As others have said, masking the sound is best and especially in a
rental situation certainly the most feasible solution. For a cheap
demonstration as to how effective this can be, using something you may
already have, place a box fan a couple inches from the wall & turn it on
blowing AGAINST the wall. Varying the speed of the fan & the distance
from the wall will vary the volume/"tone" of the sound. The 1st night
you try this the fan noise may seem initially intrusive, but since it is
CONSTANT you will quickly block it out. You may find the fan is all you
need.

Interesting about the laughter affecting your dreams. My personal noise
pet peeves are loud vehicles (more & more common with the proliferation
of trucks & "performance" exhaust systems on every kid's 12 year old
Civic) and barking dogs. To the latter, I had a inconsiderate moron
neighbor years ago who had a toy poodle which they would allow to bark
any hour of the day or night. On more than one occasion, I was in the
middle of some totally canine-free dream when suddenly the barking would
become part of it, shortly after which I would wake up. Could have shot
that f'ing dog, AND his owner. Finally repeated disturbing the peace
tickets from the police convinced the jackass it was better to just
bring the miserable creature inside than to keep writing checks to the
city...

Dan

Leroy Mowry wrote:
The 40-year old bedroom door easily passes sound. The door is
practically made up of thin plywood sandwiched to 1" x 2" studs
separated vertically by half a foot or so. The door closes tight, but
just enough to slip a credit card thru. Eventually, sounds of laughter
go into my R.E.M. sleep and create nightmares. I then go to work
at the grave yard shift like a Zombie. I'd tried and gave up using
earplugs since they keep falling off, create sores or just got tired of
disinfecting them to reduce ear infections. What are some ways I
can reduce sound on this rental unit?

Thanks