Objective effects of white noise on the sleep of university students: a pilot study

Objective. To assess sleep pattern variations through polysomnography after white noise exposure. Method. Split-night polysomnography was performed on nine university students, mean age of 20.7±1.6 years. Sleeping in a quiet controlled environment, they were not exposed to white noise during the first 4 hours of the night, being exposed to white noise the remaining 4 hours. Results. White noise did not affect sleep efficacy. The number of arousals did not increase with the exposure to white noise. There was a significant increase in the initial stage of sleep (N1), not expected in the second half of the night. REM sleep, expected to happen mostly during the second half of the night, was slightly lower than normal. Conclusion. In this pilot study, white noise exposure did not affect sleep efficacy, nor did it disrupt sleep by arousals. It was not possible to show any other benefit of sleep quality parameters.