Sleep disturbances from road traffic and ventilation noise—laboratory
and field experiments
Journal of Sound and Vibration, (2004)Abstract
The aims of this study were to assess the effects on sleep of different
types of noise exposures (road traffic, ventilation and combination
of noise from road traffic and ventilation) and compare effects on
sleep both in laboratory and in field settings. Eighteen subjects
slept 1 week in the laboratory and 1 week in their home and their
sleep was evaluated with wrist actigraphs and questionnaires on sleep
and mood. In the laboratory, judged sleep quality was decreased by
22% during nights with exposure to road traffic noise in the laboratory
compared to the quiet reference night. The combined noise from ventilation
and road traffic caused more awakenings; worse sleep quality (−25%)
and more movements reported by questionnaire. None of these significant
results were detected by actigraphy. Noise from ventilation caused
a decrease in judged sleep quality by 12%, while sleep assessed by
actigraph indicated better sleep as compared with the quiet reference
night. When comparing sleep with traffic noise exposure in the laboratory
and in the home the results show no differences on sleep effects.