[antonp]

From my anecdotal evidence I see that sleep robustness can be strongly shaped by conditioning when we're younger.

Ex: having your children sleep in bedrooms with open doors with a dim light source on will make them into one of those "I sleep through everything" sleepers.

Curious to hear other people's experience.

[tomcooks]

Grew up in a very rural area (maximum of 2 cars passing by my window everyday) and used to sleep in pitch dark.

I could get robbed, bombed and receive a kidney transplant without noticing - so yes it's anecdotal, curious as well

[isostatic]

Once I'm asleep I can sleep through a lot (and even if I do wake up, get out of bed, and put the kids in the shower after they've been sick - I have no memory of it in the morning)

However getting to sleep is tricky. I've found two things that seem to work.

One is listening to Legally Blonde the musical on repeat with headphones on -- on a plane even where I don't get a bed this allows me to sleep for a good 6 or so hours on an overnight flight. It's weird, I think I had it on once some years ago and fell asleep, now my brain feels to be "conditioned". If I listen to it I start feeling sleepy.

The other is at home where it's quiet, dark, and no movement. I start thinking about orbital mechanics (at least as much as KSP has taught me), and I usually fall asleep fairly quickly.

[ccozan]

Interesting.

I cannot go asleep unless is pitch black. On the other side we used our kids to sleep with some dim light in the room, so they can sleep at noon in plain bright sun no problem, which I can't :).

Other than that, we also used them to get asleep on some background noise ( some silly TV or Radio show, foreign language, for example ), and after they are asleep I can talk normally near them, work, etc. Again, a thing I cannot do, if I hear a noise, the slightest, I am awake and my sleep is gone.

[Lxr]

Counterexample: my sister and I are opposite in this regard, despite similar conditioning.