Cats mating, dogs barking, traffic, fighting couples, my horrible roommates, ect. Taipei is SO noisy. How do you get sleep????
I was told to get ear plugs. but they dont' work so well. I still get kept awake. Also they cause ear pain.

SO how do you deal with noise? Any bright ideas?

I moved to an extremely quiet area. I'm very sensitive to noise, and nothing else worked for me.

One idea is to double pane your winows. I've seen these in action, and it really cuts down on the noise. That's one of your few easy options. Another is to soundproof the room you spend the most time in, but that's getting into more money (the door being the most expensive, I'd imagine.)

sometimes if I am bothered by noise, I drown it out by playing some mellow music while I'm trying to get to sleep.

You could cut off your ears.

Heh. When I lived in Taipei, I had a set of what were actually double-hung windows [I think that's what they're called -- where you have two separately-sliding panes of glass between you and the air pollution] that faced out onto the street. (which was Roosevelt Rd. 3rd Sec.) They were shared between my room and the one next to mine in the apartment, which had a wall the landlord had put in but shared the window space and a little tiny hole. When we first moved in, however, they were slid around backwards -- so that they left some pretty significant gaps in the window frame.

Ugh! The noise was so loud. Every morning when the buses would start (around 5 am is it?) I would wake up from the banging and clanging. Took me months before I realized why I always woke up at the crack of dawn... I think the first day I got up, and in my sleep-addled state stumbled into the living room and fell asleep on the kitchen table, trying to get away from the noise...

Thank $deity I was cleaning the windows one day and realized the problem. Made things much better.

More on topic, take heart -- I've lived in NYC for six years now and don't even notice noise any more. Garbage truck backing up outside the window at 4 am? Not a problem! ...the only problem is when I go out of the city and am alarmed by seeing open space and can't get to sleep because of the quiet... maybe you'll be so lucky someday too. eh.

Close all the windows and put the a/c on to make 'white noise'?

Music.

Download the sound of breaking waves, and play it loudly on your computer all night.

Do tons of exercise and drink unfeasibly large quantities of rum before bed.

Or move to Lotus Hill. I sleep to the sounds of nature - frogs, crickets, etc. and leave my window open to let the cool breeze in. No need for aircon. Traffic noise is something that happens to other people, and if I hear a dog barking the solution is simple: walk into the lounge and tell her to shut up.

The commute is a bit of a pain, but it's worth it if you value peace, quiet and a clean living environment.

You also might try a noisy fan which will suck up a lot of the noise...or yes, move. Taipei is nice, but it is ON 24/7.

Other than that, the rum thing works (replace rumwith whisky if needed)

I can't sleep with music on. That has been so many people's suggestions. It isn't just Taipei. I used to live in a countryside town and the stupid trucks with the megaphones woke me every day.
I actually would not be so opposed to moving except I REALLY love my job. And my job doesn't move

I second the loud fan. Having a fan blowing at the highest setting two feet from my ears is the only way I can get to sleep in the city.

We were at the bottom of the hill on the 8th floor and Friday/ Saturday nights were the Mahjong tile clicking nights. Drove us crazy and not the sort of noise that is easily drowned with white noise like fans.

Also, there were regular fights with screaming and yelling for added interest out in the streets.

Up the mountain now and its really quiet. Only 7 minutes drive from hell to heaven.