Completely eliminating all sound perception isn’t possible without medical intervention, but you can reduce what you hear by 20 to 33 decibels with the right combination of earplugs, noise-canceling technology, and environmental changes. Whether you’re trying to block external noise for sleep or focus, manage ringing in your ears, or cope with painful sound sensitivity, the approach depends on what kind of hearing you’re trying to stop.
Blocking External Sound With Earplugs
Foam earplugs are the simplest and most effective passive option. The highest-rated versions carry a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) of 33 decibels, which is enough to turn a loud conversation into a whisper. To get that full rating, you need to roll the foam tightly, pull your ear up and back to straighten the ear canal, and insert the plug deep enough that it sits flush with the opening. A loose or shallow fit can cut the actual reduction in half.
Silicone and wax earplugs mold over the ear canal opening rather than inside it, making them more comfortable for sleeping on your side. They typically block 22 to 27 decibels. For the deepest quiet, over-ear industrial earmuffs worn on top of foam earplugs can combine their ratings, though the real-world gain is usually 5 to 10 extra decibels rather than the sum of both ratings.
If you use earplugs regularly, replace disposable foam pairs frequently. Worn-out plugs lose their noise reduction and accumulate bacteria. Earplugs also push earwax deeper into the canal over time, which can cause buildup, ear infections, pain, and even temporary hearing loss. Cleaning reusable plugs after each use and giving your ears breaks during the day helps prevent these problems.
How Noise-Canceling Headphones Work
Active noise cancellation (ANC) works by picking up incoming sound with a microphone, generating an opposite sound wave, and playing both together so they cancel each other out. This destructive interference is most effective on low-frequency, steady sounds: airplane engines, air conditioning hum, traffic rumble. Early models achieved about 20 decibels of reduction in the 50 to 500 Hz range, and modern consumer headphones perform significantly better across a wider band.
ANC struggles with high-pitched and sudden sounds. Short audio wavelengths at higher frequencies are harder to match precisely, so voices, dog barks, and keyboard clicks still leak through. Pairing ANC headphones with a masking sound (more on that below) covers the gaps that the cancellation misses. If your goal is near-silence during sleep, ANC earbuds designed for overnight use combine cancellation with a slim profile that won’t press into your ear on a pillow.
Using White, Pink, and Brown Noise
When you can’t eliminate sound entirely, masking it with a steady, predictable noise makes interruptions far less noticeable. The three common options work differently depending on what you’re trying to drown out.
- White noise contains all audible frequencies at equal intensity, creating a static-like hiss. It’s effective at masking a broad range of background sounds.
- Pink noise emphasizes lower frequencies and sounds more like steady rain or wind through trees. It filters out higher-pitched distractions like conversation and car horns, making it a strong choice for sleep.
- Brown noise goes deeper still, producing a low rumble similar to a waterfall or strong wind. Many people find it the most calming of the three, though it does less to mask sharp, high-pitched sounds.
You can play these through a bedside speaker, a phone app, or headphones. For sleep, a consistent volume set just loud enough to cover the sounds that wake you is the target. Turning it up too high defeats the purpose and can strain your hearing over time.
Soundproofing Your Space
If noise is entering a room, the weakest point is almost always the door. Even a door rated for high sound isolation performs poorly without proper gasketing. Professional acoustic door seal systems can achieve Sound Transmission Class (STC) ratings of 49 to 52, meaning they block the equivalent of loud speech down to a barely audible murmur. Without those seals, gaps around the frame let sound pass through freely regardless of how thick the door is.
For a simpler approach, adhesive weatherstripping around the door frame and a door sweep along the bottom close the largest air gaps. Heavy acoustic curtains over windows add another layer, though their performance varies widely. The principle is straightforward: sound travels through air gaps first and solid materials second, so sealing every crack matters more than adding mass to walls.
Reducing Sound Sensitivity
Some people don’t need less sound in the environment. They need their brain to stop reacting so strongly to normal volumes. This condition, called hyperacusis, makes everyday sounds like dishes clinking or children talking feel painfully loud. The instinct is to wear earplugs constantly, but clinicians advise against this because it can make the sensitivity worse over time. Your auditory system compensates for the reduced input by turning up its internal gain, so when you remove the plugs, everything sounds even louder than before.
The most widely studied treatment is sound therapy, used in about 74% of clinical protocols for hyperacusis. It involves wearing ear-level sound generators that play quiet broadband noise for eight or more hours a day, gradually retraining the brain to tolerate normal sound levels. A tabletop sound generator at night supplements the daytime devices. The process is slow, often spanning months, but the goal is genuine desensitization rather than just avoidance.
Musician-style filtered earplugs offer a middle ground for people who need some reduction without total silence. Custom-fit versions with different filter levels reduce sound by roughly 13 to 23 decibels while preserving the balance of frequencies so speech and music still sound natural, just quieter. Non-custom versions are cheaper but often deliver far less attenuation than advertised. One study found a popular non-custom earplug marketed at 20 decibels of reduction actually delivered under 5 decibels on average and failed to attenuate anything below 100 Hz.
Stopping Sounds Only You Can Hear
If the sound you want to stop is ringing, buzzing, or hissing that no one else hears, that’s tinnitus. It originates in the brain rather than the environment, which means earplugs won’t help and silence often makes it louder. The brain fills quiet spaces by amplifying its own neural activity, and the phantom sound becomes more prominent.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) combines counseling with low-level background sound to teach the brain to stop noticing the ringing. A white noise generator set just below the perceived volume of the tinnitus reduces the contrast between the phantom sound and background neural activity. Over time, the emotional reaction fades first, and then conscious perception follows. In one clinical study, patients started with an average severity score of 6.7 out of 10. After two months of TRT, that dropped to 3.2, and after six months it fell to 2.1, with nearly 88% of patients reaching the mildest symptom categories.
The FDA has also approved a device called Lenire that takes a different approach. It delivers mild electrical pulses to the tongue while playing sounds through headphones, stimulating brain changes that can reduce tinnitus symptoms. It’s the first bimodal neuromodulation device approved for tinnitus in the U.S. and is used under clinical supervision.
Your Body’s Built-In Volume Control
Your ears already have a noise-reduction system you’ve probably never noticed. When your brain detects a moderately loud sound, a tiny muscle called the stapedius contracts involuntarily in both ears. This stiffens the chain of small bones in the middle ear and reduces sound transmission, primarily for frequencies below 1,000 Hz. It’s one reason your own voice doesn’t sound deafeningly loud to you while you’re speaking: the reflex activates just before you vocalize, dampening the low-frequency energy of your speech so you can still hear external sounds clearly.
This reflex is involuntary and can’t be consciously strengthened or triggered on command. But understanding it explains why sudden loud sounds are more damaging than gradually increasing ones. The reflex takes a fraction of a second to engage, so an unexpected blast reaches the inner ear at full force before the muscle can react.