Disturbance of sleep by sonic booms.

After a pilot study (2 subjects, 19 nights) we tested two different subjects during 57 nights, administering sonic booms (1 mb, 300 ms; sound level of sonic boom in the bedroom 80-85 dB (A) and recording EEG and peripheral blood volume. After 7 nights without noise, 30 nights with either 2 or 4 sonic booms (alternately) were applied. After 10 more nights without noise, four nights with 8 and 16 bangs followed alternately. The last 6 nights were used as a comparison phase. Results showed that distrubance was obvious during all periods of noise. No adaptation could be observed during any of the experiments. On the contrary, during the night with 4 bangs there was a tendency for compensation, e.g., in the last two thirds of nights with 4 bangs, the total time of deep sleep was comparable with the nights without any noise.