Are you able to happily read / write / sleep and listen to music at the same time?

Always thought I had no problem with this until my other half told me she absolutely could not work or read with music on. She doesn't seem to have any problems with TV though.

This admittedly has led to a few barneys in our time together, since I need music to be on 100% of the time or I break out in hives.

But of course compromise is important in any relationship, and since I've learnt to switch off the background noise from time to time, I've noticed my reading speed has increased. I also found that it helps me write more clearly, which is frustrating if writing about music, because there's an awful lot of on off, on off. Sleeping? I still maintain I like soft background music for sleep, but am starting to admit to myself that this is bollocks and that silence is best if possible.

What are your experiences with this?

it depends

I used to wake up at 5:30 and do homework for my 8 AM arabic class while listening to (usually) the mountain goats — you'd think the prominence of the lyrics would've confused my brain, but somehow I managed to keep the two rigorously separate.

conversely, there are times when a little cool jazz is totally overbearing. *shrug*

I like to do chores, cooking and short attention span stuff like web surfing or reading the newspaper with music on. If I try and read a book or do some proper brain work the music tends to distract me too much. I never go to sleep listening to music.

Mainly do most things around the house with music on. Have ATRAC walkman intelligently shuffling most of the time I'm out walking around etc.
So read, write, watch tv, with music on. Go to sleep with stereo on a timer so it turns off when I'm actually asleep. Volume on minimum as I fall asleep.

Can't really read easily if TV volume going on too loud. It was a pain when I was sharing houses with people. I'd get through a sentence I read then find the next cognition to actually be a line of dialogue from tv in the next room. Subsequently couldn't concentrate.

Have wondered when people actually listen to things like audio books & other spoken word recordings. I guess they're background to chores & cooking or whatever? Otherwise you get 2 narratives going on at the same time don't you?

Forgot to say, while reading anything important for college or whatever there were limitations on what music I could listen to.
Nothing too percussive & nothing with too complex lyricism or it'd be competing for brain attention.

"I still maintain I like soft background music for sleep, but am starting to admit to myself that this is bollocks and that silence is best if possible. "

Silence is so accurate, Mark Rothko truthfully declared once.

I know what you mean though, I'm pretty much the same in this as Chap mentioned upthread. Music on with chores, reading the newspaper and while pottering about. When reading a book I never listen to music, for some reason I just cannot block it out and find myself in a tizzy between the music and book, which is an uncomfortable position.

I do listen to music a lot when working (my work being writing). The subject of my writing does not matter, there's always music that 'goes' with it.

I used to be able to but I think my learning patterns have changed since high school. I need that silence or I don't learn anything.

Reading: yes. Though with novels the music's mostly just there, I'm not really listening. Especially music without vocals creates a very comfortable bubble for me to be in in general. I do most of my writing stuff at work and as I no longer have an office for myself there's no music, sadly. There's no music or tv in the bedroom, just silence, sometimes accurate, sometimes with a car humming in neutral under our bedroom window.