Getting a good night’s rest is essential for ensuring that you stay healthy and happy. However, getting a solid eight hours isn’t always easy. You can find the right duvet or pillows to help get a good nights sleep, but there are other factors that can make that seem almost impossible. But can the city we live in be one of those factors?
We wanted to find out if there are English cities that are better for sleep than others. Having looked at a number of different metrics - from light and noise pollution to anxiety levels - we’ve revealed the best cities for a great night’s sleep.
By looking at the levels of sky brightness, number of noise complaints, nighttime noise levels, and anxiety levels, we were able to give an overall sleep forecast score out of 100 so we could discover the best cities and London boroughs for getting a good night’s sleep.
for Sleeping
Our top cities for sleeping are dotted all around the country, but the top scorer was Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire. The town scores well for light and noise pollution, but with the lowest mean anxiety score, it tops the list.
sleep forecast score /100
1.Warwick - 92.63
2.Worcester - 84.05
3.St. Albans - 83.87
4.Hereford - 83.52
5.Stafford - 83.34
6.Carlisle - 82.31
7.Luton - 82.19
8.Blackburn with Darwen - 82.05
9.Chichester - 82.01
10.Wigan - 81.83
The BEST Cities FOR...
light pollution
Winchester
mag./arc sec₂
Lowest Noise Complaints
Chester
per 1,000 population
Nighttime noise
Hartlepool
of population exposed to road, rail and air transport noise of 55 dB(A) or more during the night
Anxiety
Warwick
mean anxiety score
for Sleeping
With the worst levels of nighttime noise, Salford is the worst place in the country for sleeping well at night.
sleep forecast score /100
1.Salford - 57.26
2.Newcastle upon Tyne - 59.41
3.Slough - 61.36
4.Manchester - 62.22
5.Nottingham - 63.16
6.Leeds - 63.55
7.Stockport - 64.25
8.Liverpool - 65.02
9.Walsall - 66.91
10. Brighton and Hove - 66.94
The WORST UK City FOR...
Light pollution
Manchester
mag./arc sec₂
Noise
Complaints
Stockton-on-Tees
per 1,000 population
Nighttime noise
Salford
of population exposed to road, rail and air transport noise of 55 dB(A) or more during the night
Anxiety
Lincoln
mean anxiety score
for Sleeping
It’s no surprise that our top 10 boroughs all sit on the outskirts of London, with these areas offering a better night’s sleep than those closer to the city. Havering is the top scorer with good scores across the board, but it ranks particularly well when looking at light pollution, offering residents less disturbed nights.
sleep forecast score /100
1.Havering - 75.90
2.Sutton - 75.03
3.Croydon - 73.54
4.Bexley - 70.43
5.Harrow - 70.04
6.Bromley - 69.93
7.Hillingdon - 68.96
8.Enfield - 66.99
9.Barnet - 66.98
10.Ealing - 66.89
The BEST London Boroughs FOR...
Light pollution
Barnet
mag./arc sec₂
Lowest Noise Complaints
Harrow and
Ealing
per 1,000 population
Nighttime noise
Sutton
of population exposed to road, rail and air transport noise of 55 dB(A) or more during the night
Anxiety
Croydon
mean anxiety score
for Sleeping
With the best boroughs being on the outskirts of London, it makes sense that the worst boroughs for sleeping are closer to the centre of the city. While the City of London itself was omitted from the results due to a lack of data, its neighbour, Westminster topped the list with a sleep forecast score of 30.91.
sleep forecast score /100
1.Westminster - 30.91
2.Kensington & Chelsea - 32.13
3.Hammersmith & Fulham - 36.44
4.Southwark - 40.57
5.Islington - 42.09
6.Lambeth - 44.23
7.Camden - 47.14
8.Hounslow - 48.25
9.Lewisham - 51.63
The Worst London Borough FOR...
Light pollution
Tower Hamlets
mag./arc sec₂
Noise
Complaints
Hammersmith & Fulham
per 1,000 population
Nighttime noise
Hounslow
of population exposed to road, rail and air transport noise of 55 dB(A) or more during the night
Anxiety
Lewisham
mean anxiety score
We looked at English cities and towns as well as London boroughs where data was available, so many were omitted where the data was not available such as the City of London.
Light pollution data comes from the Light Pollution Map with the figures used representing the sky quality meter scores which range from 16-22 magnitude/square arc second with 16 indicating a brighter sky and 22 indicating a darker sky.
Noise pollution data comes from Public Health England with the number of complaints about noise per 1,000 population and the percentage of the population exposed to road, rail and air transport noise of 55 dB(A) or more during the night. These scores are taken at a county and local authority level and are then applied to the relevant city in our data.
Anxiety data is taken from the Office for National Statistics and concerns the score given by respondents when asked ‘how anxious did you feel yesterday?’ with averages taken of responses. Respondents were asked to give a score of 0-1 for very low, 2-3 for low, 4-5 for medium and 6-10 for high.
With this data, we then applied a weighted ranking, giving equal weighting to all factors which allowed us to give a sleep forecast score out of 100.
