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Of all the basic needs of humans, sleep is one of the most important. Whether you’re someone who only thrives on eight hours plus, or whether you are happily re-energised after five or six, it’s really crucial to try to get the amount of sleep that your particular body requires.
That’s because sleep isn’t just a luxury, it’s crucial to our functioning, health, and wellbeing. As many insomniacs (or new parents) will tell you, a life without good sleep isn’t a pleasant one – and it can lead to some real health concerns too.
After just one night without good sleep, you’ll likely feel mental and physical fatigue and potentially some irritability too, but if this sleep deprivation goes on for longer and becomes chronic your body and brain will really start to suffer. Your mental health could decline, with anxiety and depression both linked to sleep deprivation, whilst your immune system, cardiovascular system, and metabolism could also suffer.
So while getting a few nights of disturbed sleep every once in a while isn’t likely to do any lasting damage, if this becomes a constant thing, there is more reason to worry – and worrying is exactly what the couple in this story are doing, as they lie in bed awake at 12:30am.
Read on to find out why they’re not sleeping.
Constant sleep interruptions in what we thought was a nice, normal, peaceful residential neighborhood
My partner and I bought our house towards the end of 2025. Chicago suburbs.
The neighborhood seemed nice, the neighbors seemed normal. We felt good about it.
Flash forward to today, at 12:30am, I get woken up by a loud, modified car, first idling at a neighbour’s house before literally roaring away, leaving an echo of booming bass music behind it.
This neighbour has a nuclear motorcycle from hell (this vehicle, and his station wagon, have GIGANTIC exhaust pipes that are CLEARLY aftermarket mods), and he’ll just sit in his driveway to idle this thing for sometimes 55m at a time, revving intermittently.
Yikes! Let’s learn a little more about this neighbour.
This adult dude lives with his parents, who put on this whole “aw, we are so old, midwestern, sweet, and lovely, we can’t wait to get to know you” show.
It wasn’t until the weather got nicer and their son came out of the woodwork that we realized it *was* a show, and not genuine kindness: you can’t be kind and empathetic and raise a kid like this.
And of course this son only has car guy friends, so they all like to play with their Tonka trucks on a residential street (all single-family homes, little kids and elderly folk are all around us).
One of his besties sent my heart rate from 60 to 100 this morning as I was falling asleep, and I’m *so* grateful for that.
But this wasn’t the only neighbour they had issues with.
Our neighbour across the street woke us up at 5:30am Monday to Friday for months.
We tried reaching out to them to ask them to just stop idling in the car for ten minutes before leaving; it was that constant, low-frequency rumble that was coming thru our double-paned windows, brick facade, and 1950’s plaster and lath walls. No response.
We reached out to the Village. It took the police three months to go over to the house and check the muffler, they found he didn’t have one (against federal, state, and municipal laws), but didn’t issue a citation because “he’s going through a rough financial time.”
Ok?? And he gave me chronic insomnia that I’m trying to not have to treat with medication because healthcare is expensive; he moved out, but I still can’t fall/stay asleep, because I’ve been trained that this bedroom is where I get woken up by loud cars every morning.
But even when they were present, the cops were very little help.
The police also told us to call 9-1-1 for noise complaints, which never result in enforcement because they’re always late to the party, and that they “can’t ticket these car guys because they have too much money, so a citation won’t deter them”.
Which is it?? Too much or too little money?
They also said they camped out on a major 6-lane road and heard “no loud vehicles”, which is laughable: there are always loud cars and motorcycles on that road – literally everyone hears them.
I don’t know if it’s weaponised incompetence at this point or if they’re covering for their fellow cops who have loud cars in their free time.
All this is really getting to this couple.
All I want is to sleep in my own house without worrying about these cars. I use earplugs, but we feel the vibrations (despite paying for soundproofing on our little windows that can deafen all other noise except low-frequency ones). We have two noise machines, two fans, and an air filter running, so our room is like 44-ish dB at the start. These vehicles are coming in over that.
Our Village has stopped responding to our emails after my responses to their being condescending, rude (“different cars will sound different: a diesel truck will sound different to a sedan” None of these cars are diesel, but ok, thank you for mansplaining trucks vs sedans to me.
They’re also refusing to change their policies (who calls 9-1-1 for noise complaints and expects police to high-speed chase these offenders down??), and refusing to do anything about the neighbours we specifically identified with vehicle descriptions and addresses.
They basically said “We’re sorry you are experiencing health issues as a result of this, but we will not be changing anything at this time. We wish you the best of luck.”
Um, don’t Villages work for us? Especially when they have org charts on their website that go police–>Village Manager–>Village Board–>Residents? We have essentially lost our property rights (not allowed to sleep in my own damn house, or enjoy peace and quiet in our free time in the evenings).
Now she’s awake in bed, dreading the coming nights.
At this rate, I won’t be able to go back to sleep.
Our neighbours are also throwing a block party tomorrow (which we are skipping, for obvious reasons, and are going out to a different, better suburb where our families live), and, of course, they sent around a notice saying that those of us in a specific section of the block will not be able to have access to our driveways from 10am to 11pm (thirteen hours) tomorrow, without asking our permission or for our consent, which is on theme with how we’ve been treated thus far.
I guess moving here meant our neighbors get more say in how our property is used than we do, and the Village and police will back me up on that.
There are other people that don’t seem happy about it, but oh well. The entitlement remains high, and I remain awake. We don’t know whether to sell right away again, move home to live with our parents separately and rent the place out, or start sitting on our front lawn with an air horn at 11pm on Tuesdays, since it is on our property and we “have to be allowed to use [our] property the way [we] want to,” as our neighbors have been allowed to sometimes.
If I get this little sleep for much longer, I’ll be babbling incoherently with that air horn in my hand – it’s Nightmare on My Street…
You really have to feel sorry for this woman, this sounds impossible to live with.
Sleep is a fundamental thing that we humans need to function, so it’s no wonder she’s getting more and more frustrated with this.
Let’s see what folks on Reddit had to say about this.
This person reiterated the seriousness of the disturbances.
While others shared similar stories.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighborhood that’s up in arms after HOA and city clash about whether or not homeowners can place cones.
Meanwhile, this Redditor gave her advice on how to proceed.
It really sucks that while it’s very clear who is in the wrong, this woman isn’t being taken seriously. The disturbances could really harm the neighbourhood, with property prices dropping and neighbours becoming less neighbourly if this isn’t sorted quickly. But rather than prioritising the health and welfare of those living in the area, the authorities are instead turning a blind eye and (whether consciously or not) giving preferential treatment to the inconsiderate folk who are keeping everyone else awake late into the night.
This really isn’t fair, especially since other folk have to get up for work in the morning. And that’s not to mention kids and elderly people who could be even more traumatised by this. It’s totally inappropriate that nothing is being done about this serious noise pollution and health concern, and that such loose excuses are being given as to why the issue isn’t being sorted.
It’s no wonder they want to move.