that can take some time. Earplugs will help a little but ear defenders and foam earplugs still won't block it all out, and will be very uncomfortable. I couldn't get use to sleeping with them in and I was use to wearing them for hours at a time. I mean we use to wear foamies and ear defenders over that and we could still talk to eachother, and this was fairly high grade stuff.