But, isn’t the constant thrum of the dishwasher relaxing? Clothes in the dryer, not so much because I need to deal with them, but I really do like to go to sleep listening to the dish washer.
When I lived in AZ, I liked hearing the swamp cooler chugging as I went to sleep.
To me, the rumbles of appliances means that I’ve made it. I’m not living in my car anymore and I have stuff to clean my stuff.
My SO hates hearing appliances rumbling when he’s trying to sleep.
How do you folks feel about listening to repetitive noise when you are going to sleep?
I also like the sound of the dishwasher. We’ve had one for twelve years now, but I still get a little thrill from listening to dishes being washed - and not by me! I mainly find it soothing if the appliances don’t sound weird, which means that I’m frequently not soothed by their sound, but when they don’t sound like they’re about to break down, the sound can be comforting.
It depends. The forced air furnace, in the winter, not so much. It’s not that it’s especially loud, it’s that it’s not continuous. I’ve taken to turning the furnace way down at night in the winter so that it doesn’t come on at all.
I like listening to the freeway in the summer when I have the windows open. It’s about a mile away so it’s more or less white noise by the time it reaches us.
It’s comforting hearing the fridge humming away at night after everyone is in bed. I think it’s the white noise thing.
The furnace running is definitely comforting. That’s a throwback to my childhood. I have fond memories of being snug in my bed, the warm air blowing gently over me from the register.
Not sure if this really counts, but I’ve become so accustomed to the hum of the dehumidifier next to my room that it becomes somewhat unsettling when it isn’t running (well, that and also for the fact that that means the thing’s full of water).
But yes, generally I do prefer a bit of ambient noise to help me settle down or concentrate on things. Makes things feel a bit less…empty.
I hate being warm when I’m sleeping, so I love the sound and feeling of the AC kicking in. What I DON’T like is when one of the cats accidentally turns on the vacuum cleaner at 3 a.m. (At least I’m assuming it’s accidental, but you never know.)
I work in manufacturing. I’m surrounded by hundreds of machines. It’s loud enough in there that you have to turn your cell phone up to max if you want to talk on it.
You’d be surprised to know how easy it is to nod off in there listening to nothing but the hum of all those machines in unison.
When I was growing up, we had a front loader washing machine. I would sit endlessly in front of it. Watching and listening. Come to think of it we didn’t have a TV. I remember when it went of the spin cycle, we (my siblings and I) had to climb on it or it would bounce down the street. Interesting memories.
My aunt loved lying on the couch in the living room listening to the refrigerator hum in the kitchen every weekday morning after she got her 2 girls out of the house to school. But I think that had more to do with not having to fuss with them, put up with them fussing, or referee them. The house had to be very quiet for the fridge hum to carry to the living room.
And that’s what she probably liked about it the most.
I love being at home with the washer and dryer and dishwasher all running. They’re my little buddies helping me with the chores.
I also like to hear an interstate as I’m falling asleep–I grew up in a house that was about a quarter mile from one. Also, everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance, everybody thinks that’s true.
Years back when I worked 3rd shift I would run a fan in the bedroom to block out noise. To this day I can’t sleep without the hum of a fan. I have one directly next to my head on my side of the bed.
But I find other noises deeply relaxing also. The sound of the dishwasher running in the kitchen, the sound of bath water being run in the next room, etc..
I grew up 3 blocks from a freight train railroad tracks. The train went through 4 times a day, 365 days a year, including one at 3:30am. The sound of that train (no horn, just the clickity clack of it going by) was cognitive to a relaxing sleep.
On the rare occasion that the 3:30 run didn’t go through, everybody in the house woke up! I kid you not.
yeah, i get this. it’s one reason i have a hard time sleeping if the power goes out, it’s too quiet. i need to hear the air conditioner running, the fridge humming and making ice, and the fan going. i like the sound of a dishwasher, too, but i don’t currently have one.
Not quite the same, but I lived at a training kaserne in Germany, if the mortars stopped firing and it wasn’t a Sunday or holiday you knew something serious went down. You would alert to the silence.
Nowdays if the appliances are too noisy I put in earplugs, it gets on my nerves.
