The Impact of Urban Noise on Sleep Quality and How to Combat It

Urban noise can keep you awake during the night and lower your sleep quality. Learn how to combat the city sounds to sleep better.

Cities offer a plethora of nighttime activities, but they can also interrupt the most important one of all: sleeping. With loud noises from traffic lasting well into the night, it’s not uncommon for those in urban areas to have a hard time falling and staying asleep.

Thankfully, by modifying your sleeping environment, you can mask these disruptive sounds, allowing you to sleep longer and maintain the serenity needed for a restful night of sleep.

Urban Noise: A Loud Problem

Urban noise, often referred to as noise pollution, is a growing problem, especially in regard to your sleep quality. It can lead to insomnia and fragmented sleep, which can then lead to the development of chronic health conditions such as depression, anxiety, heart disease, and cognitive impairment.

Noise pollution can come from a number of sources, such as traffic (whether it’s the sound of loud engines passing by or honking horns), construction work, airplanes, or even leafblowers. It’s more common in urban settings thanks to the higher population density—more activity equals more noise, which can affect your sleep.

How Urban Noise Impacts Your Sleep

There are two primary modalities by which urban noise affects your sleep: it makes it hard to fall asleep and can wake you up during the night. Let’s explore each type in more detail.

Increased Risk of Insomnia

The impact of urban noise can start the moment you settle into bed since it can make it harder to fall asleep.

Consider this: you’re nestled in your bed, comfortable underneath your sheets, and you start to feel your mind drift away when a blaring horn causes you to startle, your eyes widening as your heart pounds in your ears.

Once you’ve been startled back to alertness, you have to start all over again to calm your mind and body, pushing back when you fall asleep and lessening the amount of sleep you’re able to get in a night.

For some areas, the noise may be so distracting that it feels impossible to tune it out, your mind refusing to shut off as you catalog each sound. In some cases, you may even find yourself waiting for a loud noise to jar you awake, unintentionally keeping yourself awake longer.

Research has also shown that adolescents who live in high-noise areas have later bedtimes every day, whether weeknight or weekend night. Interestingly, these same researchers saw no decline in sleep time, meaning the adolescents' sleep phases were simply shifted. However, given the early start times for high school students, it’s clear that any shifts can result in sleep deprivation when the wake-up times are concrete and cannot shift as well.

As it stands, urban noise is seen as a significant cause of sleep disturbances, and the disruptions can begin before you officially fall asleep.

More Nighttime Awakenings

Not only can urban noise make it hard to fall asleep, but it can cause you to wake up during the night, interrupting your sleep. While noise can wake anyone up during the night, it can be more common in urban settings where the nighttime activities of others can interrupt your sleep.

Not only can the loud noises interrupt your sleep, but they can cause you to wake up in a state of stress and anxiety. This is because loud noises signal to the auditory system in your body that there is something wrong, triggering your fight-or-flight response by flooding your body with the stress hormone cortisol. However, while you may be able to quickly ascertain that everything is fine and the noise is only from outside your building, it’s not easy for your body to quickly remove the cortisol. As such, this can make it harder for you to fall back asleep, and the sleep that you get moving forward may be of lower quality thanks to these high cortisol levels.

Additionally, since our body cycles through the four sleep stages during the night, with the third and fourth being the most restorative, fragmented sleep can result in less time spent in these later stages, leading to lower sleep quality. In fact, research has shown that noise pollution can increase the amount of stage 1 sleep while decreasing slow-wave sleep (stage 3) and REM sleep (stage 4).

Even if the noises don’t disturb you during the day, you may be more sensitive to them at night. One study involving mice showed that they had a greater sensitivity to noise at night compared to during the day—the researchers hypothesize that the human circadian rhythm may have this same sensitivity.

How to Combat Urban Noise

The ideal scenario would be to sleep in an entirely quiet room with no disturbances, but that is generally impossible no matter where you live. Especially in urban settings, though, it’s crucial that you take the proper precautions against environmental noise, such as:

Use earplugs. When the noises from outside are loud, consider using earplugs to help lower their intensity.
Use a sound machine. Whether you choose to listen to colored noises (e.g., white noise, pink noise) or nature sounds, turning on a sound machine serves as a great way to mask urban noises and prevent them from being as distracting.
Add soft surfaces to your room. There are some decorative adjustments you can make to lower the impact of urban noise. Since soft surfaces absorb sound, add rugs, thick curtains, or cushioned furniture to your room to help lessen the noise that comes in from outside.
Insulate windows. If there are gaps in your windows, they can allow noise to enter your bedroom more easily. If it’s an option for your living situation, consider insulating your windows or sealing these gaps.

Tone Down Outside Noise

For those who live in urban environments, noise can continue well into the night, which may disturb your sleep by keeping you awake or waking you up during the night. This lack of sleep can then affect your day, causing sleepiness and a lack of focus.

To preserve your nights, take precautions against noise interruptions by using earplugs, playing a sound machine, and decorating your room with more soft surfaces. Once you take these steps, you’ll be able to sleep more soundly through the night, thanks to fewer disruptions.

FAQ

How does urban noise affect sleep quality in the long term?

Long-term exposure to urban noise can lead to chronic sleep deprivation, which is linked to a range of health problems, including cardiovascular disease, weakened immune function, obesity, and cognitive decline. It can also contribute to chronic stress and mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.

Why does noise feel more disruptive at night than during the day?

At night, the brain is more sensitive to disruptions because it is in a relaxed state, trying to enter deep sleep. Additionally, the overall environment is quieter, making sudden noises—like honking or sirens—seem louder and more jarring. Some research suggests that our circadian rhythms make us naturally more sensitive to disturbances during the night.

Can white noise help with sleep disturbances caused by urban noise?

Yes! White noise and other colored noises (like pink or brown noise) create a consistent background sound that helps mask sudden noises. This prevents sleep interruptions by reducing the contrast between quiet moments and loud urban sounds, making disturbances less noticeable.

Does the type of noise matter in how it affects sleep?

Yes! Sudden, unpredictable noises (like honking or shouting) are more disruptive than steady, low-frequency sounds (like distant traffic or rain). This is why sound machines and steady background noise can be effective in reducing sleep disturbances from urban noise.

Can my brain ever get used to sleeping in a noisy environment?

Yes! While some sounds will always be disruptive, your brain can adapt to certain background noises over time. The key is consistency—playing white noise or another steady sound can help train your brain to ignore unpredictable city sounds.