Y to a stress-free life?
the effect of living near airports on sleeping habits and found a strong link between increases in blood pressure when exposed to noise every 15 minutes. Constant social media notifications keep you in the loop but as recent studies indicate, they can affect sleep patterns. Australian research published in May this year found that children with phones in their bedrooms at night had poor sleep habits, which were directly associated with decreased self esteem and their coping mechanisms. A new book called Why We Sleep by neuroscientist Matthew Walker warns that a sleep-loss epidemic resulting from changing social and employment patterns, together with devices such as smartphones, is having “a catastrophic impact on our health, life expectancy, safety, productivity and the education of our children”.
Reducing noise can play an integral role in our quest to get a better night’s sleep. Addressing noise levels in your sleeping environment is one key step but keeping noise to a minimum throughout the day will also make us calmer in general and ready for sleep when we go to bed. A study carried out by Swedish researchers and published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal uncovered a link between exposure to road traffic, rail and aircraft noise and the risk of developing midriff bulge, one of the most harmful types of fat deposit around the body. As a physiological stressor it bumps up the production of the stress hormone cortisol, increasing fat deposits around the middle. According to Professor Stephen Stansfeld, a leading noise expert, at least 20 studies have found children growing up with aircraft or traffic noise are significantly behind their peers with reading, language skills and memory.
It has been proven that too much cortisol in the body stops the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s planning centre, from working properly, which makes it harder to think and remember information. There is evidence that the trend for open-plan offices has not been helpful in terms of productivity. Noise is often cited as one of the most annoying aspects of office life.
One study found that clerical workers in a noisy room were less motivated to complete cognitive tasks and had elevated stress hormone levels, compared to those in a quiet room. Stress has a negative influence on irritable bowel syndrome. The hormone cortisol, released when we are exposed to noise regularly, is central to producing many of the physical effects that emotional stress causes in the body. Research carried out by Quiet Mark and Defra showed 62 per cent of respondents felt that noise from household appliances adversely affected the enjoyment of home life, while 53 per cent said outside noise affected the extent to which they opened their doors and windows. Visit quietmark.com or johnlewis. com for more information.