The impact of urban land uses on sleep duration and sleep problems

Urban densification and mixed-use development may have unintended consequences and should be informed by research that anticipates their varied outcomes. The purpose of this study is to understand the association between sleep duration/problems and different land use types ( commercial, residential, industrial, green space), and to further explore the role of traffic and noise as potential mechanisms for how land use can impact sleep. Using multilevel logistic and multinomial logistic regressions, we analyzed the association between land use and sleep duration/problems for a cross-sectional sample of 2411 participants across 443 dissemination areas in Toronto, Canada. We found positive associations between sleep problems/duration and commercial density, residential density, and industrial land use. However, these associations were fully attenuated once we controlled for traffic levels and self-rated noise, which suggests that land use was associated with elevated levels of noise and traffic, which in turn negatively impacted sleep. Density of green space was not independently associated with sleep duration/problems. Given the importance of noise and traffic as mediators between land use and sleep duration/problems, further research should evaluate whether site-planning and architectural solutions to reduce exterior noise and exposure to traffic can ameliorate these potentially negative effects of certain land uses.