noisy or quiet neighbors, and does it affect your sleep?

Since some of us have sleeping difficulties, I was wondering if your neighbors can be a contributing factor to your problems..

mine sure are.. I love my neighbors, but they put their puppy out at six am every morning, and it barks like crazy!

This part of the morning is very important to me as its when Im getting my best sleep...so its really was causing a problem..
I have asked them to leave their window open so they could hear the puppy bark and quiet him down..

I was even going to buy them some baby monitors!

So do you have quiet or noisy neighbors, and does it affect your sleeping situation sometimes?

Hi, I don't know about you, but where I live it's illegal to make noise before 7 a.m. and after 11 pm. If your neighbours are allowing their dog to break the law, you could remind them of that and maybe you'd get more sleep!

I mentioned baby monitors because they cant hear the puppy if they put it out.. their back yard is very, very far from their bedroom
where they get ready for work...

At least that seemed to be a solution I would like to try..

bringing up the law wouldnt be, these people are very dear, and they are trying.. but puppies will be puppies..

I am hyper-sensitive to noise so thank goodness my neighbors are all quiet. It's just the occasional weekend parties that get noisy and I listen to sleep-entrraing CDs, sometimes they work

Everyone's sound sensitivities are so different. We had neighbors who found the sounds of daily (and nightly) living from our large active family intolerable to their silent-except-for-classical-music sensitivities. The current neighbors say "What noise?"

I haven't had an issue with noisy neighbors - been very fortunate. Almost took an apartment a few years ago till I realized there were partying college students upstairs and knew it wouldn't be a good match. Moving into the same building with family has been a major adjustment - 1 bathroom for 7 people and it's next door to my bedroom. My sleep swings to extremes. Either I hear every little sound or I am dead to the world and cannot be wakened. Since it has been fragile again lately I find myself taking measures to minimize sound exposure. But heaven forbid I get all masked up and in bed and realize I didn't pull the shade. I can be sure if I'm too lazy to do anything about it, that will be the night the local raccoon band parades all night past the neighbor's motion activiated floodlight.

Sounds like you have nice neighbors who would at least try to accomodate you, as much as one can with a young puppy.

Muse-Inc wrote:I am hyper-sensitive to noise so thank goodness my neighbors are all quiet. It's just the occasional weekend parties that get noisy and I listen to sleep-entrraing CDs, sometimes they work

sometimes they work!

But heaven forbid I get all masked up and in bed and realize I didn't pull the shade. I can be sure if I'm too lazy to do anything about it, that will be the night the local raccoon band parades all night past the neighbor's motion activiated floodlight.

Of course it wil be THAT night!


my "neighbors" the owl couple, could keep it down a little too, not to mention that obnoxious coyote family!

Dont get me started on the ravens after they have had their morning coffee....

In the summer i struggle with neighbor issues. I work swing shifts. When I work nights and have to sleep during the day I am often interrupted by lawn mowers. With windows open the nose can really carry through. Our next door neighbor has a blood hound or whatever you call it as well as some other breed dog and they get to howling enough that it really creates a problem. They have little kids and what not so i dont want to be yelling or not nice. Which is not me any way. I try to use ear plugs when they really drive me nuts. During the winter I dont have too many issues other than my own kids making noise when i sleep days.

My neighbor has the following noisy 'pets': lions, tiger, liger, peafowl, zebras, mule, muntjacs and (coming soon) hyenas. The hyenas are by far the loudest, when we have had them in the past, and they always get the lions going In season, the peafowl can be noisy all night long. But I love this racket. The lions, especially, roar me to sleep. Their beautiful, wild, calming roar is the best sound on earth. (I roar with them if I am outside and they get going!)

The irritating noise is the freeway, only 500 feet behind the house. Depending on the wind direction, the sounds from the freeway can vary from almost inaudible to a dull roar. You also get the occasional loud vehicle, 'hog Harley' (which I like), jake brake or stereo. After living here 9 years, I have gotten used to it, but I am always happy to be away from it. And if I happen to sleep in late during air race week, there are all manner of aircraft noises as well.

When I lived in Rochester, NY, I used to occasionally go up to our TV station's transmitter site. The building had a full power UHF TV and FM transmitter in it. I would throw my coat on the floor, and get a few hours of sleep (usually before an 'all nighter' maintenance night). I would listen to the constant noise, and identify each fan, pump, thermostatic valve, etc. This always put me to sleep.

As far as affecting sleep, if I am tired, I can sleep any time of the day or night, with ot without light or sounds. I think this is from the part of me that is 'cat', and I consider it a blessing.

Summertime: The neighbors run their central A/C 24/7 even though we're here in Buffalo. Their A/C unit sits in the very small (15 foot) side yard between the two houses and essentially is right outside our bedroom window. Their unit blows loudly all night long. It's really, really irritating on those hot, humid nights since we don't have A/C. I'm really dreading this next summer since I didn't get my APAP until late September, which was after A/C season was over this year.

Wintertime: No problem since our windows are closed and the neighbors central A/C unit is OFF.

The previous neighbours upstairs would have drinking binges and fight at 3 am. It sounded like they were throwing furniture and he was killing her (from the screams volumes) We would then call the police who would walk up and down the stairs in BIG boots for an hour.

We now have down stairs neighbours who like to sit outside and drink and have screaming matches until midnight but since it got cold it hasn't been an issue.

Wow, you guys, I am so lucky! Noise doesn't bother me much and my neighbors are pretty quiet. Some 20-somethings across the street sit out on their balcony quietly talking and laughing with friends until 1 am or so. Doesn't bother me at all. I did see a freaked out woman giving a statement to the police that "they were drunk and yelling every night." Funny how people's perceptions can be so different.

The one thing that does wake me up is if the neighbor I share a bedroom wall with gets lucky and brings a girl home after the bars close at 2 am. I can hear it all, and it is hard to sleep with that going on right by your head.

snuginarug wrote: The one thing that does wake me up is if the neighbor I share a bedroom wall with gets lucky and brings a girl home after the bars close at 2 am. I can hear it all, and it is hard to sleep with that going on right by your head.

Yeah I am lucky - above my apartment they have a 1 1/2 year old - not much night action going on there since baby was born LOL. Lots of sound of little feet during the day but that is it.

I've got you all beat. Well, maybe not the one with the hyenas and peafowl. My neighbor's son was featured on an MTV reality series several years ago when he was in high school. The Mom doesn't work but has lots of money which she lavishes on her no-talent son, tirelessly promoting his floundering singing career. Frequently we're treated to impromptu midnight acapella "concerts" on their front deck overlooking the ocean. Lately, they've been using microphones and amplified music. Haven't wanted to make an issue of it because the mom seems really desperate to make her son a success. Catering trucks and limousines frequently come and go. Neither of them works; I don't think they have ever worked, and they seem to think that the neighbors are happy to hear the 22 y.o. kid's singing, whatever the hour. Just because you've had years of singing lessons doesn't mean you're any good.

Yes, she's somewhat deluded, and, yes, it does disturb my sleep.

I am the noise neighbor .
My house sits on a corner lot that is a lot and a half big. The side that faces my neighbor house the dog kennel on it. I don't let my dogs out until about 6:30 7 in the morning, sometimes they are noisy. Our fire pit is also on that side and we have fires out there a few times in the summer that can last past midnight. I also have 4 teenage kids the oldest being 19 who this year has invited friends over to have a fire. My neighbors though have never complained of the noise and we always invite them over when we have a fire.

I AM that neighbor with the barking dog. We don't really LET her bark at night or early morning, but she occasionally does run out to bark at a possum in the yard or another barking dog in the middle of the night. When that happens, we call her in and shut the dog door. It happens maybe once or twice during the summer months when our fence becomes a "possum highway".

BUT, I have a grumpy neighbor who lives behind us. Our dog is really turned on by running water and must have barked when they were watering their garden on the other side of the fence. I'm guessing things escalated and they sprayed her with the water. So now she barks whenever they are in the yard. She otherwise just barks occasionally when any dog would bark (garbage trucks, other dogs, etc.), in general she's a fairly quiet dog.

We started getting annonymous notes in our mailbox about "a lot of barking going on", but they did not sign it, and at that point we had no clue who was being bothered. We asked our immediate neighbors who had no complaints. Then there was an "animal control letter" about an annonymous complaint (to avoid grudge-reporting, it takes 3 neighbor's complaints before animal control will impose a fine, so this was just a warning).

Late one morning (11 o'clock or so) our dog was barking and I heard this neighbor yell "Shut up!". Aha! We wrote a nice letter and attached it to a bottle of wine. We apologized to the neighbor, gave her our cell phone number, and asked that she please call if the dog was being a bother or she wanted to us to keep the dog in at certain times. She has called occasionally since then and I have either put the dog in the house or crated her to stop the barking. We bring her in if we're home and hear a lot of barking (rarely). No more complaints.

Our next door neighbor's dog howls "woo woo woo woo woo" all night when left alone. Thankfully, that doesn't happen too often! I can put up with the occasional disturbance.

If your neighbor's dog is a problem, please give them the benefit of the doubt by talking to them about it first. Most people want to be good neighbors. You'll sleep better for it.