The Psychoacoustic Snore Score – A validated method for objective measurement of the annoyance of snoring sounds – a reliable measurement technique in present nocturnal noise?

Introduction:

The annoying snoring is a common problem. We tested a previously validated measurement technique to calculate the annoyance of snoring sounds in present noise.

Methods:

5 snoring sounds of different annoyance (from 'not annoying' to 'extremely annoying') were tested against 36 exemplarily selected noises of nocturnal natural noise exposure. The used noises were reproduced at different sound pressure levels, played synchronously with the snoring sound and analyzed by a multifactorial ANOVA correlation.

Results:

It was shown that with increasing annoyance of the snoring sound, a higher sound pressure level of the nocturnal noise was necessary to achieve a significant difference (p < 0.05) of the Psychoacoustic Snore Score. Altering the 'not annoying' snoring score significantly, a concomitant noise with 25 dB was needed, while altering an 'extremely annoying' snoring sound a noise with 55dB was necessary.

Conclusions:

In moments of nocturnal noise exposure, the Psychoacoustic Snore Score may be distorted, depending on the annoyance of a snoring sound and the sound pressure level of the noise. The predictive value of the objective annoyance of the recorded snoring sounds is limited in certain phases of a concomitant nightly noise. Studies that verify the possible relevance of noise over the entire duration of nocturnal sleep must follow.

Publication History

Publication Date:
18 April 2018 (online)