I started becoming a light sleeper as I got older.
When I was a teenager, I could sustain minutes of someone calling my name from two feet away from my bed separate from waking up.
I slept so difficult those years that I had to use a louder than average alarm clock in the afternoons. At one point in the first two years of school I was using two separate alarms to make sure I’d get to class on time to take an exam or turn in a paper. Gradually the scales started to tip in the other direction, so much so that I remember a stage of several weeks where I had insomnia every night just from hearing cars drive down a highway that is at least two miles from my house. The sound kept getting louder each night, despite technically staying the same. Since I already take antihistamines for pollen irritations, I switched from my non-drowsy Claritan in favor of the sleep-inducing effects of Benadryl. The change in my medication helped, but I still have concerns from time to time. One of the things I have struggled with the most while sleeping are Heating plus Air Conditioning condensers. They have to be outside because the warm coolant compressor inside can cool with fan driven air. My condenser is fairly loud, however the worst one on the whole block seems to be my next door neighbor’s. I have gotten woken out of a dead sleep at 3am from just the sound of his condenser turning on. Mine is about 15 feet from my window plus I rarely notice it regardless of the time of afternoon. It’s frustrating when you have to deal with a source of sound that is not only out of your hands, however also the result of a survival necessity for your neighbor’s home.