Environmental noise during night-time carries negative effect on sleep

A new study published in Environmental Health Perspective suggests that transportation noise carries a detrimental impact on self-reported sleep.

A sufficient amount and quality of sleep is required for excellent daily alertness and function, as well as a high quality of life. Environmental noise, particularly from aviation, road, and rail activity, causes a significant burden of disease in Europe. Nighttime noise is associated with a large illness burden. The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued guidelines for environmental noise management based on a review of information published up to 2015 on the effects of ambient noise on sleep. As a result, Michael Smith and colleagues undertook this systematic review and meta-analysis to update the WHO evidence assessment on the effects of ambient noise on sleep disruption with more current data.

Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and PsycINFO were used to find studies on self-reported sleep among people exposed to ambient traffic noise at home. The three outcomes were falling asleep, awakenings, and sleep disruption. Extracted data were used to generate exposure-response relationships for the likelihood of being severely disturbed by night-time noise [average outdoor A-weighted noise level 2300-0700 hours] for aviation, road, and rail traffic noise separately. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) standards were used to assess the overall quality of evidence.