It’s only been two weeks, but please bury me with these earplugs. Or cremate me with them. If I get my dream and become a tree, I’ll probably want them too. The world is loud; lights, cars, a hundred conversations at once, the static of electricity. It’s all too much. Being surrounded by nature is the only noise I’ve ever enjoyed. The extra noise we as humans put into the world is astounding. Nature deserves to be loud with all that we’ve done to it.
I was in the market for headphones for sleep. I was actually just looking for headphones that would wake me up without waking up my husband. I have a million alarms because sleep and I aren’t such good friends. It takes me ages to wake up, and I’m often incredibly grumpy. But I ended up stumbling upon Loop Earplugs. Small, simple, discrete, but they are a game-changer for me. They came in a set, a pair of day ones and a pair to sleep in.
The earplugs come in a variety of styles, each designed for different types of functions. They are just earplugs, though, no technology included. No batteries, no beeps, no charging. The pair I bought uses little inserts to change the “modes”; you pop them in or out, which takes about three seconds. I can still hear people talking around me, but it’s dulled. It isn’t like I have to listen to one hundred different conversations at once; I can almost bring my focus back to just the one if I need to.
Day Test: The Pharmacy
I haven’t tried them out much in public, just once yesterday to go to the pharmacy. While the noise was still there, it was turned down significantly. My already busy brain was not required to add the deciphering of the voices for clarity onto its already full roster. I wasn’t locking in to every voice around me the way I normally did, while I tried to distinguish them from who was talking to me. I was also able to still hear them call my name to pick up my order. So I’d count it as a win. It’s a small room that’s normally packed with tons of people waiting for their orders as well. Not my favorite place in the world, but I survived it.
Night Test: Sleep
I tried the sleep version, and I’ve slept better this week than I have in a long time. I still wake up and still get the vivid narcolepsy dreams, but the house creaks, bug songs, and 2 a.m. cat zoomies no longer drag me fully awake, so I don’t have to fight the sleep paralysis every time I fall back asleep. Or the half awake but still dreaming and not able to tell what’s real and not. Which is nice. It’s just one way to blunt the struggle that is sleep for me, so even if it’s a temporary fix, I’ll take it.
I’m sure I’ll get used to them; they’ll stop being effective. But for now, I’m going to enjoy the magic. I learned at a young age that asking for help was a sign of weakness. Now, as every day passes by, I can make small allowances for my sanity. If I need to wear earplugs to be able to tolerate the world for a little longer while everything is falling apart, then earplugs it is.
Not sponsored, just my experience.
Publication note Originally on Medium ([October 2025 ]). This is the canonical version.