When Americans don't get enough sleep, it's not because of aircraft noise, suggests a pilot study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The researchers linked data on noise exposure for 95 major U.S. airports to data on number of days without enough rest or sleep from about 750,000 people who responded to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The data included populations from urban, suburban, and rural areas.

There was a lot of sleeplessness. Adults reporting sleep data over the past month averaged 8.6 days when they did not get enough sleep - and 10.8 percent of them never had a good night's sleep. But it wasn't the roar of aircraft that disturbed their slumber - after making adjustments for individual sociodemographic characteristics and ZIP code-level socioeconomic status, they found no significant associations between airport noise exposure levels and self-reported lack of sleep.

The study also confirmed earlier findings that adults are more likely to get too little rest or sleep if they are younger, female, or non-Hispanic black; or have less than high school education. Furthermore, sleep disorders and sleep loss are associated with individual risk factors such as weight, smoking status, and mental disorders. The researchers say their results are consistent with other findings of no association or a weak association of airport noise with sleep disturbance.

Study: Airport Noise and Self-Reported Sleep Insufficiency, United States, 2008 and 2009, James B. Holt, PhD, MPA, Preventing Chronic Disease, published 16 April 2015.