Background Although previous evidence confirms the effects of sleep deprivation on mental health and wellbeing, due to the interaction effects of sleep and mood on each other, the influence of sleep improvement has received less attention. Objective This study aimed to find whether binaural beat technology can enhance sleep quality and thus post-sleep mood. Methods Twenty healthy students participated in this pilot study. All subjects were investigated for two weeks (a baseline week and an experimental week). In the first week, there was no intervention, but in the second week, all subjects were exposed to a 90 min binaural beat in the delta frequency range. The individuals’ sleep was monitored for two weeks using a sleep diary form, and a Profile of Mood State questionnaire was employed to assess their mood at the end of the first and second weeks. Results Auditory stimulation with delta binaural beat enhanced sleep parameters such as sleep failure, the number of awakenings, real duration of sleep, sleep quality, and feeling following the waking of the individuals. Finally, students’ moods improved by reducing anxiety and anger, but other mood parameters did not indicate a significant difference. Conclusion The findings of this study confirmed that auditory stimulation with a delta binaural beat seems to be a low-cost and alternative method for medicine and other treatment methods with side effects. Application This study demonstrates the use of technology with a neuroergonomics approach to improve sleep and mood disorders.

Introduction: Noise is one of the most harmful physical factors in the workplace that can cause annoyance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of annoyance caused by occupational noise on employee's mental distress.Materials and Methods: This analytical-descriptive study was performed on 325 employees of the parts manufacturing industry in seven groups and the noise dose received for each group was measured by a dosimeter using ISO9612 standard. Then, psychosis was determined using the Kessler psychosis scale and the degree of annoyance in the face of noise in the face of noise by the standard method of ISO15666 as an individual evaluation with a one-question scale of 11 Likert options.Results: The results indicated that there was a positive and significant relationship between the received sound dose and noise annoyance (P <0.05). In addition, the dose received from the sound can justify 72.2% of the variable response changes, i.e. the amount of voice annoyance alone. Also, the results of the simultaneous study of four variables of age, work experience, voice exposure and voice annoyance on the state of mental distress using multiple regression indicated that these 4 variables predicted 42% of changes in mental distress. And the main variable influencing psychological distress is voice annoyance (P <0.05). Conclusion:Occupational noise through noise annoyance harassment can affect the mental health of people working in industry and harassment can act as a mediator due to job noise causing mental distress in people working in industry.

Noise as one of the most common hazardous physical agents in the work environment causes physical and psychological problems in occupied workers. This study aims to investigate the relationship of demographic variables and noise exposure with mental disorder and work ability index in automotive industry workers. This study aims to investigate the effect of noise exposure on mental disorder and work ability index among industry workers. In this descriptive-analytic study, 325 individuals working in auto parts supplier industry who were exposed to different level of noises were investigated. Personnel’s daily exposure to noise for each group was measured based on ISO-9612 standards using calibrated sound level meter model SVANTEK-971. Workers’ mental disorder and work ability index were determined using Kessler Psychological Distress Scale questionnaire and shortened form of work ability index, respectively. Then, collected data were analyzed using SPSS-22. The mean and standard deviation of mental disorder and work ability index for all employees was 23.46 ± 3.45 and 37.43 ± 6.14, respectively. The results of one-way ANOVA and linear regression analysis showed that there is a significant association between noise exposure with mental disorder and work ability index in term of age groups, working groups, and work experience ( p-value < .05). Regardless the effect of other variables, it can be stated that for each dB increase in noise exposure cause mental disorder increase by 0.32 and work ability index decrease by 0.157. And among the demographic variables, age was the most influential parameter on mental health and work ability index. According to the results of this study, noise exposure could lead to increased psychological distress and decreased work ability index in workers. The ability to work directly and indirectly through mental disorders can be affected by exposure to industrial noise. Considering severe exposure to noise in some units and the negative impact of noise exposure on mental health and work ability index, it is necessary to improve of controlling and protective measures against noise.

Introduction. The aim of this review was to investigate the possible association between noise exposure and cortisol hormone in all noise-exposed job classifications. Materials and methods. In this systematic review, the Medline (PubMed), Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase databases were searched from 1 January 1991 to 28 September 2021. As a result, all English relevant papers among any group of workers, in any workplace, and at any noise level were included. Abstracts without full texts, editorials, letters, case reports, conference proceedings, reviews, in-vitro, and animal studies were excluded. Furthermore, studies were removed in the case that they were conducted on children or general population, did not measure the noise levels in work environments, and simulated the workplace noise or used a noise chamber. Results. The initial search retrieved 5784 articles. Finally, 13 articles were considered for qualitative synthesis. Among all the included studies, most of them (10 vs. three), conducted in various industries reported a statistically significant association between occupational noise exposure and increased levels of cortisol hormone. Conclusion. Our qualitative synthesis of available evidence proposed a potential relationship between occupational noise exposure and cortisol hormone. So, noise can be considered an occupational health concern.