Daily associations between outdoor air pollution and sleep quality
Abstract
Background Growing evidence links ambient air pollution, including fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), and ozone (O 3 ), to adverse effects on sleep. However, most prior research has relied on chronic exposure metrics and subjective sleep assessments, obscuring short-term dynamics and limiting physiological precision. To address these gaps, we examined associations of same-day and previous-day pollutant levels with both self-reported and device-measured sleep, using an ecologically valid design. Methods Data were derived from the Budapest Sleep, Traits and Experiences Study, a 7-day observational study in which participants reported their daily activities and sleep quality ratings, and recorded EEG during sleep. Device-measured sleep outcomes included sleep efficiency, %REM sleep, sleep onset latency, and total sleep time. Outdoor concentrations of PM 2.5 , NO 2 , and O 3 were aggregated from monitoring stations during an individual’s awake period. Linear mixed-effects models with a random intercept for participant were employed to evaluate associations between each pollutant and sleep outcome, being adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, education, weekday, season, temperature, physical activity, screen exposure, and traveling. Results The analysis revealed that elevated O 3 exposure on day 1 was associated with lower sleep efficiency and poorer perceived sleep quality on night 2. These findings survived correction for multiple comparisons, and held across multi-pollutant models and sensitivity analyses accounting for depression, insomnia, and chronotype. Notably, no robust day-to-night associations emerged for any pollutant. Conclusions Overall, this study demonstrates a short-term relationship between outdoor ozone concentration and reduced sleep quality, even at levels deemed safe by current standards, which highlights the need for continued vigilance and regulations to protect health.
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BibTeX
@misc{temporao2026daily,
title = {{Daily associations between outdoor air pollution and sleep quality}},
author = {Carolina Temporão and Pauline Caille and Guillaume Chevance and Lilla Kovács and Róbert Pierson-Bartel and Sára Wolf and Peter Przemyslaw Ujma and Paquito Bernard},
howpublished = {HAL},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.15.26363130},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05764095v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Daily associations between outdoor air pollution and sleep quality
AU - Carolina Temporão
AU - Pauline Caille
AU - Guillaume Chevance
AU - Lilla Kovács
AU - Róbert Pierson-Bartel
AU - Sára Wolf
AU - Peter Przemyslaw Ujma
AU - Paquito Bernard
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - HAL
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.15.26363130
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05764095v1
AB - Background Growing evidence links ambient air pollution, including fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), and ozone (O 3 ), to adverse effects on sleep. However, most prior research has relied on chronic exposure metrics and subjective sleep assessments, obscuring short-term dynamics and limiting physiological precision. To address these gaps, we examined associations of same-day and previous-day pollutant levels with both self-reported and device-measured sleep, using an ecologically valid design. Methods Data were derived from the Budapest Sleep, Traits and Experiences Study, a 7-day observational study in which participants reported their daily activities and sleep quality ratings, and recorded EEG during sleep. Device-measured sleep outcomes included sleep efficiency, %REM sleep, sleep onset latency, and total sleep time. Outdoor concentrations of PM 2.5 , NO 2 , and O 3 were aggregated from monitoring stations during an individual’s awake period. Linear mixed-effects models with a random intercept for participant were employed to evaluate associations between each pollutant and sleep outcome, being adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, education, weekday, season, temperature, physical activity, screen exposure, and traveling. Results The analysis revealed that elevated O 3 exposure on day 1 was associated with lower sleep efficiency and poorer perceived sleep quality on night 2. These findings survived correction for multiple comparisons, and held across multi-pollutant models and sensitivity analyses accounting for depression, insomnia, and chronotype. Notably, no robust day-to-night associations emerged for any pollutant. Conclusions Overall, this study demonstrates a short-term relationship between outdoor ozone concentration and reduced sleep quality, even at levels deemed safe by current standards, which highlights the need for continued vigilance and regulations to protect health.
ER -