<p>My roommate has a creative solution. It didn't start out as one, but here it goes: he turns on the fan every night, and it drowns out any sound that is not ridiculously loud. My roommate goes to bed at 10:30pm, but I go to bed six hours later. At the same time, I just take the compromise of angling my laptop and positioning furniture so very little light reaches his side.</p>
<p>Believe it or not - a fan will not wake you up or keep you from going to sleep. That's because it creates white noise, and as such your brain automatically filters it out as pure background noise. You will only get distracted if the noise has a clear pattern of frequencies. Eg. instruments, talking, etc.</p>
<p>My brother and I sleep in the same room. He generally goes to bed between 10 and 1, and I usually go to bed between 1 and 4. His biggest complaint is usually the fluorescent light, but I tell him to use his eyelids. :)</p>
<p>yeah my roommate told my my typing was too loud and that my earphone was blasting music. i actually typed little bit softer (I type really fast) and turned down the volume it worked out. She actually told me when she wanted something which made it easier for me to tell her stuff (your light's a little bit too bright, can you lower it/ can you guys talk outside)</p>
<p>* Believe it or not - a fan will not wake you up or keep you from going to sleep. That’s because it creates white noise, and as such your brain automatically filters it out as pure background noise. You will only get distracted if the noise has a clear pattern of frequencies. *</p>
<p>I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m the type who has very deep sleep, but takes time to fall asleep. I’m used to leave something to make white noise as you said. Could be a fan, a/c, flowing water on the sink (not dropping, flowing) or, during some time, running laptop (screen off) with hard math appliances so it would get hotter and the laptop fan is loud.</p>
<p>I like to keep the fan in my room on, the fan is a great way to generate white noise.</p>
<p>They also have white noise generators you plug into the outlet. There are also computer programs that generate white noise.</p>
<p>Water flowing is not the best way, your bills will go up. The laptop doing hard appliances is taxing for your system, and breaks in the fan can wake you up.</p>
<ol>
<li>Leave the room for a few days. He will feel lonely and will get the picture.</li>
<li>Confront him about it non-threateningly.</li>
<li>Talk to your parents about it.</li>
<li>Be more of a man about it and let it go. </li>
<li>Drop out.</li>
</ol>
<p>Can you get an accordion type of room divider screen that you can use just at night between your bed and your roomies? During the day you can fold it up so it is not in the way. That would at least solve the light problem. I would continue to try different types of ear plugs to find one that is comfortable for you.</p>
<p>I can’t believe you are complaining about typing. And no computer screen is bright enough to light up an entire room. Close your eyes, turn your head, its not that hard. If you think about it constantly then you’re not going to be able to fall asleep.</p>
<p>I had to deal with my roommate blasting heavy metal at three am, calling someone in the middle of the night multiple times a week and an alarm clock that sounded like a fire alarm. In my current place something is wrong with the window and it bangs up against something every thirty mins and my bed is right against the wall where the bathroom is and I can still sleep.</p>
<p>I think telling him to go somewhere else is lame. If he wasn’t using headphones and yelling while he was playing I’d call him a jerk and make him go somewhere else but my last roommate didnt believe in headphones so you have it pretty good. xD</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised this got so many “suck it up” comments. It would be one thing if the roommate was doing academic work and genuinely could not study in the lounge. But the roommate is playing video games. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask him to remove himself when the OP is trying to sleep.</p>
<p>comiclover: I figured you were either joking or were the nicest roommate on the planet. But even so, the majority of the people on here told the OP to suck it up.</p>
<p>What some of the “suck it up” people are failing to understand is not everybody is like them. Gasp. Shocker. Sputter. Gasp again.
Some people don’t mind a rockband playing in their room while they sleep, other people can’t stand a fly landing on a feather thirty feet away while they sleep.</p>
<p>OP should at least speak with him about it so that he’s aware it’s bothering you. He might voluntarily go somewhere else to work, or at the very least, keep you from letting this fester into something more.</p>
<p>Even though laptop lighting is not bright, I think that what make it unconfortable, specially when one is playing games, is the rapid change in the light patterns. It resembles a club-like light system, changes a lot, keeps yout attention on.</p>