Might want to look into some of these.
The Howard Leight brand offer very good noise reduction and but are still comfortable. I have found that if I use the cheap generic earplugs they irritate my ear canal after a few days.
This is to keep the noise of my girlfriends Darth Vador breath from driving me crazy.
While on the topic of noise reduction. I highly recommend these earphones. They provide 34db of noise reduction and excelent performance for music reproduction. Site says MSRP $150 but you can routinely find them for $70-80. I use them all the time riding my motorcycle and on airline flights among other times.
Etymotic Research, Inc. - ER•6i Isolator Earphones