I think where an individual grows up has a lot to do with life as an adult. Being in the Army at basic training it was pretty easy to see the city verse the rural vs the country people. On the bivouacs the city people did not sleep very well at all. The country people rarely left the base to enjoy a little bit of town or city life.
Of course my perception is a bit jaded as I grew up in a rural almost suburb area. Town was only a couple miles away on bike, the city was only an hour away by car. So I don't have the "it's to quiet" or it's to noisy issues of many people. I can sleep through cars honking sirens going off, and snap of tree branches, the buzz of insects, leaves being rustled by the wind.
Housing in the sixties was for a different type of family, in many cases families were larger and grand ma or grand pa may have lived there or lived real close. A home gets its character from the past and the present. There will always be a history to a house and that history is added to paint layer by paint layer. (wall paper layers). In sixty years it will be a totally different home.
What do you think caused the difference?
I know a few people who have moved from the country to the city and then can't sleep, because it is too noisy. I sleep through anything at all.. Luckily, my daughter is pretty much the same :)
Our house had two families living in it at some point and there were two kitchens as well, but only one place to shower. It was also home to a music composer/producer and some famous Finnish singers used to stop by from time to time. The neighbors (been here just as long as the house) told us about it :)
It is interesting what it will become in 60 years - will it still be standing?
I think a lot of city people have Agoraphobia, in a city there is always somewhere to duck in when you hear an unusual noise, not so when sleeping under the stars with no tent. There is no where to get away from the unusual, to them sounds.
When it comes to country people in a city it is all the closed in feelings, the lack of openness, and the strange sounds that permeate a city but not the country.
Like you I can pretty much sleep anywhere, and through almost any noise.