[bschwindHN]

I used to live in a wooden construction apartment, with neighbors above me. They themselves stomped a lot, both late at night and early in the morning, somehow.

Then they had a kid, which grew up and of course would run around the house at any hour. I was getting terrible sleep and it was driving me crazy.

All I could really do was move, and I made sure the next building was reinforced concrete, and that I would be on the top floor. The unit also ended up being on one end so only one wall shared with a neighbor.

It was instant relief and absolutely worth the move. It sucks though because obviously not everyone can live on the top floor of a building. If you're a heavy sleeper then I guess this is less of a problem, so I hope we have enough heavy sleepers in society so there's less competition for top floors. Probably wishful thinking though because the top floor is desired for other reasons unrelated to sleep.

[scythe]

Another thing to avoid are hardwood floors. I live in a concrete high rise but that wasn't enough to deal with a neighbor upstairs who would stomp around in shoes on the — admittedly very nice looking — white oak floor. It's basically a giant drum. Even vinyl is quieter.