Neighbour snoring

Murphybear

unforeseen said:

MattMattMattUK said:

unforeseen said:

The neighbour would first be investigated, then warned, then served a compliance notice and finally prosecuted.

A noise complaint about snoring would not even get investigated. A council is in no position whatsover, legally or morally, to dictate that a person partakes in a series of medical examinations and treatments, which is what would probably be needed for obesity, sleeo apnoea and even smoking cessation..  

Noise complaints have to be investigated and again, the legislation does not have acceptable sources of noise, it is not the source that matters, it is the volume emitted.

unforeseen said:

As has been proved, it needs the High Court to force unwanted medical procedures on a person.

No one is "forcing" surgery on anyone, what they would be required to do would be to compliant with the warning and compliance notice, how they achieve that is entirely up to them.

Nice theory, but that is all it is. They will probably investigate briefly and decide that the person has a medical condition (which excessive snoring is) and they are unable to take any further action.

A compliance notice IS forcing the person to seek medical advice/treatment. 

Newspaper headline "council forces person to get treatment for sleep apnoea or get fined"   That is what the compliance notice will achieve and there will be some serious backpedalling in the council corridors

I did a lot of research on snoring when it turned out that my new husband (27 years ago) snored badly.  

The council won’t investigate.  

“ A statutory nuisance needs to arise from something which is an unreasonable activity and case law does not permit normal domestic/everyday activity from constituting a nuisance. It would not be possible to consider snoring unreasonable and it is part of normal domestic life/activities.”  The same reason that they can’t investigate children screaming and babies crying.

The NHS website has lots of helpful information about what causes snoring and what can be done about.   Common reasons for snoring are obesity, drinking just before bedtime and smoking.  If none of these things work they may do some surgery.  However it’s rarely available on the NHS, often doesn’t work and if it does work it often comes back.  

Nasal polyps may cause snoring.  Common symptoms are a permanently blocked nose and loss of sense of smell.  They can be treated quite easily by surgery but have a habit of coming back  . I’ve had them removed twice and when they came back a third time the ENT Consultant said they were quite small and not worth removing again.  

My husbands snoring settled down without any intervention from us or the NHS.  It did take a few years though. 

Marvel1

If reported and you decide to sell, this would need to be declared as a dispute.

Any links to back up this has been reported before?

bb69

OP I sympathise, experiencing the same thing with downstairs neighbour - going to opt for some underfloor board soundproofing at some point soon 
Hope you manage to get sorted, and the boots earplugs recommended on here, really do work, have used them over the years

Big_Blind

Beammeupscottie said:

Hi all , I am at the end of my tether , bought a 1st floor flat , I have not been able to use the main bedroom at all due to neighbour below snoring , my adult  sons have each tried and either can’t get to sleep or are woken up , the last straw is finding my son sleeping on the floor in the kitchen . when the neighbour is especially bad every room in my flat we hear him snore.  His children come over twice a week and every weekend , the noise is off the scale I have bought headphones to sync to my tv to drown the noise out. We have all tried EarPods. So now my lounge is being used as a bedroom, which is not ideal as my son works shifts , I have tried talking to my neighbour , but that did not end well , I am sleep deprived and now depressed

How are you getting on now? I feel your pain as I’m getting driven insane by snoring. I have a lot of significant medical problems so really need some sleep. I also have ADHD/ASD/Insomnia/Sensory Issues so even small noises can stop me getting to sleep if they’re the wrong pattern or there’s no pattern. My problem, however, is not a small noise. My wife is the complete opposite to me - she has zero problems getting to sleep and falls asleep within seconds. She also sleeps for at least ten hours and tends to be difficult to wake up and gets really mad if anyone dares wake her. My son has always known to wake me if he needs anything. Even although I’m always at a sleep deficit and might find it hard to get back to sleep, he’s my priority. When I’ve had literally zero sleep the night before I really really want to sleep but the snoring can make it impossible. Just the feeling of the house shaking messes with me as it’s not soothing like being on a boat. I’ve tried being in another room at the other side of the house with a fan on and playing white noise at max volume on noise-cancelling in-ear headphones but I still hear her, even if it blocks out the noise of the doors rattling. It’s even set off the car alarm when the car is parked on the drive. I would say I’ve never heard anything like it but her dad and brother are nearly as bad so it could be genetic? I’ve suggested going to the doctor but she’s not interested as she doesn’t feel it impacts her. I had several hospital stays last year and eventually worked out it was my body reacting to a chronic lack of sleep - after getting no more than 2 hours sleep most nights, for months. The shared bays with old men farting, snoring, having sats monitored, machines beeping all night and even a crash call were more tolerable. My son has complained too and I don’t want it to impact his performance at school. I really don’t k ka what to do!

Emmia

Big_Blind said:

Beammeupscottie said:

Hi all , I am at the end of my tether , bought a 1st floor flat , I have not been able to use the main bedroom at all due to neighbour below snoring , my adult  sons have each tried and either can’t get to sleep or are woken up , the last straw is finding my son sleeping on the floor in the kitchen . when the neighbour is especially bad every room in my flat we hear him snore.  His children come over twice a week and every weekend , the noise is off the scale I have bought headphones to sync to my tv to drown the noise out. We have all tried EarPods. So now my lounge is being used as a bedroom, which is not ideal as my son works shifts , I have tried talking to my neighbour , but that did not end well , I am sleep deprived and now depressed

How are you getting on now? I feel your pain as I’m getting driven insane by snoring. I have a lot of significant medical problems so really need some sleep. I also have ADHD/ASD/Insomnia/Sensory Issues so even small noises can stop me getting to sleep if they’re the wrong pattern or there’s no pattern. My problem, however, is not a small noise. My wife is the complete opposite to me - she has zero problems getting to sleep and falls asleep within seconds. She also sleeps for at least ten hours and tends to be difficult to wake up and gets really mad if anyone dares wake her. My son has always known to wake me if he needs anything. Even although I’m always at a sleep deficit and might find it hard to get back to sleep, he’s my priority. When I’ve had literally zero sleep the night before I really really want to sleep but the snoring can make it impossible. Just the feeling of the house shaking messes with me as it’s not soothing like being on a boat. I’ve tried being in another room at the other side of the house with a fan on and playing white noise at max volume on noise-cancelling in-ear headphones but I still hear her, even if it blocks out the noise of the doors rattling. It’s even set off the car alarm when the car is parked on the drive. I would say I’ve never heard anything like it but her dad and brother are nearly as bad so it could be genetic? I’ve suggested going to the doctor but she’s not interested as she doesn’t feel it impacts her. I had several hospital stays last year and eventually worked out it was my body reacting to a chronic lack of sleep - after getting no more than 2 hours sleep most nights, for months. The shared bays with old men farting, snoring, having sats monitored, machines beeping all night and even a crash call were more tolerable. My son has complained too and I don’t want it to impact his performance at school. I really don’t k ka what to do!

Divorce?

I'm surprised if it is really that bad, that she won't see a doctor, especially if it's affecting you like this. There could be a physiological reason for the volume. Needing a minimum of 10 hours also sounds like her sleep quality is poor.

Does she have something like sleep apnoea? Has the snoring got worse over the time you've been married?

Murphybear

MattMattMattUK said:

unforeseen said:

The neighbour would first be investigated, then warned, then served a compliance notice and finally prosecuted.

A noise complaint about snoring would not even get investigated. A council is in no position whatsover, legally or morally, to dictate that a person partakes in a series of medical examinations and treatments, which is what would probably be needed for obesity, sleeo apnoea and even smoking cessation..  

Noise complaints have to be investigated and again, the legislation does not have acceptable sources of noise, it is not the source that matters, it is the volume emitted.

unforeseen said:

As has been proved, it needs the High Court to force unwanted medical procedures on a person.

No one is "forcing" surgery on anyone, what they would be required to do would be to compliant with the warning and compliance notice, how they achieve that is entirely up to them.

What about screaming babies?  What do you think the council could do about that?  Probably nothing.  I think the source matters a great deal.  

dionnetay

Heya,

So sorry you’re going through this—we had the same with our upstairs neighbours. Long story short, the building was never soundproofed properly, and we can literally hear them sneezing.

Tried loads of things, but honestly, the best fix was using the same white noise machine as our baby. We got the Zello Original—it has loads of different sounds and even a little light for reading, which is a nice bonus. Really would recommend! Got it from Amazon. x

Pollycat

dionnetay said:

Heya,

So sorry you’re going through this—we had the same with our upstairs neighbours. Long story short, the building was never soundproofed properly, and we can literally hear them sneezing.

Tried loads of things, but honestly, the best fix was using the same white noise machine as our baby. We got the Zello Original—it has loads of different sounds and even a little light for reading, which is a nice bonus. Really would recommend! Got it from Amazon. x

Necropost - original post was in December 2023.
OP last logged on January 2024.

Chrysalis

I started snoring 2 summers ago, originally I thought was a one off as what seemed to be causing it was snot from my nose been trapped at the back of my mouth and I could feel that been the issue triggering the noise.  But that snot eventually cleared up and I noticed I would still snore.  I was self aware as the snoring would start just as I was about to enter sleep, and it would jolt me awake.  I am guessing certain muscles change/relax when in sleep or entering sleep and that triggers the snoring.  I became aware it could persist whilst asleep when my neighbour mentioned it, but she snores as well, and she told me not to worry about it.

I have since observed if I sleep facing left it doesnt happen or only happens a little bit so have now trained myself now to sleep that way.

My home has no noise proof, and the loudness of a snore through a ceiling/floor is far more mild than other noises I have had to deal with, so it can be much worse to put in perspective, although obviously sleeping in the same room as someone who snores is a different thing entirely.

But anyway in terms of dealing with noise that prevents sleep, I have by far found the best thing is background noise, before the energy crisis started I used to have my PC on 24/7 in my bedroom, and that has a background noise from the fans, when I started turning it off, I noticed very quickly I was having a harder time nodding off as I had lost that white noise, not so bad if in the day with traffic acting as a white noise, but at night it was very evident.  To compensate I found an app for my phone which is designed to help babies sleep but it worked for me, you can pick from a set of different background noises and set a timer for how long it plays for, I pick the light rain option, and it works very well.  My timer is set to 2 hours, and whenever I have used it I have always got to sleep before the timer runs out.

Examples of noises I have had to endure in the past (and/or present).

DIY from neighbour around the clock, usually drills and sawing. (all round the clock, would stop occasionally but hours felt random).

Thuds on floor above, like heavy objects being dropped. (usually between 9pm and 4am).

Machinery running above me. (all through night)

Furniture being moved around (typically this happened between 1 and 4am).

Motorbikes outside loud revs.  (primarily from 10pm to 3am),

Lesser noises far easier to deal with.

Walking around heavy footed.

Door slamming.

Washing machine.

Snoring.

People chatting outside for hours without moving on in dawn hours.

Sirens (am on emergency vehicle route, thankfully they usually lights only at night).

App is called "white noise baby sleep sounds" on the play store.

I have a lot of sympathy, there is multiple strong links that associate noise with health both physically and mentally.  But snoring is not something I would report a neighbour for.  I would be very surprised if a council took such a complaint seriously.

Murphybear

MattMattMattUK said:

unforeseen said:

MattMattMattUK said:

If your neighbour will not engage then you report them for noise nuisance, you take further action as necessary. 

https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/housing_conditions/nuisance_and_asb/action_when_noise_is_a_nuisance

I'd love to know what action can be taken against a person snoring. Absolutely none would be my assessment. 

The origin of the nuisance noise is irrelevant, drum kit or snoring would be treated equally. The neighbour would first be investigated, then warned, then served a compliance notice and finally prosecuted.

Emmia said:

unforeseen said:

MattMattMattUK said:

If your neighbour will not engage then you report them for noise nuisance, you take further action as necessary. 

https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/housing_conditions/nuisance_and_asb/action_when_noise_is_a_nuisance

I'd love to know what action can be taken against a person snoring. Absolutely none would be my assessment. 

I'm sure the neighbour would prefer not to disturb the OP with their snoring, but actually stopping snoring isn't quite that simple - it's not like doing DIY at 2am, when you could just not do it!

To stop instantly might not be that easy, but the main cause of snoring is obesity followed by smoking which can be dealt with, other causes are sleep apnoea (CPAP), sleep position (change position), excessive alcohol before sleeping (drink less), and lowest on the list are usually obstructed airway issues which require surgery (available on the NHS).

The NHS website has a very good article on  snoring.   My husband used to snore very loudly but losing 4 stone made a difference