General Chat

is keeping me awake and having a severe effect....any one else being driven mad ?

When we moved here it was pretty quiet, but for the last year there has been a high pitched noise at night, almost a vibration, at bedroom level, and it is, as they say, doing my head in! We can't work out where it is coming from ( so many buildings it can be bouncing off) but is at the worst level between about 2 and 6 AM.

With the window open I can drown it out to some extent with the traffic noise from the main roads ( which I also didn't hear much when we moved in..until 2 years later they chopped down woodland to build a school and yet more boxes made of ticky-tacky. ) but even then I can hear it.

I was just reading this article which says it well. If you don't want to read it all this bit sums up “Those people who already have fragmented sleep patterns experience heightened effects, making them more vulnerable. Such groups include the elderly, pregnant women, those already experiencing poor health and shift workers
:-(

https://tinyurl.com/y8tzeuks

Are you sure it is not something in your house that is making the funny noise?

My last refrigerator made some extremely odd noises at night.

Have other neighbours noticed it? If so, could the council help you track it down?

It's one of those sounds that once you hear it you can't not hear it isn't it? Near me there's a house being built and they have a very loud generator going all day whether they need it or not.....you can't not hear it!!

Sharron I agree some fridges do make some very loud weird noises when they get old...unlike us humans :-)

Sharron I've gone to the extent of turning off the fridge/freezer and going back up to see if that helps as I know we had one that made a racket, but it is definitely nothing in the house.

I did wonder if it is coming through the lofts from one of the houses further along ( heating/lights for cannabis growing?? lol) but I think not as the 'obvious' one has changed ownership.

DetEcTive have asked one but they don't sleep that side of house, and the other does night shifts so not there. Next but one sleeps with a fan on but it's not that. D says there are some generators near the school etc but might have to go and sit by it in the middle of night to find out, though not really the sort of place you want to wander round at night.

That's it exactly Caroline, it's just that pitch you can't ignore once you hear it. I don't sleep heavily now, as I did when I was young lol, a legacy of caring and being woken often.

I’m a chronic insomniac, have been for 40 years. I can hear the faintest of noises which hubby doesn’t hear. We have an owl just below our house and I find myself listening for the next hoot!! I do sleep with earbuds listening to radio plays and that is the only way I can get a few hours sleep each night.

Generally it’s very quiet here although if a speed nut drives fast along the road on the other side of the valley that will wake me. Then I’m even more grumpy having been woken!

I do indulge in senile naps, about an hour late afternoon.

Any noise without an explanation would drive me crazy too.

Sue, I went up for a 'nap' about 6 the other day telling Dan to wake me if need be ( phone call half expected) and woke up at half ten so I obviously needed the sleep. Now I know why my mum used to have an hour on the bed mid afternoon with a bar of aero and a book :-D

:-D :-D Rose

40 years of insomnia SC, you must be knacked :-0

Try a different bedroom.

My fridge/freezer sighs! :-S :-0

have you tried ear plugs?

can be most effective.
will rule out tinnitus related sounds..

I will have to try them Bob, I know it's not tinnitus as my son can also hear it.

The factory near my mother's house changed hands and became a bakery changing the working hours from daytime to nighttime working. They also put a flour silo next to her house. The silo was used during the night keeping mum awake and when the factory went into full production it reduced my mum's electric current. :-S

Mum went to her solicitor and he wrote to them and told them they didn't have a leg to stand on as mum had lived at the house for many years and they knew when they put the silo up it would be used at night and cause problems.

Mum received a letter from the bakery asking if she was considering leaving (she had been saying for about a year she wanted a home on one floor as her knees were playing up). She asked the solicitor to write back stating she didn't think she would get the full value with the silo. They then asked her to get 3 quotes for the property's full value and they averaged the quotes, all very similar, and paid her the money. She moved into a lovely place which was very quiet.

The rule is if you move into a noisy area e.g. next to a pub it's buyer beware but if the area changes when you are living there they are obliged to take care not to do something that upsets the neighbourhood.

I would contact your local councillor and complain also your council as they can monitor noise and make factories comply with rules re noise.