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The Effect of Noise on Sleep

empirical.health

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Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#41

Post by brandonb »

bumby wrote: post #22

A couple things: 1) I’d like to see additional measures beyond dB. A 50dB consistent white noise does not bother me (and may even enhance my sleep) but an intermittent off/on sound of the same magnitude has a very different effect 2) what is the accuracy of the consumer metrics compared to medical benchmarks? In other words, how reliable are the sleep measures of consumer devices? Anecdotally, I’ve noticed my watch t…

#1 is a great idea for follow-up -- looking at variance, 90th percentile vs median, and so on. There's probably some very salient measure of sleep-affecting noise that we can derive from the data.

On the accuracy of sleep metrics, when Apple Watch makes an error, it tends to misclassify deep or REM sleep as core (light) sleep, or waking as light sleep. It's relatively rare to misclassify deep or REM sleep as awake, or deep as REM (and vice versa). That's partly why we focus on those specific sleep metrics. You can see a full confusion matrix here: https://www.empirical.health/metrics/deep-sleep-percent#accu...

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#42

Post by cwmoore »

jilles wrote: post #35
cwmoore wrote: post #24

Ask an inmate: https://amp.sacbee.com/news/california/article240396741.html EDIT/TLDR: highly effective

There might be some other factors in that situation that prevent one from having a restful night.

Might be! And some people might not deserve sleep! But

    "every half hour with pipe-like electronic devices that cause loud clanging noises"
seems to be the specific relevant factor.

"Stanford University sleep medicine professor who says in a court-filed declaration that Lipsey “is exposed to unrelenting noise that is out of his control that can further (fuel) his insomnia and potentially worsens his health.”

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#44

Post by mmahemoff »

I wish someone could solve the problem at the receiver end, i.e., invent noise-cancelling headphones/earplugs that actually cancel noise as effectively as eye-masks cancel light.

In addition to sleep needs, the world has gotten noisier now that people are habitually using speakerphones in public in the most obnoxious ways.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#45

Post by arp242 »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #39
YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #30

Some days I joke that there should be a set of Nobel prizes for making machines quieter. Categories could include: air-conditioning units and mini-fridges, construction and landscaping equipment, old university buildings, pump-housings, etc. The quality of life of many would be improved if we had quieter machines. It boggles my mind that a) in many hotel rooms one can hear a good deal of machine noise and neighbors'…

Noise from construction machines is actually a feature. They all have added backup beepers at this point as required per OSHA guidelines. Audible for well over a mile in normal conditions

> Audible for well over a mile in normal conditions

That doesn't strike me as a feature.

Also a solved problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rwJ5NCf1Vw

Tesco delivery trucks have them here in Ireland; it's pretty good stuff. Still quite loud/noticeable when you're up close, while at the same time not being completely obnoxious to everyone in a kilometre radius.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#46

Post by bumby »

brandonb wrote: post #41
bumby wrote: post #22

A couple things: 1) I’d like to see additional measures beyond dB. A 50dB consistent white noise does not bother me (and may even enhance my sleep) but an intermittent off/on sound of the same magnitude has a very different effect 2) what is the accuracy of the consumer metrics compared to medical benchmarks? In other words, how reliable are the sleep measures of consumer devices? Anecdotally, I’ve noticed my watch t…

#1 is a great idea for follow-up -- looking at variance, 90th percentile vs median, and so on. There's probably some very salient measure of sleep-affecting noise that we can derive from the data. On the accuracy of sleep metrics, when Apple Watch makes an error, it tends to misclassify deep or REM sleep as core (light) sleep, or waking as light sleep. It's relatively rare to misclassify deep or REM sleep as awake, o…

Thanks! That’s great information. Do you have any data on how that performance compares to medical-grade devices?

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#47

Post by mmahemoff »

conradev wrote: post #28

A lot of folks are talking about the “consistency” of a sound (constant white noise vs random sounds) and its volume, but I feel like the nature of the sound matters a lot more. I’ll respond much differently to my bedroom door opening or a voice speaking than I do a bus outside. It reminds me of the anecdote where human researchers rang bells near bears (human sounds) and the bears didn’t care, but if they broke a la…

This is especially true for sleep since we can be pretty good at incorporating external sounds into our dreams. It's been shown in controlled experiments. Seems likely that certain noises are generically easier to integrate into dreams than other noises, which could just cause you to wake up or have your sleep otherwise impaired.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#48

Post by dmoy »

mmahemoff wrote: post #44

I wish someone could solve the problem at the receiver end, i.e., invent noise-cancelling headphones/earplugs that actually cancel noise as effectively as eye-masks cancel light. In addition to sleep needs, the world has gotten noisier now that people are habitually using speakerphones in public in the most obnoxious ways.

I mean....

https://westone.com/defendear-sleep

Gets you some pretty good quiet for sleep. It's not active noise cancelling, but they work pretty well.

Anecdotally if you wear a pair of westone solids, and then a pair of earmuffs on top of that, you are basically just hearing through your bones, which can't be avoided (with passive or active).

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#49

Post by MengerSponge »

kevlened wrote: post #19
kogus wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally would not be able to sleep well with earplugs. The feeling of pressure in my ears, combined with the 'pushing' of the earplug if I rolled over to lay on my side would be very uncomfortable.

This was my experience until I purchased custom molded earplugs a year ago. It's one of the best purchases I've made. They're superior to off-the-shelf plugs in many ways: 1. They don't fall out, because they "hook into" the shape of your ear. 2. They sit much closer to the inner ear, so they feel invisible when side-sleeping. 3. It's a perfect fit every time, so you don't have to worry about noise leakage or discomf…

+1 to "get custom molded earplugs"

If enjoy and pay to see live music, you should spring for a set of "musician's earplugs". They're molded just like safety/sleeping earplugs, but they use a flat 10-15dB attenuating filter. They make the music quieter without distorting it.

Symphony players wear them because brass/percussion is loud enough to cause hearing damage with hours of exposure. I've sung in mine for Easter morning services where I was wedged between a celebratory trumpet and an organ with all the stops out.

They're not cheap, but they're not very expensive in the world of Ticketmaster fees.

Re: The Effect of Noise on Sleep

#50

Post by [deleted] »

conradev wrote: post #28

A lot of folks are talking about the “consistency” of a sound (constant white noise vs random sounds) and its volume, but I feel like the nature of the sound matters a lot more. I’ll respond much differently to my bedroom door opening or a voice speaking than I do a bus outside. It reminds me of the anecdote where human researchers rang bells near bears (human sounds) and the bears didn’t care, but if they broke a la…

[deleted]
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