My guesses are either an electronic drum set or that he's exercising, maybe using free weights.

You can certainly address the issue of the times that he makes these noises. That early in the morning and that late at night is inappropriate in shared living situation.

Check your lease to see if there is anything about quiet hours or being quiet in general. Start documenting the noise, writing down dates and times and relative degree of loudness, like "Loud thud woke me out of sound sleep at 5:45 am" or "Could not get to sleep until after midnight due to loud intermittent thumps from 10:30 to midnight."

Then, if you feel comfortable about approaching the downstairs tenant, go downstairs and introduce yourself. Explain that there is noise coming from his unit that disturbs you and your normal activities. Ask him nicely to make these noises either at different times of the day or perhaps in a different room, in the hopes that you won't hear the noise as much if he makes it in the living room or kitchen or wherever. He may not realize that sound can travel upwards, and he might be thinking that it's okay to make these noises because there is no one underneath him.

If you are not comfortable dealing directly with the tenant, just go straight to management. Give them a copy of your documentation, explain the problem, point out any parts of the lease that have to do with noise that the downstairs guy is breaking, and ask them to do their job.

I would try going to talk to him first. I would just say, "Hi, I would like to introduce myself, I am your neighbor above you. I don't know if you are aware of this but there are these noises between the hours of blank and blank. They are very loud thuds. The noise is disturbing me, and I was wondering if you could do it a little later in the morning or a lot earlier than bedtime. He is probably having sex. I understand it is hard when you have good neighbors, and you are used to them being quiet then some loud ones move in. I am experiencing similar problems. Also, you can go to your landlord and ask them to speak to the tenant. If that doesn't work, I resort to calling the cops. In my situation, this hasn't been helpful lately. I am thinking I am going to write the neighbor a letter threatening a lawsuit. I won't go through with it, but you can do that I read it online. I will just threaten some money action, and I am sure that will stop the people below me from being so freaking loud.

I'm so glad. That you asked. Basically I have got the exact same neighbour as you I spoke to my neighbour about four times and wrote a letter about this to her as well. Basically she does it on purpose she also lies and pretends to know nothing about these noises. I felt so helpless I signed up to this website just to have written this comment nine years after this post.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about my neighbour's actions. Perhaps my neighbour is trying to jolt me into action literally like a jockey with a whip on a horse. I have received professional help many times for my mental health.