Effects of Broadband Noise on Sleep Quality

Abstract

Quality sleep is related to multiple valued performances in human life, including maintaining health and improving outcomes at work. Disturbance of sleep can increase the morbidity rate and can create multiple psychological and physiological issues. Broadband noises were hypothesized to mask disruptive noises and improve sleep quality. However, the efficacy of noise in improving sleep measures remained unclear due to the smaller sample size, uncontrolled noise environment, and sleep duration. The main aim of the study was to quantify sleep quality, sleep fragmentation, sleep latency, and relevant sleep factors by providing broadband noises and to assess whether white noise could be a non-pharmacological treatment for better sleep quality. For that purpose, sleep monitoring devices i.e., Fitbit Charge 4 and 5 as well as multiple questionnaires including PSQI, rMEQ, AASP, and St Mary questionnaire were used for data collection. Both hardware and questionnaire data were used to evaluate the effect of white noise on all the sleep factors i.e., sleep stages, sleep latency, total sleep duration, and overall sleep score. Also, environmental noise was measured by using decibel meters. Mostly healthy participants having the age of 25.07+/-4.66 for the questionnaire-based study and 24.25+/- 2.57 for hardware-based data were selected for data collection. Multiple statistical tests were performed on the collected data. ANOVA tests were performed on Fitbit’s data along with the post-hoc tests. Also, chi-square tests were conducted on questionnaire data. The p-value>0.0.5 in all tests suggested that no significant effect of white noise on sleep quality. The results concluded that white noise does not play a significant role in improving sleep quality. However, it can be used as a placebo effect for better sleep for specific persons. The results are based on both sleep monitoring devices and questionnaires with proper statistical analysis, having greater sample size and under controlled environmental noise. However, this work can be extended by changing the population of the experiment i.e., infants and ICU patients to check the effects of white noise.