Before-after field study of effects of wind turbine noise on polysomnographic sleep parameters.
TL;DR: The result of this study based on advanced sleep recording methodology together with extensive noise measurements in an ecologically valid setting cautiously suggests that there are no major changes in the sleep of participants who host new industrial WTs in their community.
Abstract: Wind is considered one of the most advantageous alternatives to fossil energy because of its low operating cost and extensive availability. However, alleged health-related effects of exposure to wind turbine (WT) noise have attracted much public attention and various symptoms, such as sleep disturbance, have been reported by residents living close to wind developments. Prospective cohort study with synchronous measurement of noise and sleep physiologic signals was conducted to explore the possibility of sleep disturbance in people hosting new industrial WTs in Ontario, Canada, using a pre and post-exposure design. Objective and subjective sleep data were collected through polysomnography (PSG), the gold standard diagnostic test, and sleep diary. Sixteen participants were studied before and after WT installation during two consecutive nights in their own bedrooms. Both audible and infrasound noises were also concurrently measured inside the bedroom of each participant. Different noise exposure parameters were calculated (LAeq, LZeq) and analyzed in relation to whole-night sleep parameters. Results obtained from PSG show that sleep parameters were not significantly changed after exposure. However, reported sleep qualities were significantly (P = 0.008) worsened after exposure. Average noise levels during the exposure period were low to moderate and the mean of inside noise levels did not significantly change after exposure. The result of this study based on advanced sleep recording methodology together with extensive noise measurements in an ecologically valid setting cautiously suggests that there are no major changes in the sleep of participants who host new industrial WTs in their community. Further studies with a larger sample size and including comprehensive single-event analyses are warranted.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors conduct a review of the evidence surrounding the optimal characteristics for the sleep environment in the categories of noise, temperature, lighting, and air quality in order to provide specific recommendations for each of these components.
77 citations
Cites result from "Before-after field study of effects..."
...Similarly, a study that compared EEGmeasured sleep before and after installation of wind turbines in a neighborhood found no differences in objective or subjective sleep outcomes (category 1A), however, the noise exposure in that study was the same in both conditions (37 dBA, [37]....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a narrative review of observational and experimental studies was conducted to assess the association between exposure to wind turbine sound and its components and health effects in the general population, concluding that wind turbines lead to a higher percentage of highly annoyed when compared to other sound sources.
Abstract: A narrative review of observational and experimental studies was conducted to assess the association between exposure to wind turbine sound and its components and health effects in the general population. Literature databases Scopus, Medline and Embase and additional bibliographic sources such as reference sections of key publications and journal databases were systematically searched for peer-reviewed studies published from 2009 to 2017. For the period until early 2015 only reviews were included, while for the period between January 2015 and January 2017 all relevant publications were screened. Ten reviews and 22 studies met the inclusion criteria. Most studies examined subjective annoyance as the primary outcome, indicating an association between exposure levels and the percentage highly annoyed. Sound from wind turbines leads to a higher percentage of highly annoyed when compared to other sound sources. Annoyance due to aspects, like shadow flicker, the visual (in) appropriateness in the landscape and blinking lights, can add to the noise annoyance. There is no evidence of a specific effect of the low-frequency component nor of infrasound. There are indications that the rhythmic pressure pulses on a building can lead to additional annoyance indoors. Personal characteristics such as noise sensitivity, privacy issues and social acceptance, benefits and attitudes, the local situation and the conditions of planning a wind farm also play a role in reported annoyance. Less data are available to evaluate the effects of wind turbines on sleep and long-term health effects. Sleep disturbance as well as other health effects in the vicinity of wind turbines was found to be related to annoyance, rather than directly to exposure.
57 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors combined the methodology of stress psychology with noise measurement to an integrated approach to better understand causes and effects of wind turbine (WT) noise, and found that more residents complained about physical and psychological symptoms due to traffic noise (16%) than to WT noise (10%, two years later 7%).
45 citations
TL;DR: There is an extensive and diverse body of evidence around health impacts of wind turbines in residential settings, showing particularly noise consequences concerning increased noise annoyance with its complex pathways; no relationship between wind turbine noise and stress effects and biophysiological variables of sleep; and heterogeneous findings concerning sleep disturbance, quality of life, as well as mental health problems.
35 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the psychophysiological mechanisms that underlie sleep disturbance in response to noise, review current evidence regarding the effects of wind farm noise on sleep, evaluate the quality of existing evidence and identify evolving research in this area.
Abstract: Adequate sleep is important for good health and well-being, and inadequate sleep leads to impaired attention and performance. Persistent poor sleep is also associated with cognitive and metabolic impairment, cardiovascular problems and diminished psychological well-being. Recent growth in wind farm developments has been associated with community complaints regarding sleep disturbance, annoyance and a range of health issues that some attribute to wind farms. Wind turbines create aerodynamic and mechanical noise that, if sufficiently loud, has the potential to disturb residents’ sleep, particularly for those living in close proximity. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), noise effects on sleep are expected to occur with outside noise levels > 40 dB (A). On the other hand, the WHO guidelines also state that “when prominent low-frequency components are present, measures based on A-weighting are inappropriate”, so uncertainty remains regarding which alternative noise measures and noise limits are most appropriate to mitigate community impacts of wind farm noise on sleep. In Australia, dwellings are typically located > 1 km from the nearest wind turbine where wind farm noise becomes more biased towards lower frequencies (
$$\le $$
200 Hz) at low sound pressure levels (
$$<\sim $$
40 dB (A) outside) that may or may not be audible inside a dwelling. Nevertheless, as with any environmental noise, wind farm noise has the potential to disturb sleep, via frequent physiological activation responses and arousals affecting the micro-structure of sleep, and the overall macro-structure of sleep, including total sleep time potentially reduced by difficulty falling asleep and returning to sleep following awakenings for whatever reason. Over time, chronic insomnia could potentially develop in individuals with greater sensory acuity and/or those prone to annoyance from environmental noise. However, it is unclear if and how much sleep is disturbed by the relatively low sound pressure levels relevant to wind turbine noise. Good empirical evidence to investigate these plausible mechanisms is sparse. In this paper, we describe the psychophysiological mechanisms that underlie sleep disturbance in response to noise, review current evidence regarding the effects of wind farm noise on sleep, evaluate the quality of existing evidence and identify evolving research in this area.
29 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the relationship between rumination and poor sleep quality by inducing rumination about a negative event in the pre-sleep period and assessing self-reported sleep quality.
173 citations
"Before-after field study of effects..." refers background in this paper
...Rumination, such asworry, functions as a sourceof presleep cognitive arousal and interferes with sleep quality, perhaps causing sleep-related difficulties.([26]) After WTs operation, most probably residents accepted this new change in the community and they found the turbines less disturbing than anticipated....
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TL;DR: It is suggested that wind farm noise can negatively impact facets of HRQOL, with residents living within 2 km of a turbine installation reporting lower overall quality of life, physical quality oflife, and environmentalquality of life.
Abstract: We report a cross-sectional study comparing the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of individuals residing in the proximity of a wind farm to those residing in a demographically matched area sufficiently displaced from wind turbines. The study employed a nonequivalent comparison group posttest-only design. Self-administered questionnaires, which included the brief version of the World Health Organization quality of life scale, were delivered to residents in two adjacent areas in semirural New Zealand. Participants were also asked to identify annoying noises, indicate their degree of noise sensitivity, and rate amenity. Statistically significant differences were noted in some HRQOL domain scores, with residents living within 2 km of a turbine installation reporting lower overall quality of life, physical quality of life, and environmental quality of life. Those exposed to turbine noise also reported significantly lower sleep quality, and rated their environment as less restful. Our data suggest that wind farm noise can negatively impact facets of HRQOL.
164 citations
TL;DR: Significant dose-response relationships between PSQI, ESS, SF36 Mental Component Score, and log-distance to the nearest IWT were identified and the adverse event reports of sleep disturbance and ill health by those living close to IWTs are supported.
Abstract: Industrial wind turbines (IWTs) are a new source of noise in previously quiet rural environments. Environmental noise is a public health concern, of which sleep disruption is a major factor. To compare sleep and general health outcomes between participants living close to IWTs and those living further away from them, participants living between 375 and 1400 m (n = 38) and 3.3 and 6.6 km (n = 41) from IWTs were enrolled in a stratified cross-sectional study involving two rural sites. Validated questionnaires were used to collect information on sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index — PSQI), daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Score — ESS), and general health (SF36v2), together with psychiatric disorders, attitude, and demographics. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were performed to investigate the effect of the main exposure variable of interest (distance to the nearest IWT) on various health outcome measures. Participants living within 1.4 km of an IWT had worse sleep, were sleepier during the day, and had worse SF36 Mental Component Scores compared to those living further than 1.4 km away. Significant dose-response relationships between PSQI, ESS, SF36 Mental Component Score, and log-distance to the nearest IWT were identified after controlling for gender, age, and household clustering. The adverse event reports of sleep disturbance and ill health by those living close to IWTs are supported.
161 citations
TL;DR: Worries about aspects of modern life affecting health can strongly influence the attribution of symptoms and beliefs about health effects after environmental incidents.
Abstract: Objective: Concerns about environmental and technological changes affecting health have been shown to be associated with symptom reports in cross-sectional studies. We aimed to investigate how worries about modernity affecting health, negative affectivity, and prior symptom complaints influence health complaints after environmental spraying in a prospective study. Methods: Two hundred ninety-two residents of West Auckland completed questionnaires measuring recent symptoms, negative affect, and concerns about the effects of modernity on health before aerial spraying of their neighborhood with Foray 48B. After spraying, 181 residents (62%) returned a follow-up questionnaire measuring symptoms, spray-avoidance behavior, and the perceived effect of the spray program on health. Results: The number of symptoms reported after the spray was most closely related to the number of symptoms reported at baseline (s = 0.40, p = .0001). Higher levels of modern health worries (s = 0.23, p = .001) and baseline symptoms (s = 0.17, p Conclusion: Worries about aspects of modern life affecting health can strongly influence the attribution of symptoms and beliefs about health effects after environmental incidents.
122 citations
"Before-after field study of effects..." refers background in this paper
...Concern about environmental changes, especially those associated with new but nonperceptible exposures, such as low-frequency noise, appear to act as a trigger for such reports of ill health.([23,24]) Self-reported sleep disturbance may also be associated to the indirect effects of individual differences such as visual and attitudinal factors....
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TL;DR: In this article, the effects of noise on sleep were reanalyzed in an effort to develop a quantitative dosage-response relationship, and large and systematic differences in sleep disturbance were observed between the findings of studies conducted in laboratory and in field settings.
Abstract: The findings of 21 studies of the effects of noise on sleep were reanalyzed in an effort to develop a quantitative dosage‐response relationship. Large and systematic differences in sleep disturbance were observed between the findings of studies conducted in laboratory and in field settings. The influence of noise on sleep was also found to depend on additional factors such as the nature of noise and response metrics, noise source, background noise level, length of study, and sex of test participants. No reliable quantitative model for sleep disturbance could be developed from the studies reviewed.
91 citations
"Before-after field study of effects..." refers background in this paper
...Testing location is also important when studying the effects of environmental noise on sleep, as people may adapt to noise in their home setting.([12,13]) Moreover, in a laboratory, it is difficult to generate some types of environmental noises, and noise from wind turbines (WTs) is especially problematic because of its significant low-frequency component....
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