ALL they wanted was a good night's sleep - and now they will, thanks to big changes in the sounding of train horns at night.

Fed-up residents have been left bleary-eyed because of noisy trains passing their homes in the dead of night and rudely interrupting their sleep by sounding their horns.

Now they can look forward to nights of sweet dreams with the news that the rail industry is planning to use fewer train horns at night.

Householders living near Southampton's Swaythling railway station are being awoken by loud train horns sounding as early as 5am.

However, with the changes, those intrusions will be a thing of the past with trains no longer routinely sounding their horns between 11pm and 7am.

The changes will also mean less noise disturbance during the day with trains, where able, using the lower note of the two-tone horn when passing whistle boards.

People using the footpath crossings between 11pm and 7am will have to take extra care when crossing, as the horns will not always be sounded.

The changes have come about as a result of a one-year review of the safety of crossings and the impact of train horns on railway neighbours.

The horns had become a big problem for Fiona Austin, whose three young children, Bradley and Skylar, five and Jessica, two, were being woken up at 5am every morning by passing trains.

The news has delighted Fiona and she and her children are now looking forward to some much-needed uninterrupted sleep.

Fiona, 37, of Channels Farm Road, said: "This is fantastic news especially with summer coming up because it will mean we will be able to open our windows.

"In the past we had to keep them closed at all time because the horns were just so noisy. It is brilliant news and I know a lot of my neighbours will be happy too.

"The noise woke up my children every morning. When they slept at their dad's they slept through until 8am, it is only here, because of the train horns that they are woken up so early, and when one wakes up, they all wake up."

Cora Ashford is another resident who found the use of train horns at 1.30am, 3.30am and 5am a real nuisance.

Although she welcomes the changes, she has not noticed any difference yet.

She said: "Of course I would welcome it and if it happened it would be very, very good, making the area like it used to be years ago."