can an adult learn to sleep more deeply (not be awoken by sounds)?

[indigosky]

DP is a very light sleeper who is awoken by every sound. I, on the other hand, sleep extremely deeply. In my lifetime I have slept through gunshots across the street (in the quiet small town where I grew up), fire engines putting out a major blaze across the street, etc. I generally awaken easily to the sounds of DD (I think even a shift in her breathing has sometimes woken me up), but pretty much no other sound disturbs my sleep.

We live in the city, and now that the windows are open at night, DP is beside himself -- he gets woken up constantly (even though we live in a relatively quiet residential neighborhood). When we chose to move to the city seven years ago, he and I both assumed that just like people who live next to train tracks or an airport, his body would learn to tune out the city noises so he could sleep. So far, that has generally not been the case.

My question is, is there any way that DP can learn to sleep more deeply so that sounds won't wake him up so easily? As someone whose body does this naturally, I'm always amazed when I wake up after a wonderful, restful night of sleep, and he tells me he had an awful night was up repeatedly all through the night because of sounds. I feel so badly -- I so wish I could share my ability with him! He would love a solution. We adore our neighborhood and don't want to move.

[Kinza]

My DH is like this.  He has to have background noise, like a white noise machine or music to help him stay asleep.  If he tries to sleep without the background noise, cars on the street, or me rolling over or the AC kicking on wake him up.  That's my only thought on the subject!