Residents’ attitude towards air traffic and objective sleep quality are related

Annoyance and physiological responses induced by traffic noise exposure vary greatly among residents. Recently, differences in aircraft noise induced awakening reactions during sleep have partly been explained by stable individual vulnerabilities to noise. In 2012 as part of the NORAH sleep study, we investigated in a sample of 81 residents near Frankfurt Airport the relationship between attitude towards air traffic and sleep quality recorded polysomnographically at home. By using five-point rating scales the participants assessed their attitude towards air traffic (from 1 = negative to 5 = positive) and evaluated its necessity (from 1 = not necessary to 5 = highly necessary). Residents with a negative attitude towards air traffic (score < 3; N=28) took longer to fall asleep, spent more time awake after sleep onset, had a reduced sleep efficiency and less deep sleep. Participants who evaluated air traffic to be of no or moderate necessity (score < 4; N=22) slept less deeply. These statistically significant differences suggest that residents’ sleep quality and subjective evaluation of air traffic are related. The causality of this relationship, however, i.e. whether a negative attitude leads to more severe sleep disturbances or, conversely, whether poor sleep quality triggers a negative attitude towards air traffic, remains unclear.