Broadband Noise Study

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Broadband Noise Study

Thank you for your interest in our Broadband Noise Study, which is sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and performed by the University of Pennsylvania in our state-of-the-art Chronobiology and Isolation Laboratory located in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The main purpose of this in-lab study is to investigate the mitigating effects of different interventions on sleep disturbance caused by aircraft noise. 

We will measure your sleep for 7 consecutive nights, starting on a Monday evening through the following Monday morning. You will report to our laboratory located in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (3400 Spruce St) in the evening at 7 PM to perform cognitive and physiological testing including computerized tests, surveys, heart rate monitoring and hearing assessments. You will wear electrodes during a designated sleep period (11 PM-7 AM) to monitor your sleep. Each night, you will be exposed to a different noise condition or intervention. In the morning, you will wake, remove the electrodes, have a small vial of blood drawn, and repeat the cognitive and physiological tasks from the evening before departing for the day between 9 and 10 AM. 

Prior to the in-lab portion of the study, you will visit the University of Pennsylvania for two screening sessions. At the first screening, you will receive an activity-monitoring wrist device called an actiwatch to be worn daily until the start of the in-lab sleep study. You will also complete brief daily sleep logs recording the duration and quality of your sleep at home for the period between the first screening session and the start of the study. 

You will be assigned your own private bedroom and bathroom, but will share the common areas of the laboratory with three other participants for the 7-night study. You will not have access to the internet, cell phones, computers or other personal electronics during the designated sleep and testing periods, but you can be reached for emergencies at any time. 

You will depart the lab each morning between 9-10 AM and can go about your normal activities during the day, including work or exercise, with minor exceptions (e.g. no caffeine/alcohol intake after 3 PM and no naps at any time). 

Compensation is up to $1,210 paid via a Greenphire ClinCard (a physical reloadable debit card) plus reimbursement for transportation costs. 

If you are between 21-50 years old and interested, please contact us to learn more about the details of the study and to proceed with screening to see if you meet the eligibility criteria to participate in the in-lab study. 

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Pennsylvania.

If you have any questions, you can contact us via telephone or email:

•     Call:  215-573-5855 (mention Broadband Noise Study)

•     Email:  noise@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Thank you for your interest in the Broadband Noise Study!

The study team at the University of Pennsylvania