{"id":34246,"date":"2026-08-03T18:59:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T22:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=34246"},"modified":"2026-08-03T09:12:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:12:36","slug":"the-look-and-feel-of-your-neighborhood-may-affect-your-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2026\/08\/the-look-and-feel-of-your-neighborhood-may-affect-your-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"The look and feel of your neighborhood may affect your sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your\u00a0neighborhood\u2019s\u00a0\u201cstreetscape\u201d\u2014the physical environment of your street<\/strong>\u2014is something that\u00a0you\u00a0have\u00a0probably never\u00a0consciously thought about,\u00a0despite seeing it\u00a0every\u00a0day. But what if the\u00a0streetscape\u00a0was\u00a0affecting you on a subconscious level and\u00a0disrupting\u00a0your\u00a0sleep?<\/p>\n

This intriguing question is posed by the findings of\u00a0a study\u00a0led\u00a0by\u00a0Professor Daisuke Matsushita of the Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology\u00a0at\u00a0Osaka Metropolitan University.\u00a0The research\u00a0team\u00a0used AI to\u00a0analyze\u00a0more than 200,000 Google Street View images\u00a0to identify\u00a0visual neighborhood characteristics.\u00a0They then\u00a0linked\u00a0these characteristics\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0self-reported sleep of 1,089 working adults\u00a0living on the lower floors of apartments in Tokyo, who were\u00a0most likely to be affected by the streetscape.<\/p>\n

They found\u00a0that\u00a0those living in neighborhoods\u00a0rated\u00a0as having a stronger sense of safety<\/strong> tended to sleep longer,\u00a0and that this\u00a0rating\u00a0appeared to be\u00a0shaped\u00a0by the streetscape.\u00a0Generally, people\u00a0slept\u00a0longer in areas with lots of greenery,<\/strong>\u00a0such as leafy trees,\u00a0on the street.\u00a0Similarly, high \u201cenclosure\u201d\u2014meaning many tall vertical buildings and few wide-open spaces\u2014was also associated with\u00a0longer sleep and fewer insomnia symptoms.<\/p>\n

However, the study also made a surprising finding. The\u00a0researchers\u00a0found that\u00a0highly walkable streetscapes<\/strong>,\u00a0such as those with more\u00a0sidewalks and traffic\u00a0signs,\u00a0were associated with a\u00a0lowered\u00a0sense of safety and\u00a0shortened\u00a0sleep duration.<\/p>\n

This suggests that walkability does not always represent nstead, a possible explanation is that streets with extensive pedestrian infrastructure are often busier, more crowded, and used by more strangers, which may be perceived as less safe or less relaxing than quieter residential streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study demonstrates the potential for evaluating streetscape characteristics across large geographic areas in a cost-effective manner,\u201d\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Matsushita\u00a0said. \u201cBased on\u00a0the technique\u00a0used in this study,\u00a0cities could potentially measure perceived safety,\u00a0beauty,\u00a0liveliness, and\u00a0enclosure\u00a0as well as\u00a0pollution\u00a0and\u00a0noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that\u00a0opening\u00a0up\u00a0this\u00a0new\u00a0perspective\u00a0creates\u00a0further\u00a0possibilities for designing healthier neighborhoods,\u201d\u00a0he concludes.<\/p>\n

The findings were published in\u00a0Building\u00a0and Environment<\/em>.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

About OMU<\/p>\n

Established in Osaka as one of the largest public universities in Japan, Osaka Metropolitan University is committed to shaping the future of society through the \u201cConvergence of Knowledge\u201d and the promotion of world-class research. For more research news, visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.omu.ac.jp\/en\/<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on social media:\u00a0X<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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JOURNAL<\/h4>\n

Building and Environment<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your\u00a0neighborhood\u2019s\u00a0\u201cstreetscape\u201d\u2014the physical environment of your street\u2014is something that\u00a0you\u00a0have\u00a0probably never\u00a0consciously thought about,\u00a0despite seeing it\u00a0every\u00a0day. But what if the\u00a0streetscape\u00a0was\u00a0affecting you on a subconscious level and\u00a0disrupting\u00a0your\u00a0sleep? This intriguing question is posed by the findings of\u00a0a study\u00a0led\u00a0by\u00a0Professor Daisuke Matsushita of the Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology\u00a0at\u00a0Osaka Metropolitan University.\u00a0The research\u00a0team\u00a0used AI to\u00a0analyze\u00a0more than 200,000 Google Street View images\u00a0to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[572,339],"tags":[703,253,701,702,362,700],"class_list":["post-34246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-lifestyle","tag-clean","tag-environment","tag-leafy","tag-quiet","tag-sleep","tag-streetscape"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34246"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34253,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34246\/revisions\/34253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}