Night sleep threatened for a million Swedes

Night sleep threatened for a million Swedes

One in ten Swedes, just over a million people, have their night’s sleep ruined.

This is shown by a recent survey from the Public Health Agency.

In the survey Environmental health survey 2023 questions are asked, among other things, about the indoor environment, air pollution, chemicals, sunlight and climate change.

The result is clear: The environmental exposure that affects people the most is noise.

One in ten states that they have their night’s sleep interrupted due to the phenomenon, which has increased in recent years.

The Norwegian Public Health Agency’s investigator Ida Knutsson emphasizes that the result is worrying for public health.

– Noise can cause sleep disturbances, which in turn can give rise to serious effects such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Almost one in ten states in the survey that their sleep is disturbed by traffic noise on a daily or weekly basis. The problem has become increasingly common since the Public Health Agency’s investigations started 25 years ago, she says.

Following new question

For the first time since the start of the survey, the Public Health Agency has asked questions about a growing social problem: overcrowding.

Over a fifth (22 per cent) of people born outside Europe answer that they live in a crowded place. This means that overcrowding is strongly overrepresented in the group compared to the rest of the population, where roughly 10 percent answer yes to the same question.

The Public Health Authority takes the results seriously.

– If there are more residents than the home is adapted for, the indoor environment can give rise to problems such as allergies, fatigue and headaches. The problems can arise due to insufficient ventilation and increased occurrence of moisture damage and mold, writes the authority.

Positive trend

It is also possible to find positive trends in the Public Health Agency’s survey. One such is that fewer and fewer people are exposed to passive smoking – the figure has decreased from 7 percent to 2 percent since 2007.

Photo: T. Barbhuiya

Text: The editors