Transportation noise impairs cardiovascular function without altering sleep: The importance of autonomic arousals

Laurie Thiesse; Franziska Rudzik; Jan F Kraemer; Karine Spiegel; Rachel Leproult; Niels Wessel; Reto Pieren; Harris Héritier; Ikenna C Eze; Maria Foraster; Corrado Garbazza; Danielle Vienneau; Mark Brink; Jean Marc Wunderli; Nicole Probst-Hensch; Martin Röösli; Christian Cajochen

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2019.109086

Transportation noise impairs cardiovascular function without altering sleep: The importance of autonomic arousals

Environ Res. 2020 Mar:182:109086. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.109086. Epub 2019 Dec 30.

Authors

Laurie Thiesse¹, Franziska Rudzik¹, Jan F Kraemer², Karine Spiegel³, Rachel Leproult⁴, Niels Wessel², Reto Pieren⁵, Harris Héritier⁶, Ikenna C Eze⁶, Maria Foraster⁷, Corrado Garbazza¹, Danielle Vienneau⁶, Mark Brink⁸, Jean Marc Wunderli⁵, Nicole Probst-Hensch⁶, Martin Röösli⁶, Christian Cajochen⁹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Switzerland; Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Switzerland.
² Department of Physics, Humboldt-Universität ZU Berlin, Germany.
³ WAKING Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL) - INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France.
⁴ Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, Bruxelles, Belgium.
⁵ Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Duebendorf, Switzerland.
⁶ Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁷ Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain; Blanquerna School of Health Science, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain.
⁸ Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, Bern, Switzerland.
⁹ Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Switzerland; Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: Christian.Cajochen@upk.ch.

PMID: 32069756
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.109086

Abstract

Aims: Chronic exposure to nocturnal transportation noise has been linked to cardiovascular disorders with sleep impairment as the main mediator. Here we examined whether nocturnal transportation noise affects the main stress pathways, and whether it relates to changes in the macro and micro structure of sleep.

Methods and results: Twenty-six young healthy participants (12 women, 24.6 ± 0.7 years, mean ± SE) spent five consecutive 24-h days and one last morning in the laboratory. The first (baseline) and last (recovery) nights comprised a quiet ambient scenario. In-between, four different noise scenarios (low/medium/high intermittent road or rail scenarios with an identical equivalent continuous sound level of 45 dB) were randomly presented during the 8-h nights. Participants felt more annoyed from the transportation noise scenarios compared to the quiet ambient scenario played back during the baseline and recovery nights (F_5,117 = 10.2, p < 0.001). Nocturnal transportation noise did not significantly impact polysomnographically assessed sleep macrostructure, blood pressure, nocturnal catecholamine levels and morning cytokine levels. Evening cortisol levels increased after sleeping with highly intermittent road noise compared to baseline (p = 0.002, noise effect: F_4,83 = 4.0, p = 0.005), a result related to increased cumulative duration of autonomic arousals during the noise nights (F_5,106 = 3.4, p < 0.001; correlation: r_pearson = 0.64, p = 0.006).

Conclusion: Under controlled laboratory conditions, highly intermittent nocturnal road noise exposure at 45 dB increased the cumulative duration of autonomic arousals during sleep and next-day evening cortisol levels. Our results indicate that, without impairing sleep macrostructure, nocturnal transportation noise of 45 dB is a physiological stressor that affects the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis during the following day in healthy young good sleepers.

Keywords: Blood pressure; Heart rate variability; Inflammation; Intermittency; Stress hormones; Traffic noise.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Arousal
Cardiovascular System* / physiopathology
Female
Humans
Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System
Male
Noise, Transportation* / adverse effects
Pituitary-Adrenal System
Sleep*
Young Adult