Adults living with high levels of residential transportation noise from cars, buses, trains and planes face a higher risk of serious heart-related events and a greater likelihood of developing cardiovascular risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes, according to new, independent, preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2026 in Chicago. The findings matter because they suggest that healthy sleep, long promoted as a pillar of heart health, may not offset the cardiovascular toll of chronic noise exposure.
"The key finding of our study is that the relationship between noise exposure and cardiovascular disease events, and the number of cardiovascular risk factors developed, was similar among people with and without unhealthy sleep, suggesting that healthy sleep is not protective against adverse heart impacts of noise exposure," said lead study author Joseph Nguyen, M.D., an internal medicine resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a member of the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center in Boston. Nguyen said the team expected disordered sleep would influence the relationship between noise and heart disease. "It was surprising to find that sleep health appeared to play no role."
Researchers analyzed medical records and lifestyle survey data for 108,051 adults enrolled in the Massachusetts General Brigham Biobank, spanning 2010 to 2020, alongside U.S. government transportation noise data. Exposure to elevated transportation noise above 50 decibels was associated with an 8% to 10% increase in the development of major heart disease risk factors. About one-third of participants (33%) were exposed to noise louder than 50 decibels, and 54.5% were exposed to noise louder than 45 decibels. Just over one-third, 34.7%, had abnormal sleep, defined as a sleep disorder diagnosis such as sleep apnea or insomnia, or sleeping less than seven or more than nine hours per night. The link between noise and heart events held even after accounting for age, sex, sleep quality, air pollution, income, depression and anxiety.
When risk factors were analyzed individually, the strongest relationship was seen with high cholesterol, followed by high blood pressure and then diabetes. Nguyen noted that the dataset measured 24-hour average noise levels rather than peak levels, which can be far higher. "Subway stations have an average noise level of about 75 decibels at rest and can be more than 100 decibels when trains are arriving or leaving," he said. He advised people with high noise exposure to consider thicker drywall, windows and doors, bedrooms in the quietest part of the home, dense trees and vegetation to absorb sound, and earplugs during sleep.
Co-author Keith Churchwell, M.D., FAHA, past American Heart Association volunteer president and an adjunct associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt School of Medicine, said the study adds to growing evidence that environmental factors such as air pollution, noise, artificial light and chemical pollutants contribute to the global burden of cardiovascular disease. He pointed to the association's joint scientific statement, Environmental Stressors and Cardiovascular Health: Acting Locally for Global Impact in a Changing World. Churchwell, who was not involved in the study, called for stronger policies to reduce adverse environmental exposures and durable infrastructure that emphasizes wellness. The association has also highlighted related concerns in its release on how years of exposure to air pollution and road traffic noise may raise heart failure risk, and in its report that global societies unite to address environmental threats to heart health.
The study is a research abstract and has not been peer-reviewed; its findings are considered preliminary until published as a full manuscript in a peer-reviewed journal. Because it reviewed previously collected data, it cannot prove cause and effect, and effects may vary by noise source. The work was announced via NEWMEDIAWIRE, with additional materials, including video interview clips, available through the release link and a Spanish news release.
