Suggestions as to how best to record sounds all night?

aliasojo

I've got a bit of an 'issue' that I'd like to try to ascertain the truth of.

I snore.

I snore a lot now that I've put on so much weight. When I'm not snoring, I'm breathing heavily. (Only at night, I'm quiet during the day. )

Obviously the best thing to do is to try to lose weight but I've got so much 'stuff' going on, that attempting to deal with yet another 'thing' right now, is a recipe for failure tbh. (It's on my 2013 to do list though.)

It's becoming a huge problem for OH and is disrupting his sleep a lot. He has a job that requires a lot of concentration and his broken sleep is affecting him.

However, he snores too. Nowhere near as bad as me, or as loud, but he still does it.

There have been occasions where I've been forcing myself to stay awake until he falls asleep first in the hope that once he's sleeping, he's less likely to be disturbed. He still wakes up annoyed and stomps off to the spare room. I've been more than a little surprised as I've been awake and not making noises, as I thought.

I'm positive that my snoring has become something he is fixated on now and it's actually himself that's waking himself up (iyswim) but he thinks it's me.

He's positive I fall asleep really quickly for short periods of time and make noises which wake me up again so I think I've been awake all the time but he reckons I've been asleep and snoring.

You all with me so far? :rotfl:

It happened again last night and he's getting quite moody and bad tempered now. Don't get me wrong, I have every sympathy if I am the problem. There's nothing worse than broken sleep. I'm just getting a little irked because I genuinely believe it's not always me and he wakes himself up sometimes. Even when he's in the spare room, he doesn't sleep right through. He thinks he's *just* a light sleeper but I think he's still waking himself up with his own noises.

So....I want to set something up to record all night but don't have a clue what to use. We don't have jazzy phones with Aps (old bog standard phones). No recorders other than an old voice memo recorder thingy but that only lasts 60mins so not much use.

Ideas please?

McKneff

I dont understand, why would you want to 'prove it' what would it acheive. Absolutely nothing apart from you saying 'i'm right and youre wrong'

You would be better channelling your energies into trying to solve the problem.

Both of you could maybe go and see the GP

Or spend alternate nights in seperate bedrooms.

stir_crazy

Can you borrow a video camera from someone? It wouldn't really need to record all night, just until you're both in a deep sleep.

Tiddlywinks

My OH snores and, for a while, I was really fixated on it... I couldn't sleep if he was snoring as it made me angry that he *was* happily snoozing whilst keeping me awake! I had to go to bed first so that I could get to sleep before he started snoring and if I woke up in the middle of the night then I could not tune out the snoring no matter what...

We now play ambient noise - for us, it's a distant storm - it really does help to drown out the noise and, more importantly, it gives my brain something else to focus on. This is one of the natural sounds I downloaded from Amazon for about 70p NOT one of the ones with the new age kind of music in the background.

Also, might your OH have sleep apnoea? If he snores he may well have this condition which will wake him with a start... he would then hear you snoring and think that you woke him up... just a thought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea

alias*alibi

aliasojo wrote: »

I've got a bit of an 'issue' that I'd like to try to ascertain the truth of.

I snore.

I snore a lot now that I've put on so much weight. When I'm not snoring, I'm breathing heavily. (Only at night, I'm quiet during the day. )

Obviously the best thing to do is to try to lose weight but I've got so much 'stuff' going on, that attempting to deal with yet another 'thing' right now, is a recipe for failure tbh. (It's on my 2013 to do list though.)

It's becoming a huge problem for OH and is disrupting his sleep a lot. He has a job that requires a lot of concentration and his broken sleep is affecting him.

However, he snores too. Nowhere near as bad as me, or as loud, but he still does it.

There have been occasions where I've been forcing myself to stay awake until he falls asleep first in the hope that once he's sleeping, he's less likely to be disturbed. He still wakes up annoyed and stomps off to the spare room. I've been more than a little surprised as I've been awake and not making noises, as I thought.

I'm positive that my snoring has become something he is fixated on now and it's actually himself that's waking himself up (iyswim) but he thinks it's me.

He's positive I fall asleep really quickly for short periods of time and make noises which wake me up again so I think I've been awake all the time but he reckons I've been asleep and snoring.

You all with me so far? :rotfl:

It happened again last night and he's getting quite moody and bad tempered now. Don't get me wrong, I have every sympathy if I am the problem. There's nothing worse than broken sleep. I'm just getting a little irked because I genuinely believe it's not always me and he wakes himself up sometimes. Even when he's in the spare room, he doesn't sleep right through. He thinks he's *just* a light sleeper but I think he's still waking himself up with his own noises.

So....I want to set something up to record all night but don't have a clue what to use. We don't have jazzy phones with Aps (old bog standard phones). No recorders other than an old voice memo recorder thingy but that only lasts 60mins so not much use.

Ideas please?

I could had written that post!!! I downloaded a sleep app for my iPhone and it caught every sound; duvet rustling and us turning over. It even records peaks and at what times. If you don't have a smartphone does your phones not have some recording device on it? Or a camera that has a video function? It doesn't have to see anything; just capture any noise.

My DH takes great pleasure in recording me on his phone to play back the next day. I too need to lose weight. I also agree that you could be just dropping off to sleep, grunt, wake yourself up but think you've been awake....because that's what I do . We don't have a spare room so DH stomps off to the sofa; although touch wood he hasn't done that for a while so its either 1. He's too knackered and is in a deep sleep, 2. I'm not snoring as loud or 3. He's got used to it! My DH also comments on my heavy breathing. I figure I've got sleep apnoea and NEED to lose weight for my health. X

balletshoes

this might be a really stupid question (well a couple of really stupid questions) - if you record the noises, how do you know which is you and which is your OH?

And - if its a regular issue at the moment and theres a spare bed, why don't one of you just settle down for the night in the spare bed, the other in the main bed (and swap over if one particular bed is a preference for the both of you).

aliasojo

McKneff wrote: »

I dont understand, why would you want to 'prove it' what would it acheive. Absolutely nothing apart from you saying 'i'm right and youre wrong'

Well with respect, you don't really need to understand.

Every couple has things that are issues for them. If the truth of an issue can be ascertained then it's easier to understand.

If I'm not the problem then he's getting annoyed with me unnecessarily...and that's unfair. If he's waking himself up and I can show him evidence of that, then he will be less grumpy with me.

If it's proved that is me that's waking him up then I will happily accept it. I would just like to know for sure.

I don't particularly care if anyone agrees with my reasoning or not, that's not what the thread is about.

aliasojo

balletshoes wrote: »

this might be a really stupid question (well a couple of really stupid questions) - if you record the noises, how do you know which is you and which is your OH?

And - if its a regular issue at the moment and theres a spare bed, why don't one of you just settle down for the night in the spare bed, the other in the main bed (and swap over if one particular bed is a preference for the both of you).

We do seem to have a different snore.

We describe each other's noises in a vastly different way so I'm hopeful that it would be apparent on a recording.

You may be right though and it wouldn't be obvious. We wont know until we try it though.

aliasojo

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Also, might your OH have sleep apnoea? If he snores he may well have this condition which will wake him with a start... he would then hear you snoring and think that you woke him up... just a thought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea

alias*alibi wrote: »

My DH also comments on my heavy breathing. I figure I've got sleep apnoea and NEED to lose weight for my health. X

OH tells me I may have this. He reckons I snore, then go quiet for ages before breathing again.

I think I snore, catch myself doing it, then lie really quiet for ages as I'm scared of waking him up, then I doze off again.

Two different 'takes' on the same thing.

alias*alibi

aliasojo wrote: »

OH tells me I may have this. He reckons I snore, then go quiet for ages before breathing again.

I think I snore, catch myself doing it, then lie really quiet for ages as I'm scared of waking him up, then I doze off again.

Two different 'takes' on the same thing.

I sympathise! I too wait for DH to fall asleep so I can finally relax and drift off but it doesn't always work. When I wake myself up snoring I try to turn it in to a cough so DH doesn't click! Ha ha. Seriously though I must be so sleep deprived because I am so tired and have bags on bags under my eyes and never feel refreshed even though *i think* I've slept right through; which makes me think mine is definitely sleep apnoea.

londonsurrey

Voice recorders these days are excellent. They even have settings to intelligently only start recording when there is a sound to record. It would of course lead to a concatenation of your nocturnal audial efforts!