Noise emitted from road, rail and air traffic and their effects on sleep
TL;DR: The equivalent noise level seems to be a suitable predictor for subjectively evaluated sleep quality but not for physiological sleep disturbances, where physiological sleep parameters were most severely affected by rail noise.
About: This article is published in Journal of Sound and Vibration.The article was published on 2006-08-08. It has received 180 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Noise & Aircraft noise.
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01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: Policy-makers and their advisers are provided with technical support in their quantitative risk assessment of environmental noise and can use the procedure for estimating burdens presented here to prioritize and plan environmental and public health policies.
Abstract: The health impacts of environmental noise are a growing concern. At least one million healthy life years are lost every year from traffic-related noise in the western part of Europe. This publication summarises the evidence on the relationship between environmental noise and health effects, including cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, tinnitus, and annoyance. For each one, the environmental burden of disease methodology, based on exposure-response relationship, exposure distribution, background prevalence of disease and disability weights of the outcome, is applied to calculate the burden of disease in terms of disability-adjusted life-years. Data are still lacking for the rest of the WHO European Region. This publication provides policy-makers and their advisers with technical support in their quantitative risk assessment of environmental noise. International, national and local authorities can use the procedure for estimating burdens presented here to prioritize and plan environmental and public health policies.
794 citations
TL;DR: Evidence from epidemiologic studies demonstrates that environmental noise is associated with an increased incidence of arterial hypertension, myocardial infarction, and stroke, and the importance of noise mitigation strategies for public health is stressed.
Abstract: The role of noise as an environmental pollutant and its impact on health are being increasingly recognized. Beyond its effects on the auditory system, noise causes annoyance and disturbs sleep, and it impairs cognitive performance. Furthermore, evidence from epidemiologic studies demonstrates that environmental noise is associated with an increased incidence of arterial hypertension, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Both observational and experimental studies indicate that in particular night-time noise can cause disruptions of sleep structure, vegetative arousals (e.g. increases of blood pressure and heart rate) and increases in stress hormone levels and oxidative stress, which in turn may result in endothelial dysfunction and arterial hypertension. This review focuses on the cardiovascular consequences of environmental noise exposure and stresses the importance of noise mitigation strategies for public health.
516 citations
TL;DR: A considerable body of evidence suggests that these environmental agents induce low-grade inflammation, oxidative stress, vascular dysfunction, and autonomic nervous system imbalance, thereby facilitating the development of diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
Abstract: Environmental factors can act as facilitators of chronic non-communicable diseases. Ambient noise and air pollution collectively outrank all other environmental risk factors in importance, contributing to over 75% of the disease and disability burden associated with known environmental risk factors. In the first part of this review, we discussed the global burden and epidemiologic evidence supporting the importance of these novel risk factors as facilitators of cardiometabolic disease. In this part, we will discuss pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for noise and air pollution-mediated effects. Akin to traditional cardiovascular risk factors, a considerable body of evidence suggests that these environmental agents induce low-grade inflammation, oxidative stress, vascular dysfunction, and autonomic nervous system imbalance, thereby facilitating the development of diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Through their impact on traditional risk factors and via additional novel mechanisms, environmental risk factors may have much larger impact on cardiovascular events than currently appreciated. In the second part of this review, we discuss deficiencies and gaps in knowledge and opportunities for new research.
234 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of air, road and rail traffic noise on sleep and recuperation were investigated for 11 consecutive nights, which included eight noise exposure nights and one noise-free control night.
Abstract: Study Objectives: Traffic noise disturbs sleep and may impair recuperation. There is limited information on single and combined effects of air, road and rail traffic noise on sleep and recuperation.
Design: Repeated measures
Setting: Polysomnographic laboratory study
Participants: 72 healthy subjects, mean ± standard deviation 40 ± 13 years, range 18-71 years, 32 male
Interventions: Exposure to 40, 80, or 120 rail, road, and/or air traffic noise events
Measurements and Results: Subjects were investigated for 11 consecutive nights, which included eight noise exposure nights and one noise-free control night. Noise effects on sleep structure and continuity were subtle, even in nights with combined exposure, most likely due to habituation and an increase in arousal thresholds both within and across nights. However, cardiac arousals did not habituate across nights. Noise exposure significantly affected subjective assessments of sleep quality and recuperation, whereas objective performance was unaffected, except for a small increase in mean PVT reaction time (+4 ms, adjusted P 3 kHz) noise event components.
Conclusions: Road, rail, and air traffic noise differentially affect objective and subjective assessments of sleep. Differences in the degree of noise-induced sleep fragmentation between traffic modes were explained by the specific spectral and temporal composition of noise events, indicating potential targets for active and passive noise control. Field studies are needed to validate our findings in a setting with higher ecologic validity.
231 citations
Cites background from "Noise emitted from road, rail and a..."
...Typical for studies on the effects of noise on sleep (Basner & Samel 2005; Griefahn et al. 2006, 2008), amounts of wake and S1 were increased while amounts of SWS and REM were decreased....
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TL;DR: The analysis showed no relationship between neither noise exposure nor response to noise and cardiovascular problems, and showed strong links among pseudoneurological complaints, annoyance and sleeping problems, thus pointing to the importance of including information on psychosomatic disorders and mild psychological problems in future studies looking at potential health effects of noise.
190 citations
Cites background from "Noise emitted from road, rail and a..."
...Laboratory studies have documented immediate effects of traffic noise, such as EEG (Electroencephalographic) arousals, awakenings and sleep stage shifts (Basner et al., 2008) and consequently on overall sleep architecture (Basner and Samel, 2005; Griefahn et al., 2006)....
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..., 2008) and consequently on overall sleep architecture (Basner and Samel, 2005; Griefahn et al., 2006)....
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...reduced subjective sleep quality, changed cortisol levels and reduced performance on reaction time tests (Griefahn et al., 2006; Maschke et al., 2002; Öhrström and Rylander, 1982)....
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...Some of these effects are also observed in subjects after exposure to high levels of nighttime traffic noise, i.e. reduced subjective sleep quality, changed cortisol levels and reduced performance on reaction time tests (Griefahn et al., 2006; Maschke et al., 2002; Öhrström and Rylander, 1982)....
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References
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01 Jan 1987
TL;DR: Sound reduction in the bedroom induced increased amounts of sleep for the adults and reduced falling-asleep time for the children, and road traffic noise-induced vibration levels near the iso 2631 recommendation (comfort criteria) disturbed sleep, reducing the amount of rem sleep.
Abstract: The influence of road traffic noise on the sleep of adults and 6-11 year old children was studied with electrophysiological methods. In addition, the effects of vibrations caused by heavy traffic were studied on a group of adults. A method was developed for automatic scoring of sleep stages, using a small, general purpose micro computer. Young adults, unaccustomed to traffic noise, were disturbed by continuous and intermittent traffic noise at 45 db(a). No sleep disturbances were found for continuous traffic noise at 36 db(a). Passing cars with a peak noise level of 55 db(a) caused awakenings. The equivalent sound pressure level (leq) did not correlate to sleep disturbance effects. A better description of noise was found in the number of vehicles per night, that made most noise. Children were about 10 db(a) less sensitive than adults with respect to awakening reactions, and even less sensitive with respect to disturbances of rem sleep and deep sleep. Total habituation to road traffic noise had not occurred even after at least one year of exposure. Sound reduction in the bedroom induced increased amounts of sleep for the adults and reduced falling-asleep time for the children. Road traffic noise during the first hours of a night's sleep tended to disturb sleep more than when it occurred later during the night, the main effects being a reduction of the amount of rem sleep during the night and an increased duration of intermittent wakefulness during the hours of exposure. Road traffic noise-induced vibration levels near the iso 2631 recommendation (comfort criteria) disturbed sleep, reducing the amount of rem sleep. When noise was accompanied by vibrations, the frequency of arousal reactions was higher than for noise alone. (TRRL)
12 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, double glazing sound insulation was used to create two experimental conditions: low insulation and high insulation, and the relationship of these sound peaks detected in the indoor recorded sound level signal to characteristics of passing vehicles was established.
12 citations
"Noise emitted from road, rail and a..." refers background in this paper
...Performance Performance decrements after noisy nights were reported by only a few authors [13,15,16]....
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TL;DR: The data suggest that the relation between sleep disruption and waking performance is a function of not only the arousal produced by the individual stimulus occurrences but also, and perhaps more importantly, the number of stimuli occurring during the night.
Abstract: The present research was concerned with whether the occurrence of habituation to auditory stimuli during sleep might attenuate the disruptive effects these stimuli can have on waking performance. Human subjects were exposed on different nights to either 0, 6, or 24 presentations of a 15-sec burst of filtered auditory noise, and their morning waking performance was measured by a reaction-time task previously shown to be sensitive to minimal sleep disturbances. The results indicated that on nights when 24 stimuli were presented, the subjects’ average arousal response was significantly less as compared to the nights when only 6 stimuli were presented, thus demonstrating the occurrence of habituation. However, the decreased average arousal when 24 stimuli occurred was not associated with superior morning performance. On the contrary, the subjects performed significantly better following the nights when only 6 stimuli occurred even though the average arousal associated with the stimulus presentations was significantly greater. The data thus suggest that the relation between sleep disruption and waking performance is a function of not only the arousal produced by the individual stimulus occurrences but also, and perhaps more importantly, the number of stimuli occurring during the night.
11 citations
"Noise emitted from road, rail and a..." refers background in this paper
...Performance Performance decrements after noisy nights were reported by only a few authors [13,15,16]....
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01 Jan 1994
7 citations
01 Jan 1994
3 citations
"Noise emitted from road, rail and a..." refers background in this paper
...Eventually, rather limited laboratory experiments on event-related responses to the three types of noises revealed the strongest reaction to rail noise, even though the maximum levels were lower than those of aircraft noise [22,30]....
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