Update of an alternative analysis of sleep awakening data

Abstract

Airport and airspace planners need a reliable method for quantifying the effects of nighttime operations on communities. Research has shown that cumulative metrics such as Lnight, Ldn and Lden show little or no correlation with aircraft noise event (ANE) produced awakenings. What is needed is a reliable method for quantifying the likely awakenings that will result from a full night of aircraft operations. This paper reports the results of an update of the analysis reported previously in Noise Control Engineering, 55(2). The objective of this present analysis is to refine the awakening dose-response relationships to be broadly applicable across airports and communities and it does that by adding European awakening data from Schiphol to the original data from three U.S. airports. It derives new regression coefficients and then tests two aspects of the results: whether the populations around the four airports are significantly different in their probability of awakening; whether coefficients that reflect subject "sensitivity" to awakening are real or a result of the random nature of awakenings.

Aircraft noise-induced awakenings are more reasonably predicted from relative than from absolute sound exposure levels

“…Fidell et al (2010) note that the mean assumed sensitivity of test subjects at Denver International Airport (in logit-scaled units, M ¼ À0.09, SE ¼ 0.03) was far greater and significantly higher (F 2,136 ¼ 395.6, p < 0.001, g 2 ¼ 0.28, with 95% confidence limits from 0.22 to 0.34) than at Los Angeles International Airport (M ¼ À0.97, SE ¼ 0.02) and at Castle Air Force Base (M ¼ À0.95, SE ¼ 0.02). Miller et al (2011) report further differences between the mean sensitivities to awakening of individuals at Schiphol Airport and those at the other airports.…”

“…More recently, Anderson and Miller (2007), ANSI (2008, Part 6), and Miller et al (2011) have suggested other methods for predicting sleep disturbance from what little field information is available. Figure 1 compares three fitting functions suggested for predicting the percentage of people awakened by noise intrusions into residential sleeping quarters from absolute indoor SEL values.…”

“…A simple hypothesis derived from adaptation level theory (Helson, 1964;Parducci, 1995) about the origins of noise-induced awakenings at the four airports examined by Miller et al (2011) offers a more substantive explanation than differences in assumed individual sensitivities to awakening. The hypothesis is that noise intrusions which deviate from community expectations following habituation to familiar nighttime noise environments are more likely to awaken community residents than those which conform to their expectations about nighttime airport noise.…”

“…Tables 3 and 13 of Miller et al (2011) contain sufficient information for a simple test of the hypothesis. Table 3 shows that the average indoor SELs at Denver and Los Angeles International Airports, Schiphol, and Castle Air Force Base for study participants who awakened at least once were 63, 70, 55, and 81 dB.…”

“…The reanalysis of Miller et al (2011) included behavioral awakening results from all four airports, differentially weighted to account for the much greater number of participants (and noise events) at Schiphol. The updated analysis diverged considerably from the Anderson and Miller (2007) model beyond about L AE ¼ 80 dB, despite the differential weighting of noise events.…”