Awakening effects of simulated sonic booms and aircraft noise on men and women

Simulated sonic booms and sleep: Effects of repeated booms of 1.0 psf.

“…Cohen ( 1970). In general, the sleep patterns obtained in this study are similar to those reported by Lukas ( 1970) and by Kramer et al (1970). Table 7 presents percentages reflecting the average amounts of time the subjects in each age group spent in the four stages of sleep, in being awake, and in movement during sleep for Baseline, Boom, and Recovery phases, respectively.…”

“…In agreement with earlier studies of noise effects on sleep ( cf., •williams, 1970) there was no significant reduction across Boom nights in the low-level physiological changes which occurred following boom presentations. Similarly, no significant changes in the EEG measures occurred across nights as a result of repeated exposure to the booms; the latter finding agrees >vith data reported by Lukas andKryter ( 1970a, 1970b) for simulated booms, by Thiessen ( 1970) for truck noise, by Kramer et al (1971) for the striking of a hammer, and as summarized by •williams ( 1970) for other aeons-tic stimuli. However, it might be more appropriate to refer to such results as a failure to obtain "habituation" rather than "adaptation," considering the nature of the test situation and the relatively brief and infrequent presentatiqns of the boom (or other acoustic) stimuli.…”

“…In the present study, awakenings were scored on the basis of evidence in the physiological tracings and were not the "behavioral a>vakenings" (whereby subjects signal their waking state) reported by Lukas and his co-workers (e.g., Lukas, 1970;Lukas and Dobbs, 1972;Lukas and Kryter, 1970a). That we instructed our subjects to ignore disturbances and attempt to get the best night's sleep possible might well account for the smaller number of responses to the booms reported here, as compared with other data (e.g., Lukas and Kryter, 1970a) obtained under conditions in which the subject apparently was made more aware of the purpose of the study and was asked to signal whenever he awakened.…”

“…Of the very small number of studies involving sonic booms and sleep behavior, most have been conducted by Lukas and his co-workers (Lukas, 1970;Lukas and Dobbs, 1972;Lukas, Dobbs, and Kryter, 1971; Lukas and Kryter, 1968, 1970a, 1970b. Those several studies involved a total of 22 male and female subjects who were exposed to simulated sonic booms (ranging in "outdoor" intensities from 0.6 to 5.0 psf) and to recordings of subsonic jet flyover noise (ranging in "outdoor" intensity from 101-119 PNdB).…”

“…(1) children (5-8 years of age) appear to be undisturbed by noise during sleep; (2) in general, younger subjects are less sensitive to noise than are older subjects; (3) irrespective of age, individuals may show considerable variability in relative sensitivity to noise during sleep; ( 4) men appear to be less sensitive to noise than do women ; and ( 5) the occurrence of behavioral awakening is a function of the intensity of the noise (Lukas, 1970). Morgan and Rice (1970) indicate that awakening appears to be related more closely to accumulated sleep time than to stage of sleep.…”