The National Sleep Study
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Environment & Energy (AEE) sets the standards for the national aviation noise policy through implementation of 49 U.S.C. 47523. The FAA has a robust research program to both understand and ease the impacts of aviation noise on communities. Consistent with this legislation, AEE sponsors the National Sleep Study to promote research, which examines the impact of nighttime aviation noise on the sleep of residents near airports. The FAA partnered with research company Westat and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) to execute this study. The data acquisition involved approximately 400 individuals. The FAA will utilize the information from the National Sleep Study to derive the verifiable data to inform of any potential updates to or validation of the national aviation noise policy. The FAA is publishing this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for the National Sleep Study in accordance with Section 208 of the E-Government Act of 2002 because Westat and UPenn (under FAA research sponsorship) collect and process Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from members of the public, specifically individuals who reside near airports and are exposed to nighttime aviation noise.