At 45 dB Lnight of road traffic noise, 2.9% of exposed people report being highly sleep disturbed, and at 60 dB the share reaches 8.5% (WHO, Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region 2018). Each individual pass-by matters too: the odds of waking rise by 1.36 times for every 10 dBA increase in the indoor peak level of a road traffic event (Basner and McGuire, WHO systematic review on sleep 2018). In Europe, 58 million people are exposed to road traffic noise above 50 dB at night (EEA, Environmental noise in Europe 2025), while EU trucks carried 1,886 billion tonne-kilometres of freight in 2025 (Eurostat, Road freight transport statistics 2026). We aggregated data from the World Health Organization, the European Environment Agency, Eurostat, the UK Department for Transport, and peer-reviewed sleep studies published in Environmental Health Perspectives, Sleep, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and other journals. For the airborne counterpart, see our aircraft noise exposure statistics for airport communities.
A note on terms used throughout: Lnight is the long-term average outdoor noise level over the night period, LAmax is the peak level reached during a single pass-by, and %HSD is the share of people who say they are highly sleep disturbed. Most studies measure road traffic as a whole; very few isolate freight trucks, and we flag that limit wherever it applies. This article is factual only and is not medical advice.
TL;DR
- 2.9% of people are highly sleep disturbed at 45 dB Lnight of road noise, 8.5% at 60 dB (WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018).
- Odds of high sleep disturbance rise 2.13 times per 10 dB Lnight of road noise when the question names the noise (Basner and McGuire, IJERPH 2018).
- An updated meta-analysis puts that odds ratio at 2.52 (95% CI 2.28 to 2.79) (Smith, Cordoza and Basner, Environmental Health Perspectives 2022).
- Night-time truck pass-bys peaked at 72 to 75 dB(A) against 62 to 65 dB(A) for cars at one New South Wales site (Pacific Highway Upgrade Working Paper 2010).
- Road traffic noise caused the strongest changes in sleep structure of the three transport sources in a 72-person laboratory study (Basner, Muller and Elmenhorst, Sleep 2011).
- 58 million Europeans are exposed to road noise above 50 dB Lnight (EEA Environmental noise in Europe 2025).
- Almost 7 million people in the EU were highly sleep disturbed by transport noise in 2022, a decline of less than 1% since 2017 (EEA indicator, Health impacts of exposure to noise from transport 2025).
- EU road freight reached 1,886 billion tonne-kilometres in 2025 (Eurostat Road freight transport statistics 2026).
- Lorries drove 16.3 billion vehicle miles in Great Britain in 2025, 47% of it on motorways (UK DfT Road traffic estimates 2025).
- 75.7% of Paris-area residents live with night-time road noise above WHO guidelines (Chauvineau et al., IJERPH 2025).
1. The Exposure-Response Curve: How Sleep Disturbance Probability Climbs With Night Noise
The WHO curve for road traffic is shallow at the bottom and steep at the top. Going from 45 dB to 60 dB Lnight takes the share of highly sleep disturbed people from 2.9% to 8.5% (WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018), almost three times as many (8.5 / 2.9 = 2.9). The guideline itself is set where the curve crosses 3%, the absolute risk that the WHO expert group chose as relevant for sleep after lowering it from 5%.
The 2022 update matters because it added 11 studies to the original 25 and the road curve barely moved. That stability is the real headline: the risk estimate that drives night-time limits for freight corridors now rests on far more responses than when the guideline was written. The gap between questions that name the noise (OR 2.52) and questions that do not (OR 1.14) is also worth reading carefully: people attribute their poor sleep to traffic more readily when asked about traffic.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Share of people highly sleep disturbed at 45 dB Lnight of road noise | 2.9% (95% CI 1.40 to 4.44) | WHO, Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018 (Table 12) |
| Share of people highly sleep disturbed at 55 dB Lnight of road noise | 6.0% (95% CI 3.19 to 8.84) | WHO, Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018 (Table 12) |
| Share of people highly sleep disturbed at 60 dB Lnight of road noise | 8.5% (95% CI 4.64 to 12.43) | WHO, Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018 (Table 12) |
| Night level at which 3% of participants were highly sleep disturbed by road noise | 45.4 dB Lnight (rounded to a 45 dB guideline) | WHO, Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018 (Table 7) |
| Odds ratio for high sleep disturbance per 10 dB Lnight, road noise, question names the noise | 2.13 (95% CI 1.82 to 2.48), 12 studies | Basner and McGuire, WHO systematic review, IJERPH 2018 |
| Same odds ratio after the 2022 update | 2.52 (95% CI 2.28 to 2.79) | Smith, Cordoza and Basner, Environmental Health Perspectives 2022 |
| Same odds ratio when the question does not mention noise (2022 update) | 1.14 (95% CI 1.08 to 1.21) | Smith, Cordoza and Basner, Environmental Health Perspectives 2022 |
| Survey responses in the 2022 update: new studies vs original WHO studies | 109,070 (11 new studies) vs 64,090 (25 WHO studies) | Smith, Cordoza and Basner, Environmental Health Perspectives 2022 |
Context: the WHO rated the road traffic sleep evidence as moderate quality, based on 12 studies and 20,120 participants. Sources: the WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region and the 2022 update in Environmental Health Perspectives.
2. One Pass-By at a Time: Event-Level Awakening Probability and Truck Peaks
Averages hide what freight traffic actually does at night: it arrives as separate, loud events. The odds of waking rise 1.36 times for every 10 dBA increase in the indoor peak level of a road traffic event (Basner and McGuire, IJERPH 2018), and the extra awakenings start from indoor peaks of only 33 to 38 dBA. The road events in that pooled analysis were mostly single car or truck pass-bys, so the evidence describes vehicles one at a time rather than trucks specifically.
The New South Wales measurements show why trucks stand out. At one site, night-time truck peaks sat about 10 dB(A) above car peaks (72 to 75 dB(A) against 62 to 65 dB(A)), which is the same step size the WHO review uses for its odds ratios. The two numbers cannot be multiplied together, though: the Australian peaks were measured outdoors and the WHO odds ratio refers to indoor levels.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Odds of awakening per 10 dBA increase in indoor peak level (LAmax), road traffic events | 1.36 (95% CI 1.19 to 1.55) unadjusted; 1.32 (95% CI 1.15 to 1.50) adjusted | Basner and McGuire, WHO systematic review, IJERPH 2018 |
| Indoor peak level at which the probability of an extra awakening becomes higher than zero | 33 to 38 dBA | Basner and McGuire, WHO systematic review, IJERPH 2018 |
| Spontaneous awakening rate per 90-second window, road traffic studies (baseline without noise) | 8.2% | Basner and McGuire, WHO systematic review, IJERPH 2018 |
| Night-time outdoor peak level of passing trucks vs passing cars, Cassegrain Winery site, New South Wales | 72 to 75 dB(A) vs 62 to 65 dB(A) | Pacific Highway Upgrade, Oxley Highway to Kempsey, Noise and Vibration Working Paper 2010 |
| Indoor peak level below which awakening reactions are considered unlikely (New South Wales road noise criteria) | 50 to 55 dB(A) | NSW Environmental Criteria for Road Traffic Noise 1999, as cited in the 2010 Working Paper |
| Laboratory study participants and nights (40, 80 or 120 traffic noise events per night) | 72 participants, 11 consecutive nights | Basner, Muller and Elmenhorst, Sleep 2011 |
| Noise categories in which road traffic caused the strongest sleep effect, out of 12 | 9 of 12 | Basner, Muller and Elmenhorst, Sleep 2011 |
| Probability of a brief cortical arousal (a short shift toward lighter sleep) compared with full awakening | 2.6 times higher on average | Basner, Muller and Elmenhorst, Sleep 2011 |
Context: in the same WHO review, freight trains showed an odds ratio of 1.40 (95% CI 1.22 to 1.61) per 10 dBA for a sleep stage change, against 1.21 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.50) for passenger trains, p = 0.31, so the freight-versus-passenger gap was not statistically significant. The New South Wales data date from 2010 and are the most recent available site measurements we could verify: most recent available data, Pacific Highway Upgrade Working Paper, 2010. Sources: the WHO systematic review on noise and sleep, the laboratory study in Sleep, and the Kempsey noise and vibration working paper. Peak-level effects on sleep in a different setting are covered in our hospital ICU noise and sleep arousal statistics.
3. Night Exposure in Europe: Who Sleeps Next to the Traffic
Europe’s reporting thresholds sit above the WHO’s. The EU’s noise reporting rules start counting at 50 dB Lnight, while the WHO guideline is 45 dB. 58 million Europeans are exposed to road traffic noise above 50 dB at night, and that count by design leaves out everyone living between 45 and 50 dB Lnight, the band where the WHO curve already passes its 3% benchmark.
The trend line is the uncomfortable part. Between 2017 and 2022, high sleep disturbance from transport noise in the EU fell by less than 1%, and the EEA calculates that 2 million fewer highly sleep disturbed people are still needed to meet the 2030 target.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| People in Europe exposed to road traffic noise above 50 dB Lnight | 58 million | EEA, Environmental noise in Europe 2025 |
| People exposed to road traffic noise above 55 dB Lden (day-evening-night average) | 92 million (rail 18 million, aircraft 2.6 million) | EEA, Environmental noise in Europe 2025 |
| Europeans exposed to road traffic noise above 50 dB Lnight, earlier estimate | Over 72 million | WHO, Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018 |
| Share of Europeans exposed to harmful transport noise: EU thresholds vs WHO levels | Over 20% vs over 30% | EEA, Environmental noise in Europe 2025 |
| People in the EU highly sleep disturbed by transport noise, 2022 reporting | Almost 7 million | EEA indicator, Health impacts of exposure to noise from transport 2025 |
| People with severe sleep disturbance from transport noise (2025 report) | Approximately 4.6 million | EEA, Environmental noise in Europe 2025 |
| Change in high sleep disturbance from transport noise, 2017 to 2022 | Declined by less than 1% | EEA indicator, Health impacts of exposure to noise from transport 2025 |
| Further reduction from 2022 levels needed to meet the 2030 target | 2 million fewer highly sleep disturbed people | EEA indicator, Health impacts of exposure to noise from transport 2025 |
Context: the 4.6 million and almost 7 million figures are not directly comparable. They come from different EEA products, and the 2025 report received a corrigendum in March 2026 that changed several health estimates (see the Data watch note). Sources: EEA Environmental noise in Europe 2025 and the EEA transport noise health impacts indicator.
4. The Freight Behind the Noise: Road Freight Volumes in the EU and Great Britain
Freight volume is not falling, so the night-time noise source is not going away on its own. EU road freight reached 1,886 billion tonne-kilometres in 2025, up 0.9% (Eurostat Road freight transport statistics 2026). A tonne-kilometre is one tonne of goods carried over one kilometre, so the figure measures transport work, not the number of trucks.
The British figures show where that work happens. Lorries are only 5% of traffic, but 47% of lorry miles run on motorways and 45% on A roads, which puts 92% (47 + 45) of lorry miles on the main road network that lines many residential areas. The DfT also notes that lorry traffic holds a flatter level from 6am to 5pm on weekdays, without the commuter peaks of cars and vans; neither the DfT chapter nor Eurostat publishes a night-only share in the pages we reviewed.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| EU road freight transport, 2025 | 1,886 billion tonne-kilometres (+0.9% vs 2024) | Eurostat, Road freight transport statistics 2026 |
| EU road freight tonnage, 2025 | Nearly 13.3 billion tonnes (+1.8% vs 2024) | Eurostat, Road freight transport statistics 2026 |
| International vs national share of EU road freight, 2025 | 24.4% international vs 62.2% national | Eurostat, Road freight transport statistics 2026 |
| Largest shares of EU road freight tonne-kilometres, 2025 | Poland 20.2%, Germany 14.7%, Spain 14.5% | Eurostat, Road freight transport statistics 2026 |
| Lorry traffic in Great Britain, 2025 (goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes) | 16.3 billion vehicle miles (-1.7% vs 2024, -5.1% vs 2019) | UK DfT, Road traffic estimates in Great Britain 2025 |
| Lorries as a share of all motor traffic in Great Britain, 2025 | 5% | UK DfT, Road traffic estimates in Great Britain 2025 |
| Share of lorry miles by road type in Great Britain, 2025 | Motorways 47%, A roads 45%, minor roads 8% | UK DfT, Road traffic estimates in Great Britain 2025 |
Sources: Eurostat Road freight transport statistics and DfT Road traffic estimates in Great Britain 2025, traffic by vehicle type.
5. Field Evidence: What Population Studies Show Beyond the Laboratory
Real cities both confirm and soften the WHO curve. In Leipzig, the 3% high sleep disturbance threshold for road traffic was reached at 51 dB Lnight, against 45 dB in the WHO curves (Schubert et al., IJERPH 2023), partly because the study also mapped secondary roads. The direction of the risk was the same, though: an odds ratio of 2.86 per 10 dB.
Paris shows the scale side. When three in four residents live above the WHO night guideline for road noise, even a small per-person effect shows up in pharmacy records: road noise had the strongest association with dispensing of sleep medication of the four sources studied. The design is ecological (area-level, not individual), so it shows a pattern across neighbourhoods, not cause and effect for any single person.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Leipzig adults highly sleep disturbed by road traffic noise | Approximately 2.7% of 5,670 participants | Schubert et al., LIFE-Adult study, IJERPH 2023 |
| Odds ratio for high sleep disturbance per 10 dB Lnight, road traffic, Leipzig | 2.86 (95% CI 1.92 to 4.28) | Schubert et al., LIFE-Adult study, IJERPH 2023 |
| Night level at which 3% of people are highly sleep disturbed by road noise: Leipzig vs WHO curves | 51 dB vs 45 dB Lnight | Schubert et al., LIFE-Adult study, IJERPH 2023 |
| Paris Metropolitan Area residents exposed to night-time road noise above WHO guidelines | About 8 million (75.7%) | Chauvineau et al., IJERPH 2025 |
| Paris-area residents dispensed sleep medication (hypnotic drugs) for chronic insomnia | 513,276 (65.4 per 1,000 inhabitants) | Chauvineau et al., IJERPH 2025 |
| Additional patients per 1,000 inhabitants per 5 dB(A) of night noise: road vs aircraft vs rail | 1.01 vs 0.51 vs 0.35 | Chauvineau et al., IJERPH 2025 |
| Poor sleep odds, bedroom facing a medium or high traffic street vs no street (working women, Sweden) | OR 1.63 (95% CI 1.06 to 2.51), univariate | Bartels et al., International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health 2021 |
Context: the Swedish study of 2,191 working women did not find poor sleep rising with Lnight itself (OR per 1 dB 0.99, CI 0.98 to 1.00), and the bedroom orientation effect became a non-significant trend after adjusting for work stress. Bedroom position and window orientation can matter as much as the address-level noise figure. Sources: the LIFE-Adult comparison with WHO curves, the Paris night noise and hypnotic dispensing study, and the Swedish bedroom orientation study.
6. Mitigation, Vehicle Rules and the Drivers Themselves
The policy toolkit for night freight noise is wider than its evidence base. The WHO found 9 studies on source measures such as traffic flow changes, resurfacing and truck restriction strategies, and 2 studies that measured high sleep disturbance after path measures such as insulation or barriers, both showing a reduction. A two-year panel study on an urban road corridor with five survey rounds found that cutting heavy vehicles at night lowered annoyance even though conventional average noise indicators did not change (Brown, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2015): the number of heavy-vehicle noise events fell, and that is what residents responded to.
On the vehicle side, EU type-approval limits for the heaviest trucks step down by 3 dB(A) between Phase 1 and Phase 3. Off-peak delivery research from Chalmers adds a caution: low-frequency truck noise dominates indoors and was linked to reported arousal in listening tests, so quieter trucks also need well-insulated windows (Hostmad et al., INTER-NOISE 2016). Quieter road surfaces are another lever, covered in our porous asphalt and quiet pavement statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Road traffic intervention studies in the WHO review | 9 source-intervention studies (6,096 participants); 2 sleep studies of path measures (1,158 participants) | WHO, Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018 |
| Night heavy-vehicle reduction study design, urban road corridor | Two-year panel, five repeated measurements | Brown, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2015 |
| EU sound limit for new N3 trucks (heaviest goods vehicles) above 250 kW engine power: Phase 1 vs Phase 3 | 82 dB(A) vs 79 dB(A) | EU Regulation No 540/2014, Annex III |
| EU sound limit for new N3 trucks up to 150 kW engine power: Phase 1 vs Phase 3 | 79 dB(A) vs 76 dB(A) | EU Regulation No 540/2014, Annex III |
| EU 2030 goal for people chronically disturbed by transport noise, and best-case projection | 30% reduction vs 2017 target; about 21% decline in the optimistic scenario | EEA, Environmental noise in Europe 2025 |
| Long-haul truck drivers sleeping with replayed motorway noise: mean noise level | 44.7 dB(A), 10 drivers | Popp et al., Noise and Health 2015 |
| Time to first dream (REM) sleep, noisy vs silent nights, truck drivers | 90 vs 69 minutes (P = 0.074) | Popp et al., Noise and Health 2015 |
Context: the truck driver study was a small pilot, sponsored by a truck manufacturer, and none of its sleep differences reached P < 0.05; the authors described it as potentially underpowered. Sources: EU Regulation No 540/2014 on the sound level of motor vehicles, the Brown 2015 heavy-vehicle study record, the truck driver sleep pilot study and the Chalmers off-peak delivery paper. Early-morning collection trucks are a related case, covered in our garbage truck compactor noise statistics.
Summary: Nighttime Road Freight Traffic Sleep Disturbance by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Highly sleep disturbed at 45 dB Lnight of road noise | 2.9% | WHO, Environmental Noise Guidelines 2018 |
| Odds ratio for high sleep disturbance per 10 dB Lnight, road (question names noise) | 2.13 | Basner and McGuire, IJERPH 2018 |
| Updated odds ratio, road | 2.52 | Smith, Cordoza and Basner, EHP 2022 |
| Odds of awakening per 10 dBA indoor peak level, road events | 1.36 | Basner and McGuire, IJERPH 2018 |
| Night peak of passing trucks vs cars, one NSW site | 72 to 75 vs 62 to 65 dB(A) | Pacific Highway Upgrade Working Paper 2010 |
| Categories where road noise had the strongest sleep effect | 9 of 12 | Basner, Muller and Elmenhorst, Sleep 2011 |
| Europeans exposed to road noise above 50 dB Lnight | 58 million | EEA, Environmental noise in Europe 2025 |
| Europeans exposed to road noise above 55 dB Lden | 92 million | EEA, Environmental noise in Europe 2025 |
| EU residents highly sleep disturbed by transport noise, 2022 | Almost 7 million | EEA indicator 2025 |
| Change in high sleep disturbance, 2017 to 2022 | Less than 1% decline | EEA indicator 2025 |
| EU road freight, 2025 | 1,886 billion tonne-kilometres | Eurostat 2026 |
| Lorry traffic in Great Britain, 2025 | 16.3 billion vehicle miles | UK DfT 2025 |
| Share of British lorry miles on motorways | 47% | UK DfT 2025 |
| Leipzig night level for 3% high sleep disturbance from road noise | 51 dB Lnight | Schubert et al., IJERPH 2023 |
| Paris-area residents above WHO night road noise guideline | 75.7% | Chauvineau et al., IJERPH 2025 |
| Extra sleep medication patients per 1,000 per 5 dB(A) of road night noise, Paris | 1.01 | Chauvineau et al., IJERPH 2025 |
| EU sound limit for the heaviest new trucks, Phase 1 vs Phase 3 | 82 vs 79 dB(A) | EU Regulation No 540/2014 |
Methodology and Sources
- WHO Regional Office for Europe, Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region (2018): road, rail and aircraft night guideline values, Table 7 and Table 12 exposure-response values, intervention evidence. Most recent available data: WHO, 2018 (no newer edition published).
- Basner and McGuire, WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region: A Systematic Review on Environmental Noise and Effects on Sleep, IJERPH 2018.
- Smith, Cordoza and Basner, Environmental Noise and Effects on Sleep: An Update to the WHO Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Environmental Health Perspectives 2022.
- Basner, Muller and Elmenhorst, Single and combined effects of air, road, and rail traffic noise on sleep and recuperation, Sleep 2011. Most recent available data: 2011 laboratory study.
- Pacific Highway Upgrade, Oxley Highway to Kempsey, Noise and Vibration Working Paper, Chapter 7 (2010), citing the NSW Environmental Criteria for Road Traffic Noise (1999). Most recent available data: 2010.
- European Environment Agency, Environmental noise in Europe 2025 (EEA Report 05/2025, corrected March 2026), including its summary for policymakers.
- European Environment Agency, Health impacts of exposure to noise from transport (indicator, October 2025).
- Eurostat, Road freight transport statistics (data extracted July 2026).
- UK Department for Transport, Road traffic estimates in Great Britain 2025.
- Schubert et al., Traffic-Related High Sleep Disturbance in the LIFE-Adult Cohort Study, IJERPH 2023.
- Chauvineau et al., Night-Time Exposure to Road, Railway, Aircraft, and Recreational Noise and Hypnotic Drug Dispensing in the Paris Metropolitan Area, IJERPH 2025.
- Bartels et al., Nocturnal road traffic noise, bedroom window orientation and work-related stress, International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health 2021.
- Brown, Longitudinal annoyance responses to a road traffic noise management strategy that reduced heavy vehicles at night, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2015.
- Popp et al., Impact of overnight traffic noise on sleep quality in long-haul truck drivers, Noise and Health 2015.
- Hostmad, Forssen, Bergman and Fredriksson, Off-peak low noise heavy-duty vehicles, facade insulation and indoor noise disturbance, INTER-NOISE 2016.
- Regulation (EU) No 540/2014 on the sound level of motor vehicles.
- Data watch: almost no study isolates freight trucks from general road traffic, so the exposure-response values above describe road traffic as a whole; the Basner and McGuire review notes its road events were mostly single car or truck pass-bys. The EEA’s 2025 report (approximately 4.6 million with severe sleep disturbance, 58 million exposed at night) and its October 2025 indicator (almost 7 million highly sleep disturbed in the EU in 2022) do not match, and the report received a corrigendum on 27 March 2026 that revised several health estimates without listing the corrected values on the landing page; treat the 4.6 million figure with caution. The WHO’s earlier figure of over 72 million people above 50 dB Lnight and the EEA’s 58 million come from different reporting rounds and country coverage, so the difference should not be read as a measured trend. The Leipzig study mapped secondary roads too, which its authors say limits direct comparison with the WHO road curve. The EU truck limits in Regulation 540/2014 carry a footnote that delays some N3 phase dates by up to two years, so check the regulation before quoting application dates. No national dataset we reviewed publishes a night-only share of truck traffic (the UK DfT time-of-day table TRA0308 is a spreadsheet we could not read in this review), which is the main gap for future updates.
Last updated: October 24, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when the EEA publishes its next Environmental Noise Directive reporting round and Eurostat issues its July 2027 road freight update.