Sonic boom effects on sleep—A field experiment on military and civilian populations

Abstract

Sleep interference due to sonic boom exposure was studied in a field experiment involving military and civilian populations. A test area with military recruits lodged in barracks and a surrounding civilian population was overflown on irregular days at 0425 hours. Seven sonic booms with overpressures of 6–64 N/m2 were generated throughout a three month period. At sonic boom overpressures of around 60 N/m2, a 10 % increase in awakening frequency was noted in the military population. At the same overpressure 56 % of the civilians reported sleep interference and difficulties in going back to normal sleep. Limited studies on two babies revealed the presence of minor startle reactions at boom overpressures exceeding 70 N/m2.