Abstract
Specific noises (e.g., traffic or wind turbines) can disrupt sleep and potentially cause a mismatch between subjective sleep and objective sleep (i.e., “sleep misperception”). Some individuals are likely to be more vulnerable than others to noise-related sleep disturbances, potentially as a result of increased pre-sleep cognitive arousal. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationships between pre-sleep cognitive arousal and sleep misperception. Sixteen healthy sleepers participated in this naturalistic, observational study. Three nights of sleep were measured using actigraphy, and each 15-s epoch was classified as sleep or wake. Bedside noise was recorded, and each 15-s segment was classified as containing noise or no noise and matched to actigraphy. Participants completed measures of habitual pre-sleep cognitive and somatic arousal and noise sensitivity. Pre-sleep cognitive and somatic arousal levels were negatively associated with subjective–objective total sleep time discrepancy (p < 0.01). There was an association between sleep/wake and noise presence/absence in the first and last 90 min of sleep (p < 0.001). These results indicate that higher levels of habitual pre-sleep arousal are associated with a greater degree of sleep misperception, and even in healthy sleepers, objective sleep is vulnerable to habitual bedside noise.
Highlights
Sufficient good quality sleep is crucial for maintaining positive physical and psychological health [1]
A total of four participants had estimated objective sleep (OSE%; see Section 4.10) values of
Twelve participants had OSE% values of >100%, indicating that they had a low degree of sleep misperception, as their subjective estimate of TST was higher than the TST that was achieved (Table 1)
Summary
Sufficient good quality sleep is crucial for maintaining positive physical and psychological health [1]. An OSE% percentage value of 100% indicates that the subjective TST is greater than obtained TST (which is indicative of good perceived sleep quality) [13] It is not known if pre-sleep cognitive arousal is related to sleep misperception, or objective awakenings, in the context of habitual bedside noise. Specific aims of the study were to assess (1) associations between habitual pre-sleep arousal and sleep misperception, (2) if bedside noise was associated with objective nocturnal wake, and (3) if the first 90 min of sleep (when there is a predominance of NREM-SWS) is potentially more susceptible to noise disruption than the last 90 min (when there is a predominance of REM) in the night, in a habitual home environment in healthy sleepers. Nocturnal noise will result in more objective waking than sleep during the first 90 min of sleep, relative to the last 90 min
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