The Effect of Noise on Sleep
empirical.health
empirical.health
Institute of Noise Control Engineering Digital library: https://www.inceusa.org/publications/ince-digital-library/ (papers older than 10 years old are available free)
Federal Interagency Committee on Aviation Noise: https://fican1.wordpress.com/findings/ (focuses on aviation noise)
Acoustical Society of America Lay Language Papers: https://acoustics.org/lay-language-papers/ (search for "sleep" -- the ASA has a full library of more detailed research but the documents cost money unless you're an ASA member)
World Health Organization guidelines on noise - https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/343936/WHO-EURO-... (doesn't get into specifics on research on sleep, but does refer recommended limits to sleep disturbance)
NIH has done a bunch of research on sleep disturbance from noise, you would need to search through their library
edit (one more): TRB/National Academies https://nap.nationalacademies.org/search/?rpp=20&ft=1&term=n...
A lot of the stuff that posters are asking for have in fact been done, it just takes some digging through the research sites to find them. There's a lot of variation in the data, the hypothesis is that sleep sensitivity varies a lot based on various physical factors (age being a big one).
>age-related deafness
https://canadianaudiologist.ca/a-new-perspective-on-chronic-...
https://www.icben.org/2017/ICBEN%202017%20Papers/SubjectArea...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00660-3
I think partly the issue is that how we measure noise doesn't match how noise causes injury. Your cochlea acts as a spiral resonant tube, essentially a "physical FFT," concentrating energy at a particular frequency onto a particular location in the spiral. Too much (local!) energy damages the hair cells, causing conductive hearing loss.
But because we calculate A-weighted decibels by summing all frequencies and then checking if we're above the injury threshold (vs checking whether we exceed the injury threshold at any frequency), using A-weighted decibels can't accurately determine damaging noise levels. If all the energy is concentrated at Middle A it will cause more damage than spreading the energy out across the spectrum, even if the A-weighted decibels come out equal.
It's a somewhat subtle, wrong order-of-operations problem. There's also a separate problem that A-weighting is designed to normalize for perception at various frequencies, not hearing damage.
I've tried searching the literature to find out whether this is either 1)wrong, or 2)generally known within the fields of audiology and occupational hygiene, but so far I've come up empty.
--
I recall an HN poster long ago saying how they wore earplugs daily to achieve "super hearing." It occurs to me that all they were doing was actually protecting their ears from damage. :-|
FWIW, I've also heard the same, but don't remember where off the top of my head. It's at least potentially true, but the conventional wisdom among acousticians/noise control engineering is that age-related hearing loss is mostly to increasing age rather than external factors.
The links discuss the evidence that hearing loss isn't inevitable with age, including examples of pre-industrial societies with quiet environments that when tested showed no hearing degradation with age.
The controversy seems to be mostly about how much of that effect was caused by good diet vs lack of exposure to loud sounds. I tend to think both are needed to be fully protective, eg to take an extreme example alcohol is known to cause damage to hearing cells even without exposure to loud sounds.
I expect, with apologies to Tolstoy, "All dysfunctional hearing is different, whereas all healthy hearing is the same."
* a sleep tracker. I love AutoSleep - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/autosleep-track-sleep-on-watch...
* Any kind of white noise. I use an air purifier at home, and a little pocket size white noise machine when I travel.
* find and eliminate any noises in your home. Computers, fridges, squeaky doors, etc.
* find and eliminate any lights. Especially stupid power and status LEDs. Bedroom should be pitch black at night. Electrical tape works well for this.
* Blackout curtains
* cheap eye mask
* Magnesium Glycate supplement
* Earplugs- https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0015TBGR6
* And finally, a recent addition that I’ve fallen in love with is sleep ear buds: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DT9GBFQ2
Although, I would wait on getting sleep ear buds, Anker just announced a new model with ANC and a similar price.
My spouse snores loudly, and a $15 container of 50 pairs has lasted more than 2 years, and saved our ability to co-sleep (I was only a couple nights away from moving to our guest room). We're also on a street with a very permissive speed limit, and we're under the approach path of the nearby airport, and it's never a problem.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051U7W32 I got these, $15 for 50 pairs; the GP comment is $40 for 200 pairs which is a better value but more investment if you wind up dissatisfied
I second the disposable earplugs recommendations.
... Not from a Jedi. :p
Contact your state representative and ask them to do something about the building codes. It's a completely voluntary problem. American buildings are noisy because we decided that was okay.
Congratulations on finding an equally terrible and bad for everybody apartment-living analog to the sort of suburbanite Karen opinion that underpins meddling HOAs and busybody municipal codes.
If you want a quieter apartment pony up to live in a nicer one. Don't force the rest of society to shoulder the expense.
I also personally find high frequency noise to be more disruptive: a car speeding by making wind noise is a lot worse than a large truck rumbling by slowly. Lower frequency is lower energy, after all
Then they had a kid, which grew up and of course would run around the house at any hour. I was getting terrible sleep and it was driving me crazy.
All I could really do was move, and I made sure the next building was reinforced concrete, and that I would be on the top floor. The unit also ended up being on one end so only one wall shared with a neighbor.
It was instant relief and absolutely worth the move. It sucks though because obviously not everyone can live on the top floor of a building. If you're a heavy sleeper then I guess this is less of a problem, so I hope we have enough heavy sleepers in society so there's less competition for top floors. Probably wishful thinking though because the top floor is desired for other reasons unrelated to sleep.
I keep some of these on me at all times in case I end up next to any loud speakers.
Currently using Hansaplast Lärmstopp.
The earplugs don't completely cut out environmental noise, but they dampen it enough that I don't find myself being awakened by any bumps in the night.
And snipping down the tail ends of the earplugs with scissors helps reduce pressure if you're a side sleeper.
Don't know what to make of white-noise, do purring cats count? Or really relaxed snuggling with sexy gals after having fucked each others brains out? Or both?
I have (and recommend) a white noise machine at home, but when I travel, I use the awesome MyNoise app, which lets you EQ the noise precisely so you can target the specific annoyance in your environment.
> What does AutoSleep offer above and beyond Apple’s Health app?
Apple commonly says I get more hours of sleep than I know I do. Apple counts just being relaxed as sleeping. Whereas I can tune AutoSleep to correctly identify the difference between me sleep and just being super relaxed. Thus I get a much more accurate image of what is working
Also the apple sleep graph is actually terrible. Almost impossible to understand when wake up are occurring.
I'm doing all of the above with the following differences:
- I use AirPods pro. They are not that comfortable, but leaving a Audible low in background helps falling asleep and also getting back to sleep rather than picking random problems to solve and eventually waking up. It was "life-saver" when I started my first company before learning to manage stress.
- I used these 3M sleeping ear buds and they were the most confortable https://www.amazon.com/3M-Disposable-Earplugs-Quiet-Sleep/dp...
- Extra pillow over head, helps a lot (I have no idea why)
1. Good mattress and pillow (this is a 101 kind of thing).
2. Having the right temperature (same as above).
3. White noise. I also use a white noise machine and the White Noise app on iOS (which I bought for like $1 years ago and still use it). Ironically, I don't use white noise but brown noise, which is slightly more soothing to me.
4. Air purifier, not necessarily for the white noise it produces because it's pretty silent, but because that way I guarantee that I get at least 8 hours of purified air a day.
5. Black out curtains.
6. Eye masks. I actually wear two at once -- the first one to block any lights, the second one to press against my eyelashes, which I find it better for sleeping.
7. Magnesium Glycinate. I've tried different supplements, different forms of magnesium, and even different brands, and the one that I currently use has worked wonders for me. Made me go from being a light sleeper to a medium-heavy sleeper.
Haven't tried earplugs, but I don't really feel the need to. Another thing I tried (but never noticed a real difference) was using a small piece of tape on my lips to avoid opening my mouth.
In case you or others didn't know, iOS has a built in noise generator with different presets under the accessibility options. Sometimes I use it with AirPods and active noise cancellation and it pretty much guarantees I can get a solid block of sleep, at least as long as the batteries last in one go.
The feature is called "Background Sounds"
1) I’d like to see additional measures beyond dB. A 50dB consistent white noise does not bother me (and may even enhance my sleep) but an intermittent off/on sound of the same magnitude has a very different effect
2) what is the accuracy of the consumer metrics compared to medical benchmarks? In other words, how reliable are the sleep measures of consumer devices? Anecdotally, I’ve noticed my watch thinks I’m sleeping sometimes when I watch a movie, and I’ve heard MDs say the metrics aren’t accurate enough to make strong conclusions.
To the point being made, for most Americans the cost of updating your building envelope and fenestration is relatively high. Yet if we look at the accuracy of the data (compared to the medical device standard), it’s moderate accuracy. So we’re taking a high risk for something that we’re only moderately confident will work. That’s not a good tradeoff. There may be interventions that are lower risk that make for a more balanced approach.
“Move fast and break things” as a general philosophy is a risk-blind approach.
There is no scientific disagreement as to the correlation, it's just "how big" and "what specifically".
Compare the downside of "smaller impact than expected" with the cost of delay and it's a no-brainer
Yes, it’s about both effect size and uncertainty. That’s science. But your original post also brought policy into play. Unless you actually know that uncertainty, effect size, and those costs (including opportunity costs), you’re just making stuff up because “it just makes sense so it must be true.” That’s neither good science, nor good policy.
Advocating for big policy changes (like changing building codes) without understanding those aspects is like jumping into a pool headfirst before knowing the depth.
The idea that we can move fast and not break things without understanding the systemic risk is naive. I’m fine with moving fast if we understand the risk and the risk is borne by the appropriate parties. Your previous comments are a little too hand-wavy to indicate a nuanced understanding of the risk.
On the accuracy of sleep metrics, when Apple Watch makes an error, it tends to misclassify deep or REM sleep as core (light) sleep, or waking as light sleep. It's relatively rare to misclassify deep or REM sleep as awake, or deep as REM (and vice versa). That's partly why we focus on those specific sleep metrics. You can see a full confusion matrix here: https://www.empirical.health/metrics/deep-sleep-percent#accu...
I *almost* feel like it should be illegal to build them next to the freeway like
Those ones just north of SFO next to the 110: https://maps.app.goo.gl/sAkUMhmnutZ1jFd27
The ones in downtown LA next to the 110: https://maps.app.goo.gl/4mBVLo12hLR4EwU16
The ones north of LAX at Howard Hughes: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z8bnB7wR5jDBddhg6
I don't actually think I think they should be illegal but dang it, I wish there were more options for new apartments. In LA there are lots of older apartment buildings in quiet residential neighborhoods built 50+ years ago.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KMLav1zLiQZK6T8L6
https://maps.app.goo.gl/aUH52rBAbaHExjzB6
They are no longer allowed to be built AFAICT.
Compared to the city it's so quiet and peaceful. My sleep is much better
I’m all for better construction but I still want to be able to open my windows without having to let in tons of noise and car exhaust
Is this true or a misleading observation?
I can see some argument about it, increasing traffic in areas that aren't equipped for it if the building is large enough. But it might just be market forces, too: in larger cities, it's often more desirable to be near a major artery. Earplugs (if the noise bothers you) vs a longer commute.
Residential land area = land you can build housing on
https://belonging.berkeley.edu/single-family-zoning-californ...
https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/news/senate-passes-senator-wiener...
They will be allowed by right near any type of transit stop if SB79 goes through!
The satellite view shows many units in multiple buildings directly next to this highway with no noise protection: https://maps.app.goo.gl/JA4jMPSSYsDBq5my5
Years ago I lived near a busy four-lane road with what seemed like a reasonable 60km/h speed limit. However, when it rained, the noise from the car tires on the wet road made it difficult to hear music from my radio. It was very unpleasant to leave the balcony doors open, as the constant din starts to work its way into your brain and make it very difficult to focus.
I’ll respond much differently to my bedroom door opening or a voice speaking than I do a bus outside.
It reminds me of the anecdote where human researchers rang bells near bears (human sounds) and the bears didn’t care, but if they broke a large bundle of branches (bear sounds), the bears went berserk.
I feel like our subconscious is a lot more involved here than we give it credit for.
It's already possible, just not profitable.
Japan is a good case study [1]. If nothing else, it’s fun to look at the charts showing noise reductions—not just in aggregate, but for each contributing input (e.g. engine, intake, exhaust, tires, cooling)—for both passenger vehicles and heavy equipment. Unfortunately, in the US, we have a few obstacles to legislation like this, least of which being public apathy as majority of voters who are not exposed to high sound levels daily.
“Japan's primary legislation governing noise regulation is the Environmental Noise Regulation Act, first introduced in 1986 and subsequently amended in 1999. This act sets different noise limits for different times of the day, with the maximum allowable noise level during the day set at 55 decibels and reduced to 45 decibels at night to prevent disturbances to those who are sleeping. Violators of these standards are subject to penalties.”
[1] https://www.lios-group.com/news/noise-regulations-in-japan-o...
That doesn't strike me as a feature.
Also a solved problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rwJ5NCf1Vw
Tesco delivery trucks have them here in Ireland; it's pretty good stuff. Still quite loud/noticeable when you're up close, while at the same time not being completely obnoxious to everyone in a kilometre radius.
It's a "solved problem" in the sense that nuclear energy is a solved problem. There's no mandate to actually see widespread roll out of anything that may be a better solution.
There's a construction site near me at present. There is always 1 machine in reverse, at all times. The utility of having a backup beeper or any noise making device on that site is thus zero. It is the single largest source of noise pollution, larger than the roadway
This strikes me as an odd take, maybe from someone who has never worked on a construction site.
Our auditory sense is more than just a binary “present/not present” detection. We can sense distance and direction. Just because there is a backup beeper somewhere on site does not mean there is no value to any other auditory signal.
Think about when you’re in a congested city. There’s probably a lot of ambient car noise, including horns, in the background. That doesn’t mean you’re unable to react to a honking car in your immediate vicinity.
Ask anyone who's been at a shooting in a city. Everyone gives a different answer for where the shooter was at. It's such a severe issue the US Army has microphone arrays they equip urban combat vehicles with. Even with bullets actually bouncing off the armor the troops cannot accurately locate the direction of the shooter(s).
I'm pretty sure most people can localise a vehicle emitting broadband noise (engine or white reversing sound) in the conditions that matter.
But there are more commonplace examples. Older phone ringtones are often hard for people to locate, but nearly everybody can pinpoint the sound of a dropped coin. Sound perception is more complex than just perception of pressure levels. To the point above, you wouldn’t confuse a car honking in front of you with one behind you even in the presence of ambiguous ambient noise.
Also I have no idea what you mean by "but nearly everybody can pinpoint the sound of a dropped coin". What sound does a coin make when it is dropped on a busy street?
It's kind of a nit-pick, but this is not really true.
Very approximately, you will perceive a sound if it is above your threshold of hearing, and also not masked by other sounds.
If you're wearing the best ear defenders which attenuate all sounds by about 30dB, and you assume your threshold of hearing is 10dBSPL (conservative), any sound above 40dBSPL is above the threshold of hearing. That's the level of a quiet conversation.
And because your ear defenders attenuate all sounds, masking is not really affected -- the sounds which would be masking the reversing beepers are also quieter.
There are nuances of course (hearing damage, and all the complicated effects that wearing ear defenders cause), but none of them are to the point that loud reversing noises are required because of hearing protection -- they are required to be heard over all the other loud noises on a construction site.
> The utility of having a backup beeper or any noise making device on that site is thus zero.
The inverse square law says otherwise; on site the distances will be much more apparent.
Does anyone know?
I would imagine that a noise that would randomly "pop-up" would be worse. But would be curious if that's not the case.
Something like the variability of noise (eg, maybe figure out the 25th percentile dbs across the night, and then count the spikes above that? or maybe count the number of times the slope goes above a certain value indicating sharp rises in volume that would disturb someone?)
I also would love to simply see the data based on the average of "N loudest moment(s)" during the sleep. eg: treat the dbs score for that night as the average of the N loudest moments over the night, and plot a series of graphs that show various values of N. (or make it 3d, but i've found many folks are not capable of reading those kinds of graphs)
In terms of downsides, only once in the past three years did I get some earwax clogged in some part of my ear which was easy to remove with some special spray (went to urgent care). Also, I have a very hard time sleeping without them anymore so I always make sure to have a pair at hand. Also, you may have to experiment with various brands and types as some brands are really uncomfortable and hurt my ear.
Unfortunately they changed a bit the past few years to be slightly less comfortable but I still find them the best overall
The only reason I tried them is that I found myself in a situation where my standard silicone earplugs were gone and where somebody gave me a box of hundreds of earplugs they didn't manage to sell at a concert. I was bracing myself for a terrible night of ear pain, but was pleasantly surprised of how superior they were to anything I had tried, still using earplugs from the very same box as my night-to-night noise relief
Maybe there is room for a device that recognizes those types of sounds and maybe triggers a watch vibration would be a solution.
Very odd.
It's funny though how during the recent heat dome I could barely sleep after sealing the windows cause of just how dang quiet it was!
Fickle mistress sleep be.
Dog's are thought to be an exception, because part of their domestication involved selection for the offspring that was more alert (watch dogs).
The brain is thought to be hyper sensitive to a certain subset of sounds while sleeping, such as babies crying.
White noise is thought to work by drowning out the sounds we are most sensitive to.
I don't hear it in other districts.
I wish there were an expert or researcher interested in these areas: residential buildings, shops, parks, churches, and schools.
You mean an expert in acoustics related to those areas? There are lots of experts and researchers. Take a look at the Acoustical Society of America, the Institute of Noise Control Engineering, and Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation for starters.
Penn State, University of Hartford, Purdue University, Michigan Technological University, University of Nebraska, Morgan State Univeristy, and Brigham Young University (among others) all have strong acoustics programs with research in a bunch of areas.
I am imagining some kind of vibration dampening layer under a bed, with an acoustic foam shell around/over the bed.
Drastic measures might be worth trying.
My start-up uses sound to enhance sleep's restorative function. So blankly saying "noise at decibel level x disrupts sleep" is not true.
Over the last 10 years, research has shown that precisely timed micro-auditory stimulations increase slow-wave activity, and accompanying biomarkers of health. There are now more than 50 published peer-reviewed papers regarding this phenomenon. We link to some of these on our website https://affectablesleep.com
Environmental noise is different than precise stimulation based noise, but most of us have an adaptation level to environmental noise.
I remember when I first moved to Chile having dinner with an Argentinian and an Indian, and the Argentinian said the streets in Santiago were so loud it was important to get an apartment on a higher floor. The Indian guy looked around and was like "what noise"? To him, Santiago was a peaceful and quiet environment.
In addition to sleep needs, the world has gotten noisier now that people are habitually using speakerphones in public in the most obnoxious ways.
https://westone.com/defendear-sleep
Gets you some pretty good quiet for sleep. It's not active noise cancelling, but they work pretty well.
Anecdotally if you wear a pair of westone solids, and then a pair of earmuffs on top of that, you are basically just hearing through your bones, which can't be avoided (with passive or active).
https://bioears.co.uk/products/bioears-ear-plugs
Very effective, but eventually they made me just focus on my tinnitus.
I now live in a quieter place and use some white noise from a speaker - ocean sounds.
https://www.elacin.com/your-perfect-fit/leisure/relax-sleep/
Currently I use Ozlo Sleepbuds which are not quite as comfortable and a little finicky to operate, but I like the masking noise.
Would your userbase be up for a little experiment: adding white/pink/rainfall/etc noise at various volumes? I bet you'd see an inverted U shaped curve, with sleep quality increasing at relatively low volume levels, and then hitting some maximum and decreasing when it gets too loud! (Agree with other comments about looking at intra-night variance in noise level.)
A common source matching this description would be having a TV on in the bedroom.
Especially in 2025, if you want to know if your car is being whatever triggers an alarm then have it send you a message that only bothers you and not several hundred other people.
There is your new startup idea for ycombinator. car alarm app with optional $$$ track down service :p
In fact, I'll challenge you to find some data supporting your promise. I can't find any. I find some that says steering wheel locks work. I find some that says stuff that shuts off the car works. But none that finds that alarms do anything.
"Highway Loss Data Institute studies show no overall reduction in theft losses for vehicles with alarms" (from 74 million car insurance data)
https://web.archive.org/web/20040804022308/http://www.silent...
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/05/car-ala...
One of us would either knock on the door of the place until the owner came out, or somebody would shoot the car until it stopped making noise.
A car alarm in my environment would be an anomaly, not the norm.
- Blackout curtains
- Earplugs
- White noise maker (just an air purifier but it does the same thing)
- 3mg Melatonin
I find the build quality of new buildings (again, even uber luxury apartment condos) in the U.S. absolutely crap compared to Europe (I'm thinking especially of France and Germany).
Over here on HN you have a strong contingent of people who push pro-density, pro-city, and anti-car. But some people (like myself) who suffer from a sensitive sleep are deeply affected and consider moving to the woods away from people just for this problem. I find the 'SLAM' sound of doors (in New York there's a spring loading per building code), the stomp stomp of upstairs, and the bass music of adjacent neighbors to be deeply disruptive from a psychological perspective.
https://amp.sacbee.com/news/california/article240396741.html
EDIT/TLDR: highly effective
"every half hour with pipe-like electronic devices that cause loud clanging noises"
"Stanford University sleep medicine professor who says in a court-filed declaration that Lipsey “is exposed to unrelenting noise that is out of his control that can further (fuel) his insomnia and potentially worsens his health.”
I'm glad we are finally going to transition to EVs.. about time
Also, it's a mostly black area, which means people hanging out and talking right in front of the apartment building, even though there's a public park five minutes of walk away. When I was searching for an apartment to buy, there was one on tenth floor, and I regret not buying that one, because I'd be shielded from all the noise on the street.
I was fully conviced that I'd be able to stomach living in poorer area and wait for gentrification to happen. I can live with trash on the street. I can live with vandalism. I can live with beggars by the supermarket. I can live with theft and other crime. But the noise. The noise is fucking unbearable.
My dream is to wait until the apartment doubles or triples in value, then sell it, and move to rural shithole where nobody lives.
didn't you get the memo that wanting peace and quiet is racist and classist now?
On the other hand, before that, we (humans) allowed horses to shit (and decompose) in the streets, and long before that, we invited livestock to spend the winter in the same room. So the past wasn't idyllically clean or well organized either.
The effects for me (living in Brussels city centre, so quite noisy - police, ambulance, sometimes loud tourists past midnight, and a bit of construction at 6am nearby to keep it real :-) ) were very pronounced:
From needing 9 hours and feeling groggy in the mornings anyway, to easily going on 7-8, feeling very refreshed and alert each day.
A cool side effect was that this superpower works also while traveling - so, I no longer care how noisy the airco is in the hotel room, being next to the lift, or having the window above the lively bar.
The only downside with those earplugs that they are good maybe for 3-4 nights and then are too squished to be useful; but the upsides more than make it up for me.
However, what destroys my sleep is the light from early morning, streetlights, and the neighbor's porch light. Unfortunately, our bedroom faces southeast and features French doors that open onto an east-facing three-season porch, allowing sunlight to stream in. Yeah, I've got curtains everywhere, and I have room-darkening curtains on order. If those don't work, the next step is putting solar panels over my bedroom windows. I figure if I'm going to keep light out, I might as well put it to work some other way.
As an experiment, I'm using my car camping mattress in my office, which is the quietest room in the house, and I'm blocking the light from the windows with curtains and cardboard. So far, it's the best sleep I've had in years. There's a bit of domestic disharmony now, but hopefully my partner and I can work out a compromise on light-blocking curtains and keeping them fucking shut.
https://www.elacin.com/your-perfect-fit/leisure/relax-sleep/
I would assume that your local audiologist or music instrument store will know what the U.S. equivalent to these is. It seems to me that Elacin's biggest market is musicians who want a comfortable pair of earplugs with a flat frequency response.
1. They don't fall out, because they "hook into" the shape of your ear.
2. They sit much closer to the inner ear, so they feel invisible when side-sleeping.
3. It's a perfect fit every time, so you don't have to worry about noise leakage or discomfort caused by pressure.
If you don't want to spend $200 on a pair of plugs from an audiologist (I'd strongly urge you to reconsider!), the best off-the-shelf alternative for me was silicone plugs. To solve the side-sleeping problem with silicone plugs, you can tear them in half or use children's versions depending on your ear canal size.
If enjoy and pay to see live music, you should spring for a set of "musician's earplugs". They're molded just like safety/sleeping earplugs, but they use a flat 10-15dB attenuating filter. They make the music quieter without distorting it.
Symphony players wear them because brass/percussion is loud enough to cause hearing damage with hours of exposure. I've sung in mine for Easter morning services where I was wedged between a celebratory trumpet and an organ with all the stops out.
They're not cheap, but they're not very expensive in the world of Ticketmaster fees.
Also similarly for parents? (kids/baby crying)
I've mostly been YOLOing it so far, but worry that once I'm not single (no kids) it won't be acceptable.
For hearing-impaired people, there are alarms based on flashing and vibration which you could look into if it's a concern.
The effect of noise on sleep is multifaceted, involving various types of noise exposure, physiological mechanisms, and consequences on sleep quality and health.
I. Introduction Environmental and occupational noise refers to unwanted or harmful sounds from sources such as traffic, aircraft, railways, and workplaces. Noise pollution is a significant public health issue due to its widespread prevalence and impact on sleep and overall health.
II. Types of Noise Exposure
Environmental noise includes road traffic, aircraft, and railway noise. Aircraft noise, for example, has been shown to negatively affect sleep in children, whereas road traffic noise may have less impact on autonomic activity during sleep [Effect of Noise on Sleep and Autonomic Activity in Children]. Occupational noise exposure also contributes to sleep disturbances and has been linked to sleep loss and fragmentation [The effects of occupational noise on sleep]. Intentional masking noise such as white or pink noise is sometimes used as a sleep aid to improve sleep quality in noisy environments [The effects of white noise on sleep].
III. Physiological Mechanisms During sleep, the auditory system continues to process sounds, and noise can lower arousal thresholds, causing awakenings or micro-arousals. Noise exposure activates the autonomic nervous system, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, and stimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to hormonal and metabolic changes [Environmental noise and sleep disturbances].
IV. Effects on Sleep Architecture Noise exposure reduces total sleep time and sleep efficiency, increases sleep fragmentation, and causes more frequent micro-arousals. It also alters sleep stages by decreasing deep sleep (slow-wave sleep) and REM sleep, which are critical for restorative sleep [Effects of environmental noise on sleep].
V. Health and Daytime Consequences Poor sleep due to noise leads to daytime sleepiness, cognitive impairments, and mood disturbances. Chronic noise-related sleep disruption is associated with increased cardiovascular and metabolic risks, such as hypertension and glucose metabolism disturbances. It also negatively affects quality of life and can contribute to burnout [Environmental Noise and Effects on Sleep], [Effects of personal noise exposure, sleep quality, and burnout].
VI. Vulnerable and Special Populations Children are particularly sensitive to noise, with aircraft noise shown to disrupt their sleep more than road traffic noise. Older adults and individuals with pre-existing sleep disorders are also more vulnerable to noise-induced sleep disturbances [Effect of Noise on Sleep and Autonomic Activity in Children].
VII. Noise as a Sleep Aid Paradoxically, steady background noise such as white or pink noise can improve sleep quality by masking disruptive environmental sounds. Studies have shown that white noise can significantly enhance subjective and objective sleep measures in noisy urban settings. However, potential downsides include hearing damage and psychological dependency on noise for sleep [Noise as a sleep aid: A systematic review], [The effects of white noise on sleep].
VIII. Mitigation and Future Directions Effective strategies to mitigate noise effects on sleep include engineering controls like soundproofing, use of earplugs, and regulatory noise limits. Behavioral interventions and public health policies are also important. Future research is needed to clarify long-term effects, dose-response relationships, and to develop personalized interventions [The Effect of Room Acoustics on the Sleep Quality of Healthy Sleepers].
In summary, noise negatively impacts sleep by disrupting sleep architecture and triggering physiological stress responses, leading to adverse health outcomes. While some forms of noise can aid sleep by masking disturbances, overall noise reduction remains critical for improving sleep quality and health.
References
Environmental noise and sleep disturbances: A threat to health? Demian Halperin et al. Sleep Science, 2014 Nov 15. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4608916/ Poor sleep causes measurable changes on these systems. Experimental studies demonstrated that both sleep restriction and poor quality sleep affect glucose ...
Effects of environmental noise on sleep Kenneth I Hume et al. Noise & health, 2012. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23257581/ This paper summarizes the findings from the past 3 year's research on the effects of environmental noise on sleep and identifies key future research goals.
The Effect of Room Acoustics on the Sleep Quality of Healthy Sleepers Ingo Fietze et al. Noise & Health, 2016 Sep-Oct. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5187651/ Noise is one of the factors that can seriously disturb sleep, and sound volume is an important factor in this context. One strategy involves avoiding ...
Noise as a sleep aid: A systematic review Samantha M. Riedy et al. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2021/02/01. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10870... ... sleep aid, especially since it may also negatively affect sleep and hearing. ... Suzuki et al. Sleep deepening effect of steady pink noise. J Sound Vib. (1991).
Environmental Noise and Effects on Sleep: An Update to the WHO Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Michael G Smith et al. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2022 Jul 11. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9272916/ Jul 11, 2022 ... To what extent have the following outcomes of railway noise occurred in the past 12 months? Railway noise disturbs when falling asleep. Not ...
Effects of personal noise exposure, sleep quality, and burnout on quality of life: An online participation cohort study in Taiwan Ta-Chien Chan et al. Science of The Total Environment, 2024/03/10. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972... Mar 10, 2024 ... To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the pathways through which daily noise exposure, sleep quality, and personal burnout affect ...
Effect of Noise on Sleep and Autonomic Activity in Children according to Source https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8476937/ Road traffic noise did not significantly alter sleep or autonomic activity in children, whereas aircraft noise exerted a negative effect on sleep.
The effects of occupational noise on sleep: A systematic review Saeid Yazdanirad et al. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2023/12/01. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10870... One of the important effects due to noise exposure is sleep loss/disturbance, which has received less attention. Sleep disturbance is defined as problems with ...
The effects of white noise on sleep and duration in individuals living in a high noise environment in New York City Matthew R Ebben et al. Sleep medicine, 2021/7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34049045/ Our data show that white noise significantly improved sleep based on subjective and objective measurements in subjects complaining of difficulty sleeping.