Sleep headphones recs for me? Or literally anything else to block out noise?

I have to share a room at my university for the following year. I ideally would get accommodations for a single room based on my sensory sensitivities to sound caused by my autism but my school is terrible at accommodating disabled students. All the single rooms for the coming year are filled.

They prioritize all housing (including singles) based on first come, first serve. I’m an incoming transfer student, so I got screwed over this year. I’m scared my roommate will be one of those people that studies in the room late at night and refuses to study somewhere else if it’s past 10pm (there are multiple study rooms and lounges in the building in addition to the common areas in our apartment).

Even light typing is enough to prevent me from sleeping. I’ve used earbuds before, but I’m scared I’ll have to turn the volume up to a level that hurts my ears to block out noise. This causes tinnitus and ear pain. I am also considering asking my roommate if she would be ok with me playing calming sleep music from YouTube on my phone while I sleep without headphones (I’d ensure the music would be hours long and would be ad-free).

I’ve used earplugs. They’re either uncomfortable or they don’t fully block out noise.

Posted Apr 28, 2026, 7:05 PM UTC

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