Sleep Disturbance from Road Traffic, Railways, Airplanes and from Total Environmental Noise Levels in Montreal

Abstract

The objective of our study was to measure the impact of transportation-related noise and total environmental noise on sleep disturbance for the residents of Montreal, Canada. A telephone-based survey on noise-related sleep disturbance among 4336 persons aged 18 years and over was conducted. LNight for each study participant was estimated using a land use regression (LUR) model. Distance of the respondent's residence to the nearest transportation noise source was also used as an indicator of noise exposure. The proportion of the population whose sleep was disturbed by outdoor environmental noise in the past 4 weeks was 12.4%. The proportion of those affected by road traffic, airplane and railway noise was 4.2%, 1.5% and 1.1%, respectively. We observed an increased prevalence in sleep disturbance for those exposed to both rail and road noise when compared for those exposed to road only. We did not observe an increased prevalence in sleep disturbance for those that were both exposed to road and planes when compared to those exposed to road or planes only. We developed regression models to assess the marginal proportion of sleep disturbance as a function of estimated LNight and distance to transportation noise sources. In our models, sleep disturbance increased with proximity to transportation noise sources (railway, airplane and road traffic) and with increasing LNight values. Our study provides a quantitative estimate of the association between total environmental noise levels estimated using an LUR model and sleep disturbance from transportation noise.

Keywords: land use regression; sleep disturbance; transportation noise.

Figure A1

Relation between predicted L_Night and distance to: (a) NEF25; (b) railway; (c) major road.

Figure 1

Map of the study area, the island of Montreal, with potential transportation noise sources.

Figure 2

Distance to aircraft NEF25 (a), major road (b), railways (c) and marginal proportions and 95% CI of sleep disturbance by railways in the weighted study sample.

Figure 3

Marginal proportions of sleep disturbance by transportation noise according to proximity to single and combined sources of transportation noise: Airplanes (≤1000 m from NEF25 or in NEF25), roads (≤100 m from an artery or highway) and railways (≤150 m from a railway line or main line of a railroad shunting yard). See Table A16 for the regression model.

Figure 4

Marginal proportions and 95% CI (confidence interval) of sleep disturbance by environmental noise (a); transportation noise (b); and road traffic in relation (c) to L_Night estimated by the LUR noise model in the weighted study sample.