Overview
- University of Pennsylvania scientists monitored 25 healthy adults over seven nights and found that pink noise at 50 decibels cut REM sleep by about 19 minutes.
- Intermittent aircraft noise was associated with roughly 23 fewer minutes of N3 deep sleep compared with quiet nights.
- When pink noise and aircraft noise were combined, both REM and deep sleep shortened and time awake increased by about 15 minutes.
- Earplugs largely protected deep sleep from aircraft noise and outperformed pink noise for preserving overall sleep quality.
- The peer-reviewed study in Sleep highlights widespread use of broadband noise, notes small-sample lab limits, and calls for long-term, child-focused research on noise color and safe levels.