Iran Occupational Health

Background and aims: Noise is one of the troubles in industrial world and numerous people are affected by it. Sleep disturbance is a harmful effect of exposure to noise. High quality of sleep is an important factor in health and well-being so its decline can threaten persons’ health and even their safety. The current study was conducted to assess the relationship between exposure to noise and quality of sleep among workers in an industry.

Methods: 86 workers from an industrial company participated in this descriptive and case-control study. Interference variables were recognized by a designed questionnaire. Moreover, an advanced sound level meter (CEL-450) and Pittsburgh standard questionnaire were used to measure the noise level and the quality of sleep.

Results: The average of exposure to noise was 83.31±2.36 and 56.91±5.12 dB and the results of sleep quality scores were 6.19 and 3.81 in experimental and control group respectively. The statistical test showed that there was a significant difference between experimental and control group in their sleep quality (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Our findings illustrated that occupational noise is the important factor in sleep disturbance among the exposed people. Due to the effect of sleep quality on people´s performance and their mental health, it´s essential to pay more attention to this issue.