Your noisy workplace could make it harder to sleep

Researchers from Israel say chronic exposure to loud workplace noise may lead to decreased quality of sleep.

Tinnitus, continual ringing in the ears, is the leading cause of disrupted sleep.

The researchers recruited 298 men and women with occupational exposure to harmful noise and tested their hearing before measuring their sleep condition. 

One hundred and ninety-nine of the volunteers had normal hearing and the rest suffered from hearing impairment.

The results showed 51 percent of those with hearing loss reported tinnitus as the major trouble for their sleep, and  14 percent reported tinnitus in the non-hearing loss group.

Those with hearing loss were on average older and spent longer time in the loud noise workplace than those who did not have hearing problems.

However, previous studies have shown hearing problems contributed to the sleep disturbance regardless of age and years of exposure.

The workers who suffered less occupational-related loud noise seemed to have higher quality of sleep than those who were always exposed to loud noise.

Stephen Lau and Aimee Keenan-Greene