Silence Is Golden
 Aug 18th, 2004
(Aug 19th, 2004)
Advantages:
you can sleep better
Disadvantages:
not all noises are shut out
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Value for Money
more
  MALU
About me:
****** Is life worth living? - It depends on the liver! ******
Member since:04.07.2002
Reviews:262
Members who trust:164
Review rated by 58 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
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Iīd like to quote a comment I found on an op on ear plugs: īI figure there isn't a lot you can say about earplugs!ī Wrong! Never despise or deride the small things. One of the best minds in Italy, a professor of Philosophy at the University of Florence, sees earplugs among the greatest inventions of humankind. So there!
What can these inconspicuous thingies achieve? - Save money
Imagine a couple with one snoring partner. At home theyīve got separate bedrooms in order not to endanger the other partnerīs well-being and happiness. What when they go on holiday? They need two single rooms which combined cost more than a double room (and - as every traveller knows - are invariably situated beside the lift or the toilets or face the backyard or all things together).
- Save marriages
What do people do who canīt afford two separate bedrooms? If both snore and
sleep soundly, no probs, but if only one partner does so, itīs hell for the other. If the non-snoring partner has to get up early, he or she will eventually take his or her bedding to the living-room and sleep on the sofa or lie down on a sleeping mattress on the kitchen floor. Even though he or she knows that the partner doesnīt snore on purpose, thoughts of divorce might creep up. - Save holidays
Imagine going on holiday with a travel organisation which takes its clients to hotels on the main street of a resort. How much fun is it to lie wide awake in bed counting the passing cars and listening to pissed tourists singing along?
- Save lives
I stopped taking the night trains from Germany to Italy and vice versa, the ones in which six people can sleep on berths in one compartment, after a journey from Venice to Munich during which a man in the neighbouring (!) compartment snored so loud that the wall was shaking. The passengers who were with him must have been angels or deaf or his close family used to that kind of audio attack. From that night on I know that thereīs an innate killing instinct in the human race, only the fear of punishment, i.e., imprisonment with snoring cell mates, held me back. - Save health
Pilots of loud aircraft, air passengers suffering from air sickness, workmen working with loud machinery, swimmers, surfers, divers, riflemen, hunters, disc jockeys and disco visitors need them if they donīt want to ruin their hearing.
Hearing damage neednīt be painful at the time of occurrence. Noise should be considered as a physical hazard, though, and the result of prolonged exposure to excessive noise can lead to loss of hearing. I discovered ear plugs relatively late in my life, but am still young enough to enjoy the pleasure and comfort they give me. Iīve experimented with different kinds until Iīve found the right ones for me.
My research on the net has uncovered that the Brits and the Americans are the leading producers of ear plugs, I can only state the fact, but not interpret it. - Ear plugs made of purified beeswax, cotton and lanolin
You roll them between your finger tips for a while until they become warm and soft and then insert them into your ear canal to which they adapt. They are reusable. I know a woman who had got so used to this kind after sleeping beside her snoring husband for 30 years that she went on using them even after his death! Many people say theyīre the best, but I donīt like the waxy feeling, it gives me the creeps.
- Ear plugs made of soft polymer foam You press and roll one end of the plug between your fingers forming a firm tip which you insert into your ear canal, there the pressed material regains its former volume filling the hollow. These ear plugs are pleasant to touch, I rather like them, the only problem is that they fall out occasionally during the night although Iīm not a very fitful sleeper.
I buy my ear plugs in a pharmacy or in a special shop for hearing aids, you can go to Boots, they sell disposable ones which should not be used more than once [Ģ2.99 for three pairs], if not, hereīs an address from which you can order the type Iīve described online:
250 plugs per packet, reusable.
Price: Ģ21.99 (Excluding: VAT at 17.5%)
from www.brookessafety.com - Ear plugs made from silicon rubber
They look like little trees or umbrellas with three tiny roofs, are extremely soft and comfortable to wear, for me they are the best. The material, though, is a bit harder than the soft foam rubber of the type mentioned before, they can hurt a bit when you sleep with one ear pressed to the pillow which I do, so I use a foam rubber one for the pillow ear (itīs always the same ear) and the plastic tree one for the other ear. Two plugs supplied in single cartons, reusable.
Price: Ģ1.05 (Excluding: VAT at 17.5%)
from www.brookessafety.com
There are several firms offering ear plugs online, Iīve chosen the one whose products Iīve tested. Even with the best you canīt reach complete īartificial deafnessī, the best you can get is a reduction in sound level of 25 db, that is because even with your ear canals completely blocked the bones in your head will conduct sound to your inner ear. Interesting, innit?
___________________________
What? No historical survey of the development of ear plugs through the ages and stages of humankind?
We certainly donīt find ear plugs with prehistoric cave people, which noises were there to shut out? No supersonic aircraft, no pneumatic air hammers, and as to snoring, well, I think the Flintstone tribe had no problem with this. When we go back in time, we come to the field of mythology, the first use of ear plugs was īdocumentedī by Homer in the Odyssey. Odysseus was sailing with his men past the Sirens; these beautiful songsters couldnīt be resisted by human will alone, but if the ship steered in their direction the men would never see home again. The sirens sat in a meadow surrounded by bones. So Odysseus plugged the ears of the boats men with wax and had himself lashed to the mast. Although he heard the melody and his soul was drawn to it, he couldnīt act to harm himself because he was safely lashed.
Now who said there wasnīt a lot you could say about earplugs?!
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11.03.2007 21:52
great review. very useful. my mom will be extremely happy u know :P
28.09.2004 21:45
Tres good review ... I may invest in these; my husbands snoring drives me maaaaad ... these could help! (although I am not convinced I could sleep with something in my ear!) Philippa. X
26.08.2004 17:49
Ooops, tried to give you an "E" but have obviously been over zealous with my generosity today, so will come back soon and upgrade my VH. Please feel free to remind me. Cheers. Christina ;-) x