I can’t sleep properly sharing a bedroom and I don’t know what to do
Hi everyone, I’d really appreciate some advice because this is starting to seriously affect me.
I (25F) have been struggling to sleep in the same room as my partner (24F) for quite a while now. Growing up, I always slept in a very quiet environment and I’m a really light sleeper.
When we first started sharing a room, the bedroom faced a noisy road and there was constant outside noise. Using earplugs plus white noise helped a lot, and I was finally getting decent sleep again. But my partner found the white noise uncomfortable, so we stopped using it consistently, or used it at the lowest volume which did nothing for me.
Since then, my sleep quality has become really poor over the past 3 months. We recently switched bedrooms to a much quieter room facing gardens instead of the street, and I thought that would solve things. But now my partner talks and groans loudly in their sleep, and it wakes me up constantly.
I’ve tried multiple kinds of earplugs, including Loop Dream, but they don’t block the vocal sounds enough. I also know the issue isn’t just the room itself, because before we officially moved into the new room together, I slept there alone for 3 nights and slept really well.
Last night I lay awake for 5 hours before finally falling asleep around 5am. This keeps happening and it’s affecting my studies, mental wellbeing, and daily life. My partner has tried to compromise and even suggested sleep medication, but I don’t feel that’s a good long-term solution when I can sleep perfectly well in the right environment.
I care about my partner’s comfort too, but I’m getting desperate and don’t know what a reasonable solution looks like anymore.
Has anyone dealt with something similar? Did anything help?