Is there a way to muffle sound coming through windows, without replacing the windows?

Shiznown

Shiznown

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So, I live in a town house and my bedroom faces the parking lot. As you can imagine, it can be loud outside. I need a way to muffle the sound, especially because I'm going to be working night shift in a hospital unit after college. I don't want to use foam because of foam leaching toxic chemicals.
 
scoooter

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Curtains will provide high freq suppression however low freq. 40Hz and lower will still get through easily. If you own you could build a disconnected wall and insulate with heavy microfiber insulation, a practice common to home theater construction, think it's called a double wall.

A different approach is sound cancellation like white noise or a fan

Ear plugs, however, these may push ear wax further into the ear canal and if not cleaned out can cause illness
 
Shiznown

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Curtains will provide high freq suppression however low freq. 40Hz and lower will still get through easily. If you own you could build a disconnected wall and insulate with heavy microfiber insulation, a practice common to home theater construction, think it's called a double wall.

A different approach is sound cancellation like white noise or a fan

Ear plugs, however, these may push ear wax further into the ear canal and if not cleaned out can cause illness
Ear plugs aren't comfortable, so I can't sleep with them. I use a fan and sometimes a AC. A lot of the noises are low bass tones, like some jackass outside having the bass on his car up, or someone revving their engine, or someone's car alarm going off. I can feel the vibrations coming in from outside.
 
SouthernIron

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By foam, are you referring to the foam they use in studio sound rooms? I've placed them against the windows before and they have worked pretty well. I haven't done this yet, but I wanted to mount collapsible shudders to the inside of the window so I could turn the shoulders into a "double wall" like scooter mentioned. When I go to sleep at night, I close the shudders to the windows on the inside and it would muffle sound.

When I was Iraq, we would use plywood to redirect the noise from the generators away from the sleeping areas and bounce them in another direction.
 
Shiznown

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By foam, are you referring to the foam they use in studio sound rooms? I've placed them against the windows before and they have worked pretty well. I haven't done this yet, but I wanted to mount collapsible shudders to the inside of the window so I could turn the shoulders into a "double wall" like scooter mentioned. When I go to sleep at night, I close the shudders to the windows on the inside and it would muffle sound.

When I was Iraq, we would use plywood to redirect the noise from the generators away from the sleeping areas and bounce them in another direction.
I found some sound muffling "blanket" curtain online. I haven't ordered them yet, but they are supposed to lower sound by I believe 20dBs. I'm unsure how I'll have to set it up on my one window since I have a "portal" AC in my room with the tube going through the window. I don't know if the curtain will be too heavy to drape over the tube. The curtains weight 10 pounds.
 
SFreed

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Re-direction of sound waves via air gap is the best way. The "double wall" scooter mentioned above is the best way to dampen sound transfer.
 
Jiigzz

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You can get ear plugs designed for sleeping as well. I bought some as I have an unemployed lady who lives across the road who apparently has nothing better to do than yell into her phone to her friends at all hours of the night.

I also have a vibrating alarm to wake me up because they do block a lot of sound.

A fan or white noise app is the next best thing I've found. I set a timer on the white noise app for like 30 minutes and it really helps cancel out unnessary background noise.

Some other solutions as above, but more costly
 

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