From reading the OP, it isn’t at all clear that the neighbor knows. It seems no one has spoken to him about it.
OP already said that the TV on isn’t “loud”…it’s just disturbing to him/her. Watching television in your own home at a normal volume level at any time is a reasonable behavior. The argument that you have lived there 20 years holds no water. Plenty of people have different sleep habits. Some people stay up all night and watch TV.
If your sleep patterns are so sensitive that you can’t live in an apartment with attached neighbors, then you probably should move to house or some sort of condo without attached neighbors.
Please provide your cite.
buy a fan? really? 
I’ve started documenting the noise using a decibel meter at 5 minute intervals at various times. I found a local noise ordinance so will follow that. Thanks for all the Responses and help!
We have no way of knowing if even a single piece of that information applies to the OP.
there might be something of use here: 5 Tips for Dealing with Neighbor Noise | HowStuffWorks
And you don’t necessarily have to buy a white noise machine or a fan http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=white%20noise%20sound&sm=1
Why is that confusing? People are suggesting things that work for them, and a noisy box fan that makes a steady white noise is useful to a lot of people. Personally, I use a CD that I burned and play on the CD player in my bedroom on repeat. You can also use your laptop to stream tracks from any various free sources, or get a machine that only does white noise. Lots of people have issues with household noise that disturbs their sleep, and lots of people use various methods of producing white noise that helps mask those noises. Those people sleep very well.
Conversely, it could all apply. But logically, it provides a solid general reference because most law is simply copied for various areas with a few modifications. It’s pretty unlikely that reasonable noise ordinances for a Chicago residential area would seem like something from Bizarro-world anywhere else in the US. I don’t get why the internet insists on bogging every discussion down with minutiae like this.:rolleyes:
Exactly. I’ve lived in a lot of towns, large and small, and been to many more. I’ve never seen one that didn’t have a noise ordinance, usually covering 10 PM to 7 AM.
From the OP I gather that you don’t think that the tv is being played at an unreasonable level. So, IMHO, that just comes with the territory of living in an appartment. If total silence is that important to you, you’re living in the wrong building.
So i gather you you haven’t even spoken to the guy about it, and you’re going straight to decibel meters and reviewing noice ordinences, with i assume the end result being some kind of action with the authorities? Sheesh.
I’m not referring to the law itself. I’m referring to the information given by the OP. He himself said “It wasn’t loud mind ya’’”
Look, just because the OP can hear a TV in an adjacent room while it’s dead silent in his own apartment, doesn’t mean the local decibel laws have been broken. Unless you’re trying to argue that a city is with in its rights to tell it’s citizens “Everybody, lights out at 10 pm., It’s the law. No TV, no radio, no nothing!”
That seems like the path that the OP is on…and hey he’s lived there for 20 years.
Yeah, really. You said yourself the noise isn’t loud, and it appears the cops have come out and had a listen and not found a noise level to cite the neighbor for. (Unless your comment about them rolling up, listening for 5 seconds, etc. was from when you’ve called in noise complaints about other people…) So it doesn’t sound like the guy’s doing anything that you can force him to stop or change. That means you’re going to continue to hear his tv in your otherwise silent apartment while you’re trying to sleep. You can either sit up at night keeping a noise log and fuming, or you can take steps to mask the noise enough to get some sleep.
The second option is probably going to be more productive.