Por culpa del ruido, no pude dormir bien.

Por culpa de means because of or due to, but with a clear negative idea: it suggests that something is someone’s or something’s fault.

So:

• Por culpa del ruido = because of the noise / due to the noise
• It sounds more blaming than just por el ruido

Compare:

• No pude dormir por el ruido = I couldn’t sleep because of the noise
• No pude dormir por culpa del ruido = I couldn’t sleep, and the noise is being presented as the cause/fault

So por culpa de is very common when the cause is annoying, harmful, or unpleasant.

Because in Spanish, de + el normally contracts to del.

So:

• de + el ruido → del ruido

This contraction is required in normal cases.

A similar contraction happens with:

• a + el → al

Examples:

• Voy al parque
• Vengo del trabajo

One important exception: if El is part of a proper name, the contraction is usually not made:

• de El Escorial

But with el ruido, it must be del ruido.

In Spanish, standard negation usually puts no directly before the verb.

So:

• pude dormir bien = I was able to sleep well
• no pude dormir bien = I wasn’t able to sleep well / I couldn’t sleep well

This is one of the most basic sentence patterns in Spanish:

• No tengo tiempo
• No quiero ir
• No entiendo

So here, no simply negates pude.

This is a very common question, because both come from poder.

• pude = preterite
• podía = imperfect

In this sentence, pude is used because it refers to a specific completed situation, usually one particular night or occasion:

• Por culpa del ruido, no pude dormir bien. = Because of the noise, I couldn’t sleep well.

This sounds like a finished event.

If you said no podía dormir bien, it would usually sound more like:

• I wasn’t able to sleep well
• I couldn’t sleep well

but with a more ongoing, descriptive, or habitual feel.

Compare:

• Anoche no pude dormir bien. = Last night I couldn’t sleep well.
• Con tanto estrés, no podía dormir bien. = With so much stress, I couldn’t sleep well. / I wasn’t sleeping well.

So pude fits a specific event better.

Because dormir means to sleep, while dormirse usually means to fall asleep.

So:

• No pude dormir bien = I couldn’t sleep well
• No pude dormirme = I couldn’t fall asleep

These are related, but not identical.

In your sentence, the focus is on the quality of the sleep, not on the moment of falling asleep. That is why dormir bien is natural here.

If you wanted to say the noise stopped you from falling asleep at all, you might say:

• Por culpa del ruido, no pude dormirme.

Because bien is an adverb, and bueno is an adjective.

Here, bien modifies the verb dormir, so it tells us how the person slept:

• dormir bien = to sleep well

You use bueno/buena to describe nouns:

• un buen libro
• una buena idea

But with verbs, you usually need bien:

• Habla bien
• Cocina bien
• Dormí bien

So no pude dormir bien is correct because bien describes the action of sleeping.

Yes. A causa de also means because of / due to.

So this is correct:

• A causa del ruido, no pude dormir bien.

The difference is mainly one of tone:

• por culpa de = more blaming, often more emotional or conversational
• a causa de = more neutral, sometimes slightly more formal

Compare:

• Por culpa del ruido... = The noise is being treated as the annoying culprit
• A causa del ruido... = Due to the noise

Both are correct, but por culpa de feels especially natural when you are complaining.

Yes, absolutely.

Both of these are natural:

• Por culpa del ruido, no pude dormir bien.
• No pude dormir bien por culpa del ruido.

The meaning stays basically the same, but the focus changes a little:

• Starting with Por culpa del ruido emphasizes the cause first
• Putting it at the end gives a more neutral flow

The comma in the original sentence is used because the cause phrase has been moved to the front. That is very common in Spanish.

It normally means I couldn’t sleep well.

That suggests things like:

• the sleep was poor
• the person kept waking up
• the noise disturbed their sleep
• they did sleep, but not properly

If you specifically want to say I couldn’t get to sleep / I couldn’t fall asleep, Spanish usually prefers:

• No pude dormirme
• No conseguí dormirme
• No podía dormirme

So dormir bien refers to sleeping well, not specifically to falling asleep.

Yes, and that changes the meaning slightly.

• No pude dormir bien = I couldn’t sleep well
• No pude dormir = I couldn’t sleep

The version with bien usually means the person did sleep, but badly. The version without bien is stronger: it suggests they couldn’t sleep at all, or at least practically not at all.

So both are correct, but they are not exactly the same.

Ruido is a masculine singular noun meaning noise.

So it takes the masculine singular article:

• el ruido

Examples:

• el ruido de la calle
• mucho ruido
• qué ruido

There is nothing unusual here grammatically; you just need to learn ruido as a masculine noun. That is why the sentence has:

• del ruido = de + el ruido