House-sharing Brits brace for sleepless nights as Christmas occasion carnage spikes

It’s been kicking off for far too long in flat and house shares due to late night noise disturbing sleep and this week is just the start of wild Christmas party antics

If you thought noisy neighbours were tough to live with, spare a thought for those sharing a roof with rowdy housemates as we dive into Christmas party season. Consider this a heads up for arguments and plenty of them.

While many of us gear up for back to back gatherings with friends and family whether they be booze-filled or late-night movies, others will be braced for a serious drop off in sleep.

That’s according to new research from SpareRoom which found four in five renters have sleep disturbed by flatmates at least once a week.

For 15%, not-so considerate flatmates are shockingly waking them up every single night. This adds up on average to flatsharers losing a huge 218 hours and 24 minutes of sleep per person every year. And what exactly is waking them up, we hear you cry? Well…

Slamming doors leads the disruptive charge, followed by them making a racket arriving home late on. The list of most common disturbances extends to late night socialising and even flatmates having sex.

A good 27% of these long-suffering sleep-deprived souls admit to have given audio sleeping aids a crack in the bedroom in an attempt to block out the noise.

Matt Hutchinson, SpareRoom Director commented: “Flatsharing can be a fantastic experience and is how many people meet friends for life, but living in close quarters with others – particularly strangers – can of course come with its trickier moments.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, research revealed the noise has got so bad that 32% of flatmates have actually moved out as a result. Twice that number have had arguments over the matter and four in five renters have tried approaching their flatmates to resolve night time noise disruption. The outcome for 30% of flatmates was a response of denial or indifference, and a further 19% were hit by angry responses.

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We’ve all heard of a pre-nup ahead of marriages, SpareRoom has now introduced the Pre-nap to neuturalise domestic conflict.

Matt added: “We’ve created the Pre-nap agreement to help protect precious sleeping hours, and to encourage light-hearted dialogue around this common flatsharing issue, ensuring all parties are on the same wavelength when it comes to night time noise.”

The Pre-nap can be downloaded free from the SpareRoom website here.