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- Title
Nocturnal aircraft noise exposure increases objectively assessed daytime sleepiness.
- Authors
Basner, Mathias
- Abstract
There is no doubt that noise in general and aircraft noise specifically disturb sleep. However, so far no study has objectively assessed the effects of traffic noise on daytime sleepiness. In a polysomnographic laboratory study, 24 subjects (mean ± SD age 33.9 ± 10.8 years, 12 male) were investigated between 7:30 am and 8:30 am with infrared pupillography after a noise-free baseline night and after 9 nights with varying degrees of aircraft noise exposure. The natural logarithm of the pupillary unrest index (lnPUI) differed significantly (p = 0.006) between noise (lnPUI = 1.61) and baseline (lnPUI = 1.48) nights. Objective sleepiness levels increased significantly with the number of noise events (p = 0.021), with the maximum sound level of noise events (p = 0.028), and with the equivalent continuous noise level (p = 0.013) in exposure nights. However, these levels did not reach pathological levels as observed in another study on untreated obstructive sleep apnea patients. This is the first study to show that nocturnal aircraft noise exposure increases objectively assessed sleepiness in the next morning. These findings stress the relevance and the potential public health impact of sleep disturbances induced by environmental noise. Further studies are needed to investigate the association of nocturnal traffic noise exposure and objectively assessed sleepiness in the field.
- Subjects
AIRCRAFT noise; PHYSIOLOGICAL effects of noise; SLEEP; POLYSOMNOGRAPHY; NOISE pollution
- Publication
Somnologie, 2008, Vol 12, Issue 2, p110
- ISSN
1432-9123
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11818-008-0338-8