Quiet Hours
Notes on sound, sleep and slow evenings
Gear

Headphones or a speaker for falling asleep

Both work. One of them is a lot easier to live with at three in the morning.

Headphones give you detail and a sense of closeness that a speaker cannot match, which is why most people start there. The problem arrives when you roll over, or when the cable finds your neck.

A small speaker at low volume, placed away from the bed, loses the intimacy but gains everything else: nothing to take out, nothing to charge, nothing to wake you at three when the battery dies with a beep.

If you stay with headphones, look for flat, soft ones made for sleeping rather than good-sounding ones made for music. Comfort beats fidelity once your eyes are closed.

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