I'm living in a double room with a roommate in Brandon Hall and I'm kind of worried about not being able to sleep first year. I'm usually a light sleeper because I have insomnia and I get REALLY irritable when I don't get enough sleep.

Questions for people who have lived on Res:
When are people on your floor usually quiet by?
Is it loud at night or is there no sound at all after a certain time?
What do you do when you're unable to sleep (go somewhere else, listen to music...etc)?

Any tips from anyone when it comes to sleep is appreciated.
Thanks!

Originally Posted by despairless

I'm living in a double room with a roommate in Brandon Hall and I'm kind of worried about not being able to sleep first year. I'm usually a light sleeper because I have insomnia and I get REALLY irritable when I don't get enough sleep.

Questions for people who have lived on Res:
When are people on your floor usually quiet by?
Is it loud at night or is there no sound at all after a certain time?
What do you do when you're unable to sleep (go somewhere else, listen to music...etc)?

Any tips from anyone when it comes to sleep is appreciated.
Thanks!

There are quiet hours in effect. http://studentconduct.mcmast er.ca/pdf/RCC.pdf
Sunday – Thursday 11:00pm-8:00am; Friday and Saturday 2:00am-8:00am

If there are people partying next door or people talking in the hallways outside your door during these hours, you can call the CA from your room and they'll pass by to get the people out of the hallway or stop the party.

I've heard that Brandon is pretty loud... except one floor which is a quiet floor. In the past this floor was the 10th I believe...

Hopefully your floor won't be so loud and your roommate will be understanding. I did not live in Brandon and my residence advisers were usually pretty strict about everyone being quiet during quiet hours... so I hope yours are as well.

When you write the roommate agreement with your roommate make sure you specify this and try to set hours after which guests/music/noise isn't allowed.

Good luck

You will ALWAYS be able to find someone awake, no matter what time it is, but that doesn't mean it will be loud at all hours.

I had a similar problem in first year. I had a snoring roommate who always happened to get to sleep before me. I'd recommend buying some earplugs, they don't block out all the noise, but they do help. I also like reading before bed as I find it makes me tired. Try to figure out when your roommate is going to go to sleep and read for 15-30 minutes before then.

I'm not sure if you're a morning person or not, but I'd try to schedule your classes so you have as few 8:30 and 9:30 classes as possible. I figure sleeping in an extra hour or two is better than just not having an hour or two of sleep and, in general, the mornings aren't too noisy. Ideally, you could even coordinate your schedule with your roommate so that she doesn't wake you up when she has morning classes.

As far as roommate agreements go, it really depends on your roommate. My roommates (I had a triple) and I kind of took the agreement as a joke and didn't really give it much thought, but everyone's different so I can't guarantee that this will be the case.

Apart from snoring, I found that the room above our room was loud (I never figured out what they were doing, but it sounded like they were jumping on the floor with the intention of making noise ). I rarely, if ever had to deal with parties keeping me up. Then again I lived in Moulton, which is considered to be a quiet res.

Hope it all works our for you!

It all depends on the people on your floor and residence. From last year, I've heard that Brandon (in general) could get a little noisy at times so be prepared for that.

Originally Posted by jhan523

There are quiet hours in effect. http://studentconduct.mcmast er.ca/pdf/RCC.pdf
Sunday – Thursday 11:00pm-8:00am; Friday and Saturday 2:00am-8:00am

If there are people partying next door or people talking in the hallways outside your door during these hours, you can call the CA from your room and they'll pass by to get the people out of the hallway or stop the party.

If your going to be calling the CA and complaining as suggested here, expect to not be well liked

CA's are there to make your residence experience better and you can speak to them confidentially, so if you need their assistance, don't be afraid to ask. If people know you have insomnia, they're more likely to be quiet. First years in residence can get a little wild at times, but at the end of the day, no matter how many horror stories you may have heard/will hear, you're all people, you're all sharing the experience and people will be considerate.

I understand getting irritable when you have little to no sleep. However, if you're having trouble with your roommate/neighbours, I recommend and highly encourage communicating with them, even if you don't really want to. When people are easily irritable, it can come across as hostile, so just make sure you're still building those solid connections and talking things out.

When you chose your preferences when signing up for Rez, there was a section on bed times, how social you want your room to be among other things. I found it actually worked well. In McKay, the building is split in half by a common room, and half of our floor was really loud but my side was quiet so I never had issues

Originally Posted by Snowman

When you chose your preferences when signing up for Rez, there was a section on bed times, how social you want your room to be among other things. I found it actually worked well. In McKay, the building is split in half by a common room, and half of our floor was really loud but my side was quiet so I never had issues

What kind of engineer chooses to live life on the quiet side!

Buy ear plugs.

Living in residence is always an adjustment, especially if you have never shared a room before. You will probably experience more noise than you do at home, and you may need to adapt to different sleep patterns.

With that said, your Community Advisor help you and the community develop appropriate noise norms through roommate agreements, community contracts, and quiet hours.
But, like Marooner said, earplugs are always a good buy!

there was always a group that somehow became loud near my room at night during 2nd term. they woke me up at 2am on a weekday because they were running around/knockin on their friends door and i just got out and told em to 'stfu' and it was nice and quiet since then. before this i told my ca multiple times but she didnt do anything really. she tried but she was just too nice but ya just tell your ca if you experience these kinds of problems.

Originally Posted by Chris23

If your going to be calling the CA and complaining as suggested here, expect to not be well liked

No one needs to know who called the CA

Originally Posted by ykv23

No one needs to know who called the CA

Its the one room that isnt in on the party