College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park, SA, Australia.
Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute: Sleep Health (formerly Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health), College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia.
J Sleep Res. 2022 Jun;31(3):e13517. doi: 10.1111/jsr.13517. Epub 2021 Nov 13.
Wind turbine noise is dominated by low frequencies for which effects on sleep relative to more common environmental noise sources such as road traffic noise remain unknown. This study examined the effect of wind turbine noise compared with road traffic noise on sleep using quantitative electroencephalogram power spectral analysis. Twenty-three participants were exposed to 3-min samples of wind turbine noise and road traffic noise at three sound pressure levels (33, 38 and 43 dBA) in randomised order during established sleep. Acute (0-30 s) and more sustained (30-180 s) effects of noise presentations during N2 and N3 sleep were examined using spectral analysis of changes in electroencephalogram power frequency ranges across time in 5-s intervals. Both noise types produced time- and sound pressure level-dependent increases in electroencephalogram power, but with significant noise type by sound pressure level interactions in beta, alpha, theta and delta frequency bands (all p < 0.05). Wind turbine noise showed significantly lower delta, theta and beta activity immediately following noise onset compared with road traffic noise (all p < 0.05). However, alpha activity was higher for wind turbine noise played at lower sound pressure levels (33 dBA [p = 0.001] and 38 dBA [p = 0.003]) compared with traffic noise during N2 sleep. These findings support that spectral analyses show subtle effects of noise on sleep and that electroencephalogram changes following wind turbine noise and road traffic noise onset differ depending on sound pressure levels; however, these effects were mostly transient and had little impact on conventionally scored sleep. Further studies are needed to establish if electroencephalogram changes associated with modest environmental noise exposures have significant impacts on sleep quality and next-day functioning.
风力涡轮机噪声以低频为主，其对睡眠的影响相对于道路交通噪声等常见环境噪声源仍不清楚。本研究使用定量脑电图功率谱分析研究了与道路交通噪声相比，风力涡轮机噪声对睡眠的影响。 23 名参与者在规定的睡眠期间以随机顺序暴露于三种声压级（33、38 和 43 dBA）的风力涡轮机噪声和道路交通噪声 3 分钟样本中。使用脑电图功率频带在 5 秒间隔内随时间的变化的频谱分析来检查 N2 和 N3 睡眠期间噪声呈现的急性（0-30 秒）和更持续（30-180 秒）作用。两种噪声类型都产生了时间和声压级依赖性的脑电图功率增加，但在β、α、θ和δ频带中存在显著的噪声类型与声压级相互作用（均 p < 0.05）。与道路交通噪声相比，风力涡轮机噪声在噪声开始后立即显示出明显较低的δ、θ和β活动（均 p < 0.05）。然而，在 N2 睡眠期间，较低声压级（33 dBA [p = 0.001] 和 38 dBA [p = 0.003]）播放的风力涡轮机噪声的α活动更高。这些发现支持频谱分析显示噪声对睡眠的细微影响，并且脑电图在风力涡轮机噪声和道路交通噪声开始后的变化取决于声压级；然而，这些影响主要是短暂的，对常规评分的睡眠影响很小。需要进一步的研究来确定与适度环境噪声暴露相关的脑电图变化是否对睡眠质量和次日功能有重大影响。
