LAUSR

Individuals are exposed to various air pollutants every day, both when they are inside and when they are outside. Poor air quality can negatively impact an individual’s sleep quality, especially when the individual has been exposed to Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) which can adversely affect human health due to its ability to penetrate into a human body easily. We examined how PM2.5 exposure impacts perceived sleep quality and sleep metrics. 11 individuals (7 Female, 4 Male) with an average age 34.18±10.24 years participated where each participant lived in a simulated one-bedroom apartment unit located in Rochester, MN for 20 nights in total over 4 weeks. Participants wore an EEG-based sleep headband (Dreem) to measure sleep metrics and completed surveys to assess perceived sleep quality and fatigue level each weekday after they woke up. Air quality including PM2.5 was monitored in the units from sensors and from the participants outside the units using a portable research grade air quality monitor paired with GPS. Total PM2.5 exposure was calculated each day by multiplying the PM2.5 concentration by 6 liter/min of inhalation rate and duration (min). We excluded nights with less than 5 hours of sleep duration. One participant who reported poor sleep quality over 70% of the time was also excluded. Participants had an average of 58.2μg±63.8 PM2.5 exposure during a day until they went to bed and 0.8μg±2.6 PM2.5 exposure during sleep. Because there was minimal night PM2.5 exposure, only the day exposure was correlated to sleep measures. There was no significant effect of PM2.5 exposure on sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency, wake after sleep onset, and total sleep time as measured from the Dreem headband. There was a modest but significant effect of PM2.5 on perceived sleep quality, as participants rated poorer sleep quality (r(141)=.17, p=.042) and higher fatigue levels (r(141)=.26, p=.002) the next morning. These findings suggest acute PM2.5 exposure levels were not high enough to affect sleep metrics but did affect one’s perceived sleep. Future studies should examine longer period to assess whether there is a chronic effect of PM2.5 exposure on sleep.