Stuffy-nose season

Stuffy-nose season has arrived. Mornings bring a dry throat, or a day when breathing feels harder than usual. I had assumed my own snoring gets worse on nights like that, but I had never actually checked.

Every year around this time I hear the same thing: a stuffy nose makes for a restless night. Still, I have no memory of ever looking at my own night's sound as a number. What I feel and what is actually making noise are not necessarily the same thing, and that is where this started.

So I recorded one night from this season, just by placing my phone by the pillow. No special preparation is needed. I put the phone where I always sleep, and leave it there until morning.

Stuffy-nose season comes every year. I remember thinking something similar last year too, but I no longer remember what that night was actually like. Keeping it as a number, rather than looking back only on how it felt, seems like it will be more useful to me next year.

When someone mentions hay fever or a stuffy nose, I get a vague feeling of maybe recognizing it, maybe not. The only thing that is actually clear is the number left on the screen in the morning.

What the night of October 6 left behind

On the night of October 6, I recorded for 7 hours and 46 minutes. What was left on the morning screen was 2 loud minutes, peaking at 07:41. When I woke up, I tapped that the night felt ordinary.

The recording started at 03:31 and ended at 11:18. It was a morning where I slept longer than usual, and I had the sense of waking a few times along the way, but I did not know what time the loud sound actually happened until I looked at the screen.

I did not record this night because my nose felt especially bad. It is just one ordinary night inside this season. Even so, what was left as a number was 2 minutes, a short stretch.

That the feeling was ordinary and the loud time was short happened to land close together this time. But they do not always match, something I have learned from recording a number of nights by now. Some hard-feeling nights turn out short, and some nights that felt fine turn out long.

Afterward I can add a short tag to say what happened that night: a stuffy nose, a drink before bed. Adding a tag does not change that night's own numbers. It only becomes a clue later, when I line nights up next to each other.

Compared with my own usual nights, 2 minutes was actually on the shorter side. It does not look like stuffy-nose season always means a longer stretch of loud sound. That, too, is not something one night alone can settle.

Your own night, on your own phone.

Recording and your record are free, always. The sound is sent nowhere. Only the loud stretches are kept.

A method that is only placing the phone

All I did was place the phone by the pillow and tap before sleeping. Screen down, in the same spot every time. Recording continues even after the screen goes dark, and I end it myself by hand in the morning. No special microphone, nothing worn on the body.

Before sleeping, the screen only checks the microphone and the free storage space. Once that is shown, I tap to start the night, and recording does not stop until I end it myself in the morning. Being asked to allow the microphone happens only the first time. It can be changed later in settings, and without that permission nothing is recorded.

What stays, and what does not

What happens to the sound is explained the same way every time. The sound is sent nowhere. Only the loud stretches are kept. A whole night of sound is not kept as it is; only the 2 loud minutes, and the quiet right after them, stay on the phone.

The single loudest moment can be played back in my own ears. The next loudest moment, and the one after that, stay too, and can be played back in order. Every other stretch of the night is never kept in the first place. Recordings stay on this phone for 14 nights and are deleted automatically, oldest first. No action is needed to delete them.

Recording and keeping the record are still free. There is no need to try harder only on the nights my nose feels bad. A loud night and a quiet one are recorded the same way, and played back the same way the next morning.

What about tonight

I have simply placed that night's nose and that night's record side by side. I do not call it the cause. Whether a stuffy nose made the sound increase is not something one night alone can say.

What I can say is that my own night on October 6 was loud for 2 minutes. How a stuffy nose actually relates to my own snoring is not something one night can tell me yet.

Each time this season comes around, I plan to put the phone in the same place and line up a few more nights. Tonight, is your room's sound the same as always? The answer is not in the weather forecast, it is inside your own record tomorrow morning.