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Study Objectives Nighttime transportation noise elicits awakenings, sleep-stage changes, and electroencephalographic (EEG) arousals. Here, we investigated the potential sleep-protective role of sleep spindles on noise-induced sleep alterations. Methods Twenty-six young (19-33 years, 12 women) and 18 older (52-70 years, 9 women) healthy volunteers underwent a repeated measures polysomnographic 6-day laboratory study. Participants spent one noise-free baseline night, followed by four transportation noise-exposure nights (road traffic or railway noise; continuous or intermittent: average sound levels of 45 dB, maximum sound levels of 50-62 dB), and one noise-free recovery night. Sleep stages were scored manually and fast sleep spindle characteristics were quantified automatically using an individual band-pass filtering approach. Results Nighttime exposure to transportation noise significantly increased sleep EEG arousal indices. Sleep structure and continuity were not differentially affected by noise exposure in individuals with a low versus a high spindle rate. Spindle rates showed an age-related decline along with more noise-induced sleep alterations. All-night spindle rates did not predict EEG arousal or awakening probability from single railway noise events. Spindle characteristics were affected in noise-exposure nights compared to noise-free nights: we observed a reduction of the spindle amplitude in both age groups and of the spindle rate in the older group. Conclusions We have evidence that spindle rate is more likely to represent a trait phenomenon, which does not seem to play a sleep-protective role in nighttime transportation noise-induced sleep disruptions. However, the marked reduction in spindle amplitude is most likely a sensitive index for noise-induced sleep alterations.

International audience; The present framework for noise abatement in Switzerland was introduced in the 1980s in the Environmental Protection Act. It was subsequently substantiated with noise exposure limits for a range of noise sources. Due to several recent developments, the empirical foundations of the noise limits were increasingly questioned, especially regarding transportation noise. A working group of the Federal Noise Abatement Commission was appointed and commissioned with the task of updating the pertinent scientific foundations and to suggest revised exposure limits when deemed necessary. One result of these efforts was the launch of the interdisciplinary SiRENE study in 2014 with the aim of deriving up to date exposure-response relationships of health effects representative for the Swiss population. At the same time Switzerland has supported WHO's work on new environmental noise guidelines. In its recommendations regarding new noise exposure limits, the working group took into account exposure-response relationships from the (Switzerland-specific) SiRENE study, from the three WHO evidence reviews for annoyance, for sleep disturbance, and for cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes as well as from a recent update of the latter. In deriving limit values, the group followed a similar heuristic as did the WHO for informing their recommendations, but explicitly considered two classes of effects that were both given the same weight for deriving the limit values: Self-reported ("subjective") effects like annoyance and self-reported sleep disturbances on one hand, and on the other hand ("objective") cardiometabolic effects for which the evidence was considered scientifically sound enough, namely ischaemic heart disease (IHD), diabetes, and myocardial infarction mortality. In order to define acceptable risks for these outcomes, they were weighted with common Disability Weight (DW) values. Further empirical data from the SiRENE study were used to define duration and position of day and night rating periods and time-dependent penalties.

In his recent discussion paper in this journal, Truls Gjestland attempts a "systematic review", as he calls it, of the evidence base for aircraft noise annoyance, consolidated in a meta-analysis by Guski et al. that informed the recommended guideline value of 45 dB \(L_{den}\) in the recently published World Health Organization (WHO) Environmental Noise Guidelines. He questions the validity of the presented evidence, as "some of the referenced studies have not been conducted according to standardized methods, and the selection of respondents is not representative of the general airport population." Gjestland maintains that the new WHO Guidelines are based on a questionable selection of existing aircraft noise studies. Our reply comments on the arguments of Gjestland and refutes most of his critique.

Proceedings of the ICA 2019 and EAA Euroregio : 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019 : 9-13 September 2019, Aachen, Germany / proceedings editor: Martin Ochmann, Michael Vorländer, Janina Fels 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019, ICA 2019, Aachen, Germany, 9 Sep 2019 - 13 Sep 2019; Aachen (2019)., Published by Aachen

Proceedings of the ICA 2019 and EAA Euroregio : 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019 : 9-13 September 2019, Aachen, Germany / proceedings editor: Martin Ochmann, Michael Vorländer, Janina Fels 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019, ICA 2019, Aachen, Germany, 9 Sep 2019 - 13 Sep 2019; Aachen (2019)., Published by Aachen

Proceedings of the ICA 2019 and EAA Euroregio : 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019 : 9-13 September 2019, Aachen, Germany / proceedings editor: Martin Ochmann, Michael Vorländer, Janina Fels 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019, ICA 2019, Aachen, Germany, 9 Sep 2019 - 13 Sep 2019; Aachen (2019)., Published by Aachen

Proceedings of the ICA 2019 and EAA Euroregio : 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019 : 9-13 September 2019, Aachen, Germany / proceedings editor: Martin Ochmann, Michael Vorländer, Janina Fels 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019, ICA 2019, Aachen, Germany, 9 Sep 2019 - 13 Sep 2019; Aachen (2019). doi:10.18154/RWTH-CONV-239854, Published by Aachen