My roomate has a tendency to stay up really late playing on his gaming laptop, usually until around four or five in the morning. I’m kind of a light sleeper and that—coupled with his talking throughout the night—usually makes it a lot harder for me to sleep. I’ve tried just sleeping through it for the semester, but it’s gotten a lot harder recently since he got a new setup with a bigger, brighter monitor and mechanical keyboard that makes loud clicking noises every time he presses a key. 

I asked him if there was anything he could do about the keyboard, and he already had a conventional keyboard for assignments that he started switching to for the night, but that’s still pretty loud. 

Last night, I was feeling kind of sick and I have a midterm today, and I really wanted to sleep well, so I asked him if he could just take his laptop to the basement. Our dorm has a commons area with tables that’s open 24/7 and usually pretty deserted at night, so I didn’t see why he couldn’t do the same stuff there.

After I asked, he just sat there for a couple minutes, staring blankly at his monitor, then threw his headphones on his desk and angrily got up to leave. I asked him if there’s something about the basement that totally fucks up his plans, and he just said no dismissively and continued to leave. I tried talking to him further, but he ignored me as he left. He’s furious.

I’ve tried to be accommodating to him. I got a sleep mask to deal with the light at night and just listening to music to drown out the noise he makes, but that doesn’t make it easier to sleep. He sleeps from around six to eight AM and then from around four to ten PM, and I try to find other places to go in the evening so I don’t disturb him. 

I tried communicating with him last night that this was a problem for me, but he wouldn’t communicate back. 

I don’t feel it’s unreasonable to want a dark, quiet place to sleep from around midnight to six in the morning. Is it? If so, how should I handle this situation?