Noise reducing earphones and earplugs

[Benzi]

Hi 

Does anyone have experience with using either of these? Particularly earplugs. My CPAP disturbs my wife's sleep, and we haven't found any comfortable earplugs. We've tried both the foam type and wax; neither is comfortable to sleep with a whole night.

Thanks!

[legrunt]

Do you have a bedside cabinet?  What I did was to cut a hole in the side for the tube, cut a hole in the back for power, and place the entire CPAP setup inside the cabinet.  It is totally silent.  

Accessing the machine just requires opening a drawer.  After the evening setup is done (water, power, etc) the only time I would need to access the machine is to turn it off, as it auto starts as soon as I start breathing into the mask. Well, it auto stops too, but only after a couple of seconds of air pressure blowing free, which, if I need to get up to pee in the middle of the night, would be sure to wake my wife up. So I just pull the drawer open and hit the button just before removing my mask.

I could jerry rig a small pusher rod to the top of the cabinet to do just that though... hmmm... might do that over next weekend.

On top of that, I'm using the resmed F20 FFM with the quietair elbow, in my experience, the quietest mask in existence.

[S. Manz]

Resmed S9 is a fairly old model and noisy too. The newer 10 series however barely make any noise at all. They are so quite that I can't even hear anything while wearing a frame type mask that passes by my ears.
That said, it is very difficult for anyone to sleep with something stuck in their ears because not only it is uncomfortable, it also interferes with free movement of air in and out of the ear canal and puts pressure on ear drums.
That said, my suggestion is to try and upgrade your S9 to a 10 series first, but if that is too much of a cost burden or your insurance company will not work with you on it, then you can look into some higher end noise-cancelling ear buds (called EAR MONITORS), but these are also very expensive and some that stage musicians use can run into a few thousands of dollars for a pair.
This being said and the fact that Amazon offers a a great return policy for their Prime members, you might want to look into "noise cancelling ear monitors" 
 under $1,000. You should be able to find a good set at around $400 and try...If it doesn't work, you have 30 days to return .
High end ear monitors are designed for free movement of air in the ear canal and their miniature circuitry includes "active noise cancelling" provisions, so they are really comfortable to wear.
Good luck.

[blancobonzo]

Hey. I have really sensitive hearing and can’t fall asleep with noise in the background. I use Mack’s earplugs on Amazon and couldn’t hear the autoset at all with them, as well as most other noises. They’re really cheap and you can reuse them. They also have special sizes for small ear canals. I used the s10, however; but they should still work as they can cancel out footsteps and most levels of loud conversation.

[Benzi]

Thanks all for responding.
The S9 isn't the problem: 
I have 2 sources of noise: the elbow of the p30i (when it comes close to my pillow - really bothers my wife as well as me) and the noise from traffic (I live next to a freeway). I also sometimes use a P10 - less comfortable but quieter, no elbow.
I took advice a while back from users on this forum and placed the S9 inside a drawer - that solved the machine noise. 
I'm trying to avoid getting a  new mask which takes getting used to. I think the solution will be to use the P10 with some comfortable ear plugs. Returning them if they don't work for me is not really relevant as the overseas shipping makes it difficult (and expensive) to return anything during the trial period. Amazon doesn't include overseas customers in Prime shipping benefits.

[legrunt]

Aiks... Traffic... Not much you can do about that besides the ear route... Sorry. Wish there was more I could help you with.

[Homerec130]

I have always had good luck with the foam ear plugs. When I was flying used to wear them for 12 to 16 hours at a time under my headset. These were the basic, yellow, foam GI issued ones (not associated with the current suit) and I found them quite comfortable. They were far better than the custom made ones I had. (Got those when my ears were poured for my light weight in the hear headset.) Have slept with the foam ones quite a bit without any issues other than not being able to hear the alarm go off.

[plakky]

Obviously you're looking for something to block out ALL noise, but if your wife can't find comfortable sound-isolating earplugs that she's willing to wear every night, I'd suggest trying a white noise machine, which can be very soothing and relaxing.  I use one nightly that produces strictly fan sounds (no ocean waves, bird tweets, etc. for me when I'm trying to sleep) just a choice of about ten various types of fan sounds from fairly harsh industrial to quieter oscillating room fan sounds.  I actually have two versions, a "micro" one I turn on every night and is great for travel, and a second larger one by the same company (LectroFan on Amazon) that I can plug earbuds into if I need to screen out my husband's snoring and other harsher sounds.

One continuous smooth sound can be a lot easier to sleep through than intermittent, unexpected sounds, so it might be worth a try.

[CorruptAlligator]

I can't think of anything better than foam earplugs. I think Howard Leight laser lite are good earplugs to try. Bose has those earphone white noise thing that can mask the outside noise that has random bursts. They are called Bose Sleepbuds. If you sidesleep, earphones that sticks out is too intrusive and cause pain/discomfort. There are earphones that doesn't stick out, and play white noise out of a phone (couple apps I use, Relief, and White Noise). Amazon has Maxrock sleep earbuds that doesn't stick out.

[Deborah K.]

I run a cool-mist humidifier beside my bed. I need it because it's dry here in Colorado, but the white noise is nice too.