New UK study on aviation night noise effects

The Aviation Night Noise Effects (ANNE) study is a two-part study examining the relationship between night-time aviation noise exposure, sleep disturbance and annoyance, and how this relationship varies at different times of night, published this week by the Department for Transport (DfT). On publishing the report DfT acknowledge that exposure to aviation noise at night can impact physical and mental wellbeing and can increase the risk of daytime sleepiness, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

The study is the result of a cross sectional survey of residents living near 8 UK airports – including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow. Aims of this study were to estimate the association of night aviation noise on subjective sleep disturbance and annoyance for a sample of residents living near UK airports. Findings include that around 30% of participants were highly annoyed by exposure to aircraft noise in the range the 55-60dB LAeq,8 during the night time period (11 pm – 7 am). For sleep disturbance, 10% of the sample were highly sleep disturbed at 44dB LAeq,8h, with sleep disturbance increasing with exposure, and levelling out at around 20-25% for exposures in the 50-60dB LAeq,8h range. The study also looked at effects of night aviation noise by age, ethnicity, noise sensitivity, and pre-existing illness; and non acoustic  factors (eg attitudes).

The second part of ANNE, the objective study, later this year.

Aviation Night Noise Effects (ANNE) study - GOV.UK