London - It can certainly stop you sleeping, but noise from living near a busy road could also shorten your life, a study suggests.
Having to endure rumbling lorries, honking horns and screeching tyres has been linked to shorter life expectancy and a higher risk of stroke.
People surrounded by traffic noise louder than 60 decibels were four percent more likely to die during the course of the study than those exposed to sound levels of 55 decibels – roughly the level of a loud conversation.
The extra deaths were mostly from heart or artery disease, which could in turn be linked to raised blood pressure, stress and lack of sleep, scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said.
People in the loudest areas were also five percent more likely to suffer a stroke than those in quieter spots, with the extra risk rising to nine percent among the elderly.
Around 8.6 million people living within the M25 provided data for the study, which tracked noise, hospital admission rates and deaths between 2003 and 2010.
Its findings were reported in the European Heart Journal.
Daily Mail