It's gone 10pm and the neighbours are still making noise in the garden

Someone starting their car can cause people not to sleep so should they have to walk?

Always call out of your window asking them to turn it off. I do this and so far no one has beaten me up.

Any chat outdoors at night sounds a lot louder than you think, so it's very possible she was disturbed by quiet chat. It really carries. There's not much to be done about it though - we can't outlaw al fresco conversation in the evenings to account for it.

I love hearing people out in their gardens when I’m in bed. No idea why! I find it comforting.

What? Effective earplugs do block out the sound of an alarm, at least partially.

10pm isn't particularly late to go to bed - I choose to go up nineish to start relaxing for the night, but I'd expect people to start having consideration for their neighbours after 10pm and be quiet, especially on a weekday night.

Get over it.

I couldn't sleep with earplugs, also known to cause ear problems. Ears aren't meant to have things stuck inside them.

And this people is what we're up against........

Yes, it was barely dusk at 10pm last night. I was in my garden until after midnight (silently reading on my Kindle with a cold drink, before anyone loses their shit) and the birds were still singing until about 10.30pm. There's a family of magpies living in my neighbours' conifer tree who were still squawking and chattering away. It was still 23C at gone midnight too.

Well clearly they're not "chatting quietly" or OP wouldn't be disturbed by quiet chat....

Noise cancelling headphones

It also depends on who you live with. A road full of professionals that work for a living and are raised well, would be considerate certainly after 10pm. Especially if they have professions such as surgeons, air line pilots etc.
Even if it is for the sake of young babies and children resting in their beds we would always keep the noise to an absolute minimum after 9pm mid week. We have raised our children to consider others too.

A road full of benefit claimants that do not work, and never need to be anywhere in the mornings might be less in tune with normal life, and I can see why that might be a problem.

what's really odd is your proud assertion about how late you go to bed.

What an odd thing to say.

But you're not being considerate to anyone if you expect everyone else to whisper or go indoors early on a hot summer evening just because you happen to get up at 5am and apparently can't wear earplugs, use a vibrating alarm or tolerate anything other than complete silence to get to sleep.

You have to be considerate to others too and accept that your preferences don't always trump other people's right to lead a perfectly normal life.

If your alarm also goes off at 5am and you can manage in 5 or 6 hours of sleep and then do a 12 hour shift on your feet then I'm impressed.

I've done that many, many times. Happy to have impressed you.

Not always! I live on the very edge of a small town. Two guys along the road used to go and get pissed play snooker every Thursday evening.

The noise they made toddling back at midnight was only talking and laughing. but fuck me, they were really loud. They often woke me up, but I never dreamed of complaining. They were only talking, after all. (Actually, I mostly used to chuckle, because they were rarely making any sense.)

I work crazy and unpredictable hours and I also wear industrial-standard earplugs (snoring husband). I'm also a pretty deep sleeper. I do still hear my alarm when it goes off. I can understand why you might not want to risk it tomorrow morning but if you haven't tried earplugs I'd give them a go. They're a sanity saver for me. (I love him very deeply but he sounds like a plane taking off.)

Well aren't you the toughest of the tough.

Yes, I thought that was extreme too!

I have a friend who lives overseas but stays here when she's in the UK. She grinds coffee beans at 7 am for her first cuppa, and it makes an almighty racket. She'd have to leave it an hour and go uncaffeinated...

That's not their problem. 10:00 PM is not late I'd be more sympathetic if it was gone midnight. Get some earplugs in

yeah mine do it at 2am🙄

Most people aren’t though. This is a you problem. Especially since you’re determined not to do anything to mitigate it.

It's weird what people will complain about.

My NDNs complained to me about the noise of my ex's van starting at 7am, Mon-Fri. (Note that they didn't complain to him, just me!) His job had an 8am start time and was an hour's drive away, so there was sod all either of us could do about it. And it had to be parked on private property overnight because there was a lot of expensive kit on it.

I often wonder if they also complained about a guy along the road, who also had a noisy diesel van, but went to work at 5am.

Okay but have you ever talked to them? If I knew my neighbour was up at 5, I would be considerate. If they have no idea then they’re not being inconsiderate. They’re not mind readers. I know my neighbour works late Wednesday/ Thursday so likes a lie in Friday, so on a Friday morning I try to keep the kids out the garden. If she’d never spoken to me I wouldn’t know, so I’d probably let them out earlier.