Scientists have reported on the association of heat and noise with poor sleep quality.
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- Scientists have reported on the association of heat and noise with poor sleep quality.
Heat, noise, and bright light in the bedroom may be associated with a deterioration in the quality of sleep in young people, even if its overall duration does not change. This conclusion was reached by American scientists who observed 372 participants for two weeks. Why the number of hours does not give a complete picture of a night's rest and what conditions in the bedroom matter is in the Izvestia article.
How scientists studied the sleep of young people
The authors analyzed data from participants in the Future of Families’ Young Adult Sleep Study project. Their average age was 22 years. Every morning for 14 days, participants reported how they slept and whether they were disturbed by light, noise, heat or cold. At the same time, they wore special sensors on their wrists — actigraphs, allowing them to assess periods of sleep and wakefulness.
The researchers compared the subjective estimates with the indicators of the devices. They took into account the time of falling asleep and waking up, the duration of sleep and wakefulness during the night. This approach allowed us to explore several aspects of night rest.
"Young people often have little control over the conditions in which they sleep," said the first author of the work, a graduate student at Penn State University, Advoa Dadzi.
According to her, dormitories and small apartments do not always allow for silence, darkness and a comfortable temperature. Therefore, the team decided to find out how these circumstances relate to the sleep of young adults.
Why are hours of sleep not enough to evaluate rest?
The researchers did not find a statistically significant relationship between the studied conditions in the bedroom and the total duration of sleep. However, the differences in its quality were noticeable.
The duration of sleep is the time that a person actually spent in a dream. Its quality includes other characteristics: how easily it was possible to fall asleep, whether sleep was interrupted, and how long the person was awake at night. The time spent in bed is also not equal to the duration of sleep.
The authors suggest that young people sometimes compensate for nighttime disruptions by getting up later, if their schedules allow it. However, this is a possible explanation that has yet to be verified.
What did the data on heat, noise, and light show?
Participants who complained more often about the heat were, on average, more awake after initially falling asleep. They also had worse sleep continuity scores.
The connection with heat was also evident when comparing different nights for one person: when a participant reported that he was too hot, he rated sleep worse, and the sensor recorded a decrease in the effectiveness of maintaining it. Indoor noise was also associated with poorer subjective assessment and less continuous sleep.
"Noise can be especially problematic because during sleep, some parts of our brain continue to monitor the environment, especially for sounds that may signal a threat," explained co—author of the study, professor Orpheu Buxton of Penn State University.
Complaints about too bright lighting were associated with poorer sleep quality scores and later sleep and wake times. This means shifting the night schedule, rather than necessarily increasing the time it takes for a person to fall asleep after they have gone to bed.
The cold produced a different result. Participants who were more likely to report that they were too cold rated their sleep worse. However, the researchers did not find a statistically significant relationship with sleep quality according to the actigraphs.
Why did scientists ask about sensations
The work assessed how much the conditions hindered the participants themselves. Temperature, light, and volume were not measured directly in the bedrooms. The authors chose this approach because the perception of discomfort is individual. Background noise, which is familiar to one person, may interfere with another.
Daji explained that she grew up in New York. According to her, the sounds that she perceives as an ordinary background may seem very loud to a person from rural areas. Therefore, the study does not establish a universal temperature or noise level at which sleep necessarily worsens. It shows the relationship between the feeling of unfavorable conditions and indicators of night rest.
What can be changed in the bedroom
The authors believe that even with limited control over housing, it is sometimes possible to reduce the impact of interference. They offered a sleep mask or blackout curtains to protect against light, and earplugs to protect against noise.
However, the effectiveness of these measures has not been tested in this work. The study was observational: scientists recorded conditions and sleep, rather than randomly assigning participants to bedrooms with different temperatures, lighting, and noise levels.
The follow-up lasted two weeks and did not assess the long-term health effects. The authors' statements about the importance of sleep habits for later life indicate a broader context, but not a separate result of this study.
Further work should clarify exactly how different factors disrupt sleep and which changes in conditions help improve its quality.
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