As a tenant living in an apartment building, you have a right to a quiet and peaceful rental unit, but at the same time, your neighbors have a right to do innocent protected acts that make noise, such as running a juicer, singing in the shower, watching television and peaceful but slightly heated arguments.

This means that you should be ready to tolerate “normal” noise (including mild snoring) when living in multi-unit housing.

If you have a snoring neighbor, you can give them leeway if the noise isn’t too much, but if the snoring has crossed the line that you can’t sleep, you shouldn’t sit back in agony.

Snoring is an innocent act, and most people doing it don’t do it to hurt others, but it can be a bother when it’s too loud, and you should complain about it to your landlord.

It’s up to the landlord to inform the tenant that they are making too much noise for others and advise them to seek medical attention to make the building peaceful for everyone.

It’s the snoring tenant’s responsibility to be considerate of the other tenants and take the necessary measures to alleviate the problem.

Is snoring a noise nuisance?

Snoring is innocent, but it can be a noise nuisance when too loud. A study done by John Hopkins University found that 14% of snorers make up to 53 decibels of snoring noise, which is as loud as a dishwasher.

According to the researchers, this noise is loud enough to be classed as “noise pollution,” so to answer your question, yes, snoring can be a noise nuisance.

How do you deal with a neighbor’s snoring?

If your neighbor is a heavy snorer, there are many ways to deal with their snoring. Some of these ways include:

Give them a “gift.”

Most people will constantly complain about the snoring neighbor but never take action. This shouldn’t be you.

One way to stop the snoring is to find a time when the neighbor is at home and then visit them with a “gift.” Some of the excellent gifts you can carry include:

Nasal strips: These stick to the bridge of the nose, lifting the sides of the nose so that the nasal passages open wider.

Chin straps: Chin straps hold the mouth closed, promoting nasal breathing and eliminating the chance of snoring.

Nasal dilators: They work the same way as nasal strips, but you insert them into your nostrils, instead of attaching them to the outside. When in place, they open up the nasal cavity and widen it, so that air can flow freely.

Anti-snoring mouthpieces: Different anti-snoring mouthpieces work differently. Some hold the tongue away from the back of the throat, while others position the jaw for better airflow.

Anti-snoring sprays: They work by contracting the tissues inside your nose and mouth, creating a bigger space for air to get through.

Others work by keeping the insides of the nose and mouth lubricated, which significantly reduces vibration.

Doctor’s appointment: You can book an appointment with a sleep doctor and offer to pay for it.

If you have never talked to your neighbor before, introduce yourself and explain your predicament of how you can’t get enough sleep at night due to their snoring.

You should then explain the “gift” and tell them how much it will benefit both of you if they use it.

Depending on their personality, the neighbor can thank you for letting them know about your situation and even thank you for the gift and put it into use, while others might feel embarrassed or even offended, and they hurl insults at you.

To be on the safe side, be prepared. Hope for the best but brace for the worst.

Drown out the noise

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of meeting your neighbor or have talked to them and even complained to the landlord and the situation isn’t getting better, you should consider drowning out the noise.

The beauty is that there are plenty of ways to do it. Some of these ways include:

Wear earplugs

Snoring noise isn’t too loud, so you can easily block it using earplugs. The cool thing is that earplugs are cheap and easy to use.

While there are many earplugs in the market, one of the best to go for is Ohropax wax classic plugs. These get soft from your body heat and adjust to your ear canal, giving you an excellent seal.

Use white noise

White noise will block the snoring noises and soothe you to sleep. Unlike before when you had to buy a white noise machine, now you don’t, as there are plenty of white noise apps you can use.

You can even download white noise sounds to your laptop or phone, then listen to them through your earphones.

Some of the excellent white noise apps you can try include: white noise storm, rainy mood, and many others. Some of these apps even allow you to customize the noises to your liking.

Listen to music

Music with a slow, steady tempo is highly effective at slowing down the heart rate and helping you sleep fast.

Music is also helpful in helping you relax by taking your mind off things that might be annoying to you, such as your snoring neighbor.

Put together a playlist of your favorite songs, then listen to them from your computer or phone through the earphone.

Wear noise-canceling headphones

Can’t stand any sounds in your ears as you are sleeping? Drown your neighbor’s snoring noises using headphones such as M3 headphones.

As you are buying the headphones, pay close attention to the fit as buying extremely large headphones means you are as well as if you didn’t buy them as you won’t be blocking any noise.

At the same time, wearing extremely tight headphones means you will be too uncomfortable that you might even fail to sleep.

Change the bed position.

The reason you can hear your neighbor’s snoring is that you share a wall. This means if you change the bed’s location, you won’t hear the snoring anymore.

A great way to go about it is to move the bed to the other side of the room.

If this doesn’t work, sleep in the extra bedroom. You can even sleep in the sitting area, away from all the snoring.

Soundproof the wall

Adding an extra layer of drywall might not be practical as a tenant as it might be too expensive, and your landlord might not allow you to alter the wall, but you can block the noise using soundproofing or moving blankets.

There are plenty of ways to soundproof a wall. Learn them here.

Can you have the snoring neighbor evicted?

If you have tried everything at your disposal and still you can hear the snoring noises, you might be thinking about asking the landlord to evict the snoring neighbor so that you can have your peace, right?

Unfortunately, the landlord can’t evict the neighbor for snoring. The reason for this is because the noise is unintended and has a possible medical explanation.