Pre-sleep cognitive arousal is negatively associated with sleep misperception in healthy sleepers during habitual environmental noise exposure: an actigraphy study

Journal article

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.

Authors: Sharman, RL; Perlis, ML; Bastien, CH; Barclay, NB; Ellis, JG

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: MDPI
• Journal: Clocks & Sleep
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 88-99
• Place of publication: Switzerland
• Publication date: 2022-02-24
• Acceptance date: 2022-02-21
• DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep4010010
• EISSN: 2624-5175
• Pmid: 35323164
• Language: English
• Keywords: environmental noise; actigraphy; pre-sleep arousal; sleep misperception