Effects of Traffic Noise on Sleep in an Urban Population

Urban noise is an important environmental stressor, and sleep disturbance is its major health effect. Substantial inter-individual variance in these effects might partly be explained by different sensitivity to noise. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of urban noise on sleep and the relation between self-estimated sensitivity to noise and sleep disturbance. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was performed on 911 adult residents of Niš, Serbia, of whom 388 were men (42.6 %) and 523 women (57.4 %). The streets were regarded as noisy if night equivalent noise level (Leq) was higher than 45 dB(A) and quiet if night Leq was ≤45 dB(A). Noise sensitivity was measured with the Weinstein's Noise Sensitivity Scale. The study showed that respondents from noisy area significantly more often reported difficulty in falling asleep, being woken up, poor sleep quality, tiredness after sleep, and use of sleep medication than residents from quiet streets (p<0.001). Noise sensitivity significantly correlated with sleep disturbances (p<0.001).