City living can come with its own unique headaches, including noisy neighbors and brightly-lit storefronts that flash neon lights directly through your window at 3 a.m. every night. To some, these might be easily-ignored annoyances. But for those who struggle with insomnia or suffer from frequent migraines, these intrusions can take a significant toll on their day-to-day happiness.
However, even if you may not have control over your apartment building’s surroundings, there are still many ways for you to combat of the light and noise encroaching on your living space.
Light-Proofing Your Apartment
Curtains/Shades
Your first line of defense for blocking light from your windows should be a good pair of curtains or shades. If your goal is to keep your room pitch dark, blackout curtains are your best bet. These curtains are made from tightly-woven fabric lined with a special polymer that allows them to completely block out all light. To save a few bucks, you can try crafting your own by buying blackout fabric from a craft store.
If you’re interested in dimming your room rather than keeping it completely dark, you can experiment with room darkening curtains instead. These are made from a thinner, more translucent fabric and allow some light to pass through while still drastically reducing the brightness of the room.
If curtains don’t suit your decor, you also have the option of buying blackout shades. These fulfill the same purpose as blackout curtains while taking up a bit less space, though they generally have fewer designs available.
Window Film
Even the most efficient curtains will inevitably let in cracks of light around their edges. One way to combat this is by installing window film on your window panes. Window film is packaged in peel-able sheets that can be applied directly onto the glass and comes in a variety of different tints. You can buy completely opaque window film that blocks out all light, or lightly treated film that more closely resembles the tint on car windows.
One bonus of window film is that it is easier to install than curtains or shades, which can be useful in apartments where there are restrictions on what kind of permanent modifications that resident can make. When you’re looking to move, you can simply peel off the window film and be good to go! Tinted window film also serves to reduce glare and regulate temperatures within your apartment, which can help you to save money on air conditioning in the summer.
Blocking Light from Doors
If an excessive amount of light is seeping in from the crack under your door to your bedroom, you can always purchase a draft stopper or attach a door sweep to reduce the size of the gap. This has the added benefit of helping to insulate your apartment in the colder months.
A low-budget alternative is to attach two plastic hooks to the wall above your door and allow a blanket to drape down over your door. This serves to block out any light from cracks at the top and side of the door as well.
Soundproofing Your Apartment
Soft Surfaces
One of the best things that you can do to soundproof your apartment is to maximize the number of soft surfaces in each room. Bare walls and hardwood floors allow sounds to bounce around freely, but hanging up tapestries and putting out rugs can help to absorb this noise. Adding a rug pad under your rug helps maximize its ability to muffle sound.
Even adding upholstered furniture to your living room can help to keep excess sound from carrying into your bedroom when one of your roommates raids the kitchen for a midnight snack, and an upholstered headboard for your bed can drastically reduce the noise that seeps in from the adjacent room.
Artificially “Thickening” Walls
In a similar vein, anything you can set against the wall to give it more mass will help make it more efficient in blocking out noise. Large bookshelves are a great option, as long as they are actually stuffed full of books.
You can also try adding acoustic panels to your walls to further dampen excess noise. While most acoustic panels are designed to reduce the amount of noise emanating from a space, there are some created specifically to limit the noise coming in from the outside. Acoustic panels come in a variety of designs and can easily be made to look like a decorative statement piece rather than a fully functional bit of soundproofing.
Blocking Noise from Windows and Doors
Much of the noise that filters into your apartment makes its way in through your windows and doors. Shoring up these defenses is a great way to keep your home nice and quiet.
Thick curtains and draft stoppers are not only good for light proofing, but are also great tools for soundproofing as well. Sticking a draft stopper under your door greatly limits the amount of noise that will come in from your hallway. And, if you don’t mind a couple layers of drapery, you can pair your blackout curtains with soundproof curtains to turn your bedroom into a dark and silent cave.
It may also be worth investigating your window to make sure that it is properly fitted and sealed to its frame. If you spot any gaps, you can fill them in with insulated foam, which will both weatherproof and soundproof your window.
Try a White Noise Machine
If all else fails and you can’t quite muffle the sound of your upstairs neighbor’s weekly clog dancing class, it may be worth investing in a white noise machine. While these devices generate noise rather than removing it, they manage to mask intrusive exterior rackets by generating sounds that span a wide range of frequencies.
White noise machines have been shown to help increase a person’s quality of sleep and can even help train your brain to recognize when it’s time to clock out for the night, allowing you to fall asleep faster. White noise machines are capable of emulating lots of different sounds including rainstorms, ocean waves, box fans, and heavy wind, so you can experiment and see which works best for your studying or sleeping habits.