A new study finds that exposure to airplane noise increases of people risk of sleeping fewer than 7 hours per night. This comes from the Boston University School of Public Health and adds to research into the adverse health effects of environmental noise. This means such individuals were unlikely to receive the minimum recommended amount of sleep each night.
Specifically, the findings indicated that people who were exposed to airplane noise at levels as low as 45 dB were more likely to sleep less than 7 hours per night. For comparison, the sound of a whisper is 30 dB, a library setting is 40 dB, and a typical conversation at home is 50 dB. These are the types of sounds processed by the auditory cortex — the “auditory brain,” that is, the area of the brain that processes acoustic stimuli.
The research was undertaken in Western U.S., looking at people residing near to a major cargo airport. This represented the first large-scale analysis of aircraft noise and sleep duration that accounts for the disruptive effects of multiple environmental exposures in communities, such as greenery and light at night.
Although exposure to noise from aircraft is common for many people, little is known about the health effects of aircraft noise. However, it has been established that aircraft noise causes stress and is potentially harmful to humans.
To gather the data the researchers examined airplane noise exposure and self-reported sleep disturbance among more than 35,000 participants living around 90 of the major US airports. The researchers drew upon aircraft noise levels every five years from 1995 to 2015, focusing on two measurements: a nighttime estimate that captures airplane noise occurring when people sleep, and a day-night estimate that captures the average noise level over a 24-hour period and applies a 10 dB adjustment for aircraft noise occurring at night, when background noise is low.
After accounting for a range of factors, including demographics, health behaviours, comorbidities, and environmental exposures such as greenery and light at night, the results showed that the odds of sleeping less than seven hours rose as airplane noise exposure increased.
In addition, it was found there was a relatively strong signal between aircraft noise and both dimensions of disrupted sleep, short sleep duration and poor sleep quality, near major cargo airports.
Cargo operations tend to use larger, older, heavily laden, and therefore noisier aircraft that often fly through the nighttime hours.
The researchers observed no consistent association between aircraft noise and quality of sleep. However, based on the patterns of overall sleep disruption, the study suggests that further investigations are warranted.
The research appears in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The study is titled “Associations between Aircraft Noise Exposure and Self-Reported Sleep Duration and Quality in the United States-Based Prospective Nurses’ Health Study Cohort.
