eli5 why can’t people fall asleep when there’s a lot of noise

Question

eli5 why can’t people fall asleep when there’s a lot of noise

In: Biology

Answer 1

You can, once you get used to it. I used to live 2 houses away from a railroad track. Directly across the street from a factory that did metal stamping, that you could clearly hear inside the house during the daytime hours. I happened to work nights, so when i went to bed, you could hear the constant booming of the big press running. And of course, the constant sound of trains and their horn when approaching the crossing.

At first, it was difficult because they were all new, unexpected sounds. But once you got used to it, you didn’t even notice any of it.