I have just started school at a new university, which I love so far. I live with 5 roommates in an apartment on campus, and while I hate having that many roommates because I like my alone time, they are all nice so I deal with it. However, this is our first weekend on campus so this is when the parties start. I go to a city school so there are hardly any parties but students go to the bars around campus on weekends and hit it pretty hard. I drink on occasion and really only beer. Last night I went out to a museum and came back around midnight and went to sleep. I also texted one roommate letting them know that I was going to bed. However, around 4am I woke up to the sound of 4 of them screaming and yelling in the apartment that went on for about an hour before they all went to bed. It was mostly normal conversation and laughing, just way too loud for my desires. I couldn’t fall back to sleep for a while after this and only got 5 hours last night because I kept waking up after that also. I’m sure they did not realize how loud they were being, and they did seem drunk but they weren’t incoherent or anything. I slept with my door closed and a fan on but I still could hear them because of how small our apartment is. I know that I probably have absolutely no right to tell them to not scream and yell at 4am on a weekend when I don’t have anywhere to be the next day, but I am dreading all the other weekend nights after what happened last night and am actually getting butterflies thinking about it. Without criticizing me or anything, do you think there is any way I can reasonably ask them to be quieter without them getting weirded out or turning against me? Or do I have no right because of the sole reason that it is the weekend? We have a good relationship so far so I don’t want to ruin that. At my old college I had one roommate in a traditional dorm who was drunk all the time but this was never an issue since he came back by himself quietly. I live along the student bar strip (not by choice) so it is loud enough outside my building and I’d rather it not be loud in my apartment also.
Ugh. I’m a light sleeper, so I feel your pain. I think is very hard to get drunk people, who are having fun on a weekend, to understand how loud they are. So, I would suggest trying to get a noise machine to drown out the noise level when/if they get too loud. If that doesn’t work, try talking to them, but let a few weekends pass first to see if this is a one-off or an every weekend thing. They might settle down once school is in full swing. Ultimately, if you’re the only one who wants it quiet, you might need to find a different place to live, sorry to say.
For this time don’t say something, if is a constant problem in the next weekends talk with your roommates.
Yeah. They’re not harming anybody, nor trying to, but it really does interfere with my sleep. It happened early this week also but for not as long as last night. Week nights are fine obviously, but I hate how loud they were last night and how it could be every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday (the 3 main nights). I might be moving off campus with a friend later this year but I don’t want to have to deal with this. I do have an AC in my room, but it cycles, so it only makes noise like half the time. When it shut off last night I could hear them even more.
I would have a talk with them about keeping the noise level down after midnight. If it should continue I would get a Bose noise cancellation earphone. I got it for my kids when they went off to school. This year my daughter (6 years out of college) got me a a pair of Bose earbuds for when I fly. They do cancel out a lot of noise.
Differences in sleep needs can create real tension between roommates, no matter how wonderful the situation is.
You sound stressed about it, so maybe it would be wise to speak with them sooner rather than later as I originally suggested. I know for myself that my patience diminishes exponentially when I lose sleep. If this is the case with you, too, maybe let them know that you need a lot of sleep, acknowledging that you know they’re not trying to cause problems.
If it’s going to be an issue for you, honestly you’re better off moving sooner rather than later.
Is this on-campus apartment covered by residential life dorm quiet hours or is it independent of the college you’re attending?
If the former, dorm quiet hours usually include weekends. Only difference is that it tends to start later on weekends than on weekdays. If this is the case and your roommates aren’t willing to quiet down after midnight-2am, you may want to get the RA involved. Incidentally, I know of no college where weekend quiet hours didn’t include 4-5 am. Weekend quiet hours at my dorm usually started at midnight(10 pm on weekdays…but that’s likely due to the rural locale and past off-campus neighbor complaints).
If it’s the latter, your only hope is to cope and then find more considerate roommates.
I’m sorry you’re going through this as sleep deprivation over time can have negative effects on one’s studies and health.
Nope, it’s sadly independent. The apartments are wet, and no quiet hours exist.
I found this website that might be helpful. The provide soundproofing for apartments. Depending on what’s you’d need, this might be a good solution. I googled “apartment sound proofing” and found a bunch of ideas the might also work.
https://residential-acoustics.com/shop/soundproofing/acousticurtain/
Sorry if I’m not supposed to post links to other websites.
They just got back now (I’m not asleep yet) and they’re not drunk at all and not nearly as loud. So hopefully last night was just a one time thing. But we shall see.
I feel your pain. This is exactly why my rising senior is apprehensive to go to college. Does not want to deal with loud, obnoxious people in group living. I have jotted down the name of the noise cancellation ear phones. The best drunks are the ones who come home and slide into bed for sleep. I hope as the semester continues your party roommates run out of steam and cool it. In the meantime the previous posters have offered good advice.
It sounds like this is a mismatch in more ways than one. You also are not going out drinking with them!
You can try a white noise machine, or the earphones.
I am curious if you have other options for housing.
Did you sign a lease?
I would document the times when they are loud late into the night- the details. I know this may make you feel alienated from them but eventually, if this continues, you may need to try to get out of the lease if there is one.
One thing for sure: you cannot go too long with sleep deprivation and function as you should as a student.
Most towns and cities have a noise limit: neighbors can call the police after 11 and before 7. You obviously won’t call the police on your roommies but just saying, your complaint is widely recognized as legitimate.
if that’s the case, all you can do is cohave a discussion with them in the hopes they are receptive to being more considerate or if not, cope as best as you can and then get new roommates when the lease ends.
Depending on the actual LEO practices/policies in the area in question, there’s a strong possibility the police may only respond if the noise is disturbing neighbors outside the apartment.
In my area and several others I’ve lived in (NE cities, Midwest rural town, etc), noise complaints are mainly/only enforced if the noise affects neighboring apartment/neighboring buildings.
If the complainer is living in the same apartment, most LEO’s may have a talk to try getting the roommates to be considerate, but can’t do anything as if the noise is within the apartment, they’re may not actually in violation of the local noise ordinances as written or the violation is so limited they’d feel it’s too hard to prove to go through the trouble of writing up a report/bringing charges.
Some cops may go so far as to throw the problem back on to the complainant by saying it’s an internal roommate problem to be resolved between yourselves as from their perspective, you “volunteered” to live with those roommates even when that may not actually be true.
Also, if the area you’re living in is known to be a noisy areaa such as a bar strip or in the vicinity of nightclubs/musical venues, LEOs are even less likely to be strict about enforcing noise ordinances unless they’re receiving a large barrage of complaints…especially if the complainers are families with young children or senior citizens.
One of my questions - do you ever wake up and do things in early hours that irritate them? If you sleep earlier than them I’m just wondering if you tend to rise earlier as well.
Also LOL good luck getting LEOs to respond to a noise complaint unless you live in a high income low diversity city like Piedmont CA
Unless OP wakes up early enough so that quiet hours are still in effect(If one lives on campus and is heading down to breakfast to make it to earliest classes, not likely), the magnitude of offense isn’t remotely comparable. OP’s complaint was of noise which took place during hours when most people would reasonably be expected to be sleeping (4-5 am).
In fact, that hypothetical complaint from OP’s stay up till 5 am roommates would exhibit a sort of entitlement a former medical intern/resident roommate I had post-college exhibited when he foolishly called LEOs to complain about construction noise during sometime in the late morning-noon because it was disturbing his sleep as someone who had just worked the night shift.
LEO’s were obviously annoyed and told said roommate that noise complaints only applied from nighttime to extreme early morning hours(In practice, up till 6:30-7 am), construction noise during the late morning to early evening hours was something one should expect as a normal part of urban life, and the fact he needed to sleep during the day because he worked the night shift was his problem, not anyone else’s.
I have early classes on some days that they don’t but I’m very quiet. And I don’t wake up early and do jumping jCks or anything loud.
@cobrat unfortunately my building has no quiet hours. It is treated the same as other dorms and is on campus but still independent (no meal plan required, etc).
@cobrat remember this is a college dorm technically, just without quiet hours and required meal plans. It isn’t an independent building in the city, so just wanted to make sure you realized. The gate below my building is where all the bargoers come back in late at night, but as long as I shut the windows, the drunken noise is not a problem.
It’s very odd that a college dorm…even one which doesn’t have meal plans don’t have quiet hours of any kind.
Is there an RA or someone in charge of your dorm you can talk to ameliorate this situation if the roommates won’t cooperate?
The way you described your dorm lead me to believe you were living in an independently owned off-campus apartment.