Bumps in the night?!

[HalfJack]

I keep getting freaked out when I hear noises outside when I'm trying to sleep.

If I hear the front gate rattle or someone standing/talking outside my house I become so anxious and alert I can't sleep.
My neighbours are pretty noisy too and its hard to tell what noises are coming from within my house or theirs. It often sounds like there are people in the spare room, it's not the most secure house but I've lived here 6 months and never had this problem before.

Anyone else have a similar problem?

[Oosh]

You can buy this thing that plays background/white noise. I bought one for my mum and dad. They're not expensive. You can set them to play background noise like the sea/waves, the countryside/crickets, the rain etc
Put it on at bedtime and it'll mask any annoying neighbour sounds. http://sound-machine-review.toptenreviews.com/mobile/

[somerandom]

Noises like that make my heart race pretty bad and it does take a little while to calm down afterwards, its a horrible feeling!

I have a fan on at all times (not necessarily pointed on me!) to drown out night noise and it does help. :)

[JoeNoir]

I use ear plugs, mainly due to the fact that my wife snores like she was in a competition. But it does deal with the background noises.

[HalfJack]

Oh thanks guys!
I was so busy being annoyed with myself for being anxious I didn't consider masking the noises with ear plugs or anything. Much appreciated x

[I'mdave27]

Once in my house everyone was sleeping then all of a sudden the downstairs radio turned on FULL BLAST waking everyone up so I went to go turn it off and it was turned off...it was unplugged ! So it turned off then we all went back to bed and it happened again. Another time my friend said he saw an old lady in my house and it turned out to be the old lady that used to live there ! Lol

[aprilmoon]

I was just agreeing with the fan idea.
I do that all the time, and it really works.
I often wonder why people always have to say their goodbyes and other farewell banter OUTSIDE the house when its late!
It drives me nuts! :mad:
Why not say it inside first?:shrug:

[HalfJack]

I know right!? Our neighbour does that all the time.
Another puts her bins in front of her garage so she has to move them to let the car in, dragging them across concrete, even in the early hours of the morning. The first time we heard her do it at night we thought someone had kicked a neighbours door in or something.