Does a typhoon change how much I snore?
I recorded one night of my own during typhoon season. Loud sound lasted 7 minutes, peaking at 08:19, and I do not write about the cause.
Typhoon season is here
Typhoon season is here. Every time I see a storm's path in the forecast, I get a vague sense that the night ahead will be a restless one.
People often say that a typhoon coming closer makes sleep shallower, that it makes your own snoring worse. Even so, I had never actually checked my own night's sound.
What I feel and what is actually making noise are not necessarily the same thing. The only way I could think of to check was to just record the night itself, as it happened.
I seem to see the same kind of posts every time a typhoon comes around. I had no way to check whether I was the only one who felt this way.
When a typhoon is closer, I also end up keeping the windows shut through the night more often. The air in the room feels a little different, even if I have never checked whether that has anything to do with sleep.
So I recorded one night of my own during this stretch of typhoon season, with the phone left in its usual spot. It needs no special preparation.
What was left from the night of September 8
On the night of September 8 I recorded for 8 hours and 32 minutes. What was left on the morning screen: loud sound for 7 minutes, peaking at 08:19. How I felt on waking was "slept well."
8 hours and 32 minutes is not far from usual. I decide the start and end myself with a tap, so the length shifts a little from night to night.
Loud sound lasted 7 minutes, one of the shorter stretches of the past several nights. A typhoon getting closer does not necessarily mean more sound.
I felt fine, and the loud minutes were still not zero. The number and the feeling do not always agree. That is one of the things a single night's record can show.
Recording a hard night and a good night takes the same number of taps. A bad night does not cost more effort to record; the record works the same either way.
This recording started at 02:53 and ended at 11:26. Whether it took a while to fall asleep because of the typhoon, or I simply woke early, is not something this record alone can say.
I can put that day's typhoon news and that night's record side by side on the same date. But this is only one night. I have not gathered several days to compare, so I cannot yet say whether this particular night was different from any other.
Recording and your record are free, always. The sound is sent nowhere. Only the loud stretches are kept.
A method that is just placing the phone
What I actually did was put the phone by my pillow and tap once before sleeping. Screen down, in the usual spot. Recording keeps going after the screen goes dark, and I end it with a long press in the morning.
Sound recorded closer picks up louder, so I keep the spot the same every night: not on the pillow itself, on the small table right beside it. No separate microphone, nothing worn on the body.
The screen before sleep only checks the microphone and the free space. Once that is confirmed, one tap starts the night, and it keeps recording until I end it myself.
Being asked for microphone permission only happens once. It can be changed later in settings, and without it nothing is recorded and nothing is lost.
What stays, and what does not
Where the sound goes is explained the same way every time, in one sentence: "The sound is sent nowhere. Only the loud stretches are kept." A whole night's sound is not kept as it is; only the loud 7 minutes and the quiet stretch right after it stay on the phone.
The loudest single moment can be played back in my own ears. The second and third loudest are kept too, and I can listen to them in order. Every other minute of sound is never kept at all.
Recording and keeping the record are always free. The recording stays on this phone for 14 nights and the oldest is cleared automatically; there is nothing to delete by hand.
If there is a recording I want gone, I can delete it myself, one at a time. If I do nothing, the oldest ones just clear themselves.
What about tonight
I have only placed that day's typhoon news beside that night's record. I am not saying it is the cause. Whether the sound was there because the typhoon was close is not something this one record can say.
What I can say is that my own night of September 8 was loud for 7 minutes. Each time this season comes back around, I plan to put the phone in the same spot and line up a few more nights.
The forecast can tell you more about the storm's path than I can. What it cannot tell you is what was actually making noise in your own room.
A night with the windows shut and an ordinary night are kept the same way. I did not change any setting; I just left the phone in its usual spot.
Tonight, is the sound in your own room the same as usual? The answer is not in the forecast. It is in your own record tomorrow morning.
For anything about treatment or making it stop, a doctor is the surest person to ask. All Nagi can do is record the night's sound so you can hear back, in the morning, how long it was loud and when it peaked. No verdicts, only the record.