If you live in an apartment complex and your neighbor or roommate’s snoring is so loud that it travels through the walls of their room adjacent to yours, or it travels through the ceiling, it can keep you from getting a good night’s rest. Luckily for you, there are ways that you can soundproof your room so that you no longer have to hear their snoring from your own room. But what are they?
The best way to soundproof a room from a neighbor’s snoring is by using acoustic foam on the walls if the room is adjacent to the neighbor’s sleeping quarters. If the snoring neighbor lives on the floor above, mass-loaded vinyl can be installed into the ceiling to help absorb the sound.
To learn more about these soundproofing options, plus a few more ways to reduce the sound of your neighbor’s snoring in your room, continue reading!
Soundproofing Walls with Acoustic Foam
If your snoring neighbor lives or sleeps on the same floor as you and you can hear their snoring at night, they likely have their sleeping quarters adjacent to your room.
If you want to soundproof your room from a snorer who sleeps adjacent to you, you’ll first need to figure out where exactly their room is adjacent to yours. This is because you only need to soundproof the wall that is shared with them.
When you notice their snoring, which is generally loudest while they are in their deepest stage of sleep closer to midnight, you can check each wall to see where you can hear and feel it the most. Check one wall at a time by pressing a hand and an ear against the wall.
Compare how well you can hear the snoring at each wall, and take note of which wall you can hear (and possibly feel) the neighbors snoring the most. This is the wall you will want to soundproof.
To soundproof a wall, you can use acoustic foam panels. Once mounted to the wall, they will help absorb sound coming through the wall and into your room.
Many of these foam panels that you can purchase online have an adhesive backing that you can use to stick directly to your wall, but if you’re worried about damaging the wall or leaving residual adhesive after you remove them, you can purchase command strips that will allow you to mount them without any damage.
The foam panels are very lightweight so poster-hanging command strips will do just fine. You can scatter these panels across the wall to absorb sound, but the more panels you arrange on your wall and the closer they are together, the more sound they will be able to absorb.
Mass-loaded Vinyl for Ceiling Soundproofing
If your snoring neighbor lives on the floor above you, and because many apartment complexes have duplicate floor plans for each apartment, you’ll likely hear their snoring coming from their sleeping quarters through the ceiling.
Many apartments that weren’t constructed very well are often made of cheap materials that are thin, and sound can travel through them very well. Because of this, while the floors may be thicker than the walls, the sound of a snoring upstairs neighbor can keep you up at night.
To soundproof your ceiling, you can install mass-loaded vinyl, which will help absorb and block a wide range of sound frequencies from coming through your ceiling. This can be installed directly onto the ceiling by cutting the vinyl into panels and then stapling it to your ceiling but is more effective when installed beneath the ceiling’s sheetrock.
This will require you to get permission from your landlord if you don’t own the property, but if you explain that the snoring is keeping you up at night, your landlord should be fine with it and may even help cover the costs or even hire a professional to install it for you.
This can be an expensive and difficult DIY project for the average person to do themselves, so if you’re unable to hire a professional to do the job for you, you can mount foam panels to your ceiling instead.
How to Arrange Your Room to Help Minimize Snoring
A simple way to help block out snoring, especially if the snoring is only bothersome but not excessively loud, is to arrange your room in such a way that you’re not able to hear it quite as much while trying to sleep. This works best if the snoring sound is coming from a wall, especially if the neighbor’s sleeping quarters are adjacent to your room.
Listen to each wall when you notice the snoring to figure out which wall is closest to the snorer. Then, in the morning, you can begin arranging your room, taking note of which wall is adjacent to the neighbor’s bedroom.
The best way to arrange your room and minimize the snoring is to move your wooden furniture and bookshelf to sit against the wall that is shared with your neighbor. The bookshelves and furniture will act as a barrier to dampen the snoring sound, essentially making your wall thicker and more difficult for sound to travel through it.
You can also move your bed to the opposite wall so that you will be sleeping far away from the wall that the sound is traveling through. We would also recommend you use soundproofing curtains, which will help to absorb sound and prevent it from bouncing around your room.
With all these things combined, you can dampen the snoring overall, even to the point where you won’t be able to hear it at all.
Other Tips to Block Out the Sound
If you’ve tried one or more of the tips and they didn’t do enough to minimize the snoring, or you’re unable to follow those suggestions because of cost, there are a few small and easy things that you can do to help you sleep.
The first thing you can do is use white noise. There are white noise machines that you can purchase and turn on when it’s time to sleep, or you can simply look up white noise on the YouTube app of your phone or television.
White noise is a combination of various frequencies all at once that can help to absorb or drown out your neighbor’s snoring.
Another tip we would suggest if you prefer not to use white noise is to use earplugs or sleeping ear muffs, which will eliminate or muffle the snoring sounds.
If you have a difficult time getting comfortable while using these, you can try playing some soft, instrumental music in your bedroom to help drown out the snoring and distract you from it so you can sleep.
