Ear plugs. Noise canceling headphones.

Have you tried white noise?

I know it's still technically noise but it's consistent noise. I wonder if the repetitiveness would help you focus and hide out any small background noises.

I can’t read if people are talking around me. I also don’t like dead silence because every minor “house noise” will pull me out. Lofi music has been really useful lately. I like a Lofi covers playlist that’s just Lofi, non lyrics version of popular songs. General Lofi helps too

This was me and I found a great solution after trying all kinds of things, including white noise.

Wear earbuds or headphones and put on an easy-to-listen-to instrumental song (Tycho’s Awake is a great example). Set it to repeat this single track. Play it on repeat the entire time you’re reading. It shouldn’t be quiet or loud, just enough volume so you don’t hear anything in your surrounding environment.

It will not feel like a solution at first because the song is new to you so your brain is going to want to pay attention to the music. But as it plays repeatedly over time, your brain will stop focusing on the music and treat it as background noise. You’re tricking your monkey mind.

I have been doing this for almost ten years and it has helped me read books, when that used to feel impossible. Tycho’s Awake album and Windsor Airlift’s album called The Moon’s House are my favorite things to listen to. I would start with one song only though until it feels easy. I now listen to a different song from my reading playlist each day.

Go read somewhere else.

There might be a library with a reading room nearby. A library is much better than home for reading, because it's a space functionally (mostly) for interacting with books. It's surprising how strong the psychological effect of this can be. Also there are other people there being quiet and serious and so you feel an odd peer pressure not to goof off. And you don't have to murder your family for some peace and quiet.

I have tinnitus. Absolute quiet drives me nuts as the ringing in my ears gets intolerable. I can tune out background noise when I read. This includes conversations or my wife watching a movie. Wife watching TV and the grandsons each on a phone (all different noise) disturbs me. Hearing aids make it worse.

EDIT: TL/DR Have you tried white noise?

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I won't go into to details, but I have a problem with filtering out sound at times. It's as if my lizard-brain just gives up and says, "Okay, here is all the sound around you. You figure out what is important."

Earplugs don't work for me. It just makes it feel like I have extra-pressure in head, like a head cold. And every sound inside my body is amplified. Walking, chewing, breathing . ugh.

When I need to concentrate, and there are too many noises in the environment, I found I can use white noise. I found a good white noise generator at Amazon for under $30US. It produces a dozen or so different tones, and they don't have immediately recognizable repeatable pattern. That turned out to be important to me, because finding a pattern in the "white noise" was also distracting.

There are lots of white noise generators around. Alexa has many, for example. There are web sites that generate them too. Some are free, some charge. You need to be careful around some web sites tho.

I mean, if it says its "free" but insists i t needs to install some "free software" just to play a sound for you, it is probably loading viruses, worms, or other malware instead. A web page is easily able to produce a sound without adding more to your computer.

I use pink noise, you might prefer one of the other types

Pray you don't get tinnitus. I've got it and I haven't enjoyed complete silence in decades. I currently have the news on tv and music on the radio and I can still hear the ringing.

What about a white noise machine and noise canceling headphones?

You could try some audiobooks about meditation. Meditation is mostly about mental discipline -- calming and quieting all the thoughts that keep distracting us.

I should probably do that myself.

What about white noise? Because I mean, it hardly ever is 100% quiet. I live in a very quiet street but right now I can hear the wind and it has been raining several times today and when I open the window I can hear the birds ... but only if I focus. Normally it all just fades in the background.

If you don't mind these kinds of noises try ambient videos to cover the noises you do mind.

If you are always reading at home (and therefore tips like try reading in the library aren't relevant), then give reading a go with the TV on low in the background when people are asleep/out as an initial experiment and go from there. Essentially, you want to expose yourself to a bit more noise as time goes on. Effectively white noise but not as 'loud' and with a bit of difference in the sound. Work your way towards regular white noise.

In addition to the white noise suggestions, I also listen to playlists in the Focus genre on spotify. They're mostly instrumental, a lot of lofi, some classical, some video game/movie soundtracks.

I also sometimes enjoy ambience videos on youtube in the background while I read. You can get fires crackling or water trickling.

I have music on the headphones. On a low volume - music that I know every beat of. The songs will eventually fade into background and block all outside noises.

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I also have an issue with noise distraction. The tv, radio, music get in the way of me taking in what I am reading. Strangely the quietest place I have found is our local church. The only thing is that the pews are not very comfortable….🙄

Your role model:

https://www.openculture.com/2020/03/the-cork-lined-bedroom-and-writing-room-of-marcel-proust.html

i can only read when i can't control the environment around me- i think it comes from reading harry potter book as a 5 yr old in classical music concerts while being forced to sit still lol

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Use eardrops bro