S. Fidell
K. Pearsons
R. Howe
B. Tabachnick
L. Silvati
D. Barber
BBN Systems and Technol., 21120 Vanowen St., Canoga Park, CA 91303
More than 1800 subject-nights of observations have been completed in a large-scale, in-home study of awakenings associated with nighttime aircraft noise exposure in the vicinity of an Air Force base, a major civil airport, and several sites in urban neighborhoods with negligible nighttime aircraft noise exposure. A statistically reliable relationship was found between behaviorally confirmed awakenings and indoor sound exposure of individual noise events. This relationship is similar to one reported in another recent large-scale field study, and also with a relationship summarizing the findings of several earlier field studies of noise-induced sleep disturbance. The findings do not, however, agree well with those typically found in laboratory studies of sleep disturbance, nor with an interim dosage-response relationship adopted by the Federal Interagency Committee on Noise. [Research sponsored by U.S. Air Force Armstrong Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH.]