For years, some people have claimed the sound of wind turbines is a problem. They’d say it disrupts sleep, it causes dizziness and nausea, or even cancer. This collection of symptoms is usually dubbed “wind turbine syndrome.” Given how prevalent wind turbines have become, this was a real concern.
Several studies have investigated this matter. They all found the same thing: nothing. A new study confirms the idea: the sound from wind turbines just doesn’t make a difference.
Testing the turbines
In the new study, researchers used actual recordings from a working turbine — played indoors at the level you might encounter if one stood roughly 500 meters from your home.
The study recruited 45 healthy university students, evenly split into three groups. One group was exposed to wind turbine noise, another to road traffic noise, and a third to silence. Participants completed a series of cognitive tasks designed to measure attention and reasoning while researchers monitored their brain activity using EEG.
Throughout the experiment, participants remained unaware of the source of the sounds. Afterward, they rated how stressful and annoying the noise was. Then the researchers analyzed the results to determine whether turbine noise impaired mental functioning.
“We used recordings from an actual wind turbine to investigate its effects on the dynamics of brain waves crucial for complex cognitive tasks, as well as on sustained attention and inductive reasoning,” the paper explains.
They found no notable drop in attention, and no spike in mental stress, compared to those listening to regular road traffic.
Even when participants had to listen to turbine sounds at 65 decibels — akin to the noise of normal speech, they exhibited little annoyance or agitation. In other words, even if you were very close to a wind turbine, the noise wouldn’t really do anything. By the end of each test session, volunteers focusing on problem-solving and memory tasks fared no worse under turbine noise than in near-silence. The EEG also showed no signs of physical problems.
“Wind turbine syndrome” is just perception
For those who believe wind turbine noise is harming their health, the symptoms can feel real. Tehy experience headaches, dizziness, sleep disturbances, and trouble concentrating. But researchers have struggled to find clear, consistent evidence that turbine noise directly causes these issues. Instead, studies suggest that perception and expectation may play a powerful role. Simply put, it’s the fear itself and not a real effect.
This could be a case of the nocebo effect, the “dark” cousin of the placebo effect, where the expectation of harm triggers real symptoms, even without a direct physical cause. Research has shown that when people believe something is harmful, they are more likely to experience discomfort — regardless of its actual impact.
The problem is that this is used to seed misinformation regarding wind energy.
So where did this idea start?
The concept of “wind turbine syndrome” took off in 2009 when a physician, Nina Pierpont, published a self-funded book claiming that turbine noise disrupts inner ear function, triggering a cascade of health problems. Her book was widely cited by critics of wind energy but her work was never peer-reviewed. In fact, all peer-reviewed subsequent studies have failed to confirm her claims.
There’s just no evidence of anything like this happening. Many researchers argue that the phenomenon is a textbook example of the nocebo effect — where belief in harm creates real distress, even in the absence of an actual threat. In some cases, people who hear about negative effects may start noticing symptoms simply because they expect to.
But this misinformation has fueled fears. Online forums and anti-wind groups often amplify unverified claims, suggesting that turbines secretly cause everything from chronic illness to economic decline. Some policymakers have seized on these concerns to resist wind farm expansion, citing “wind turbine syndrome” as a reason for their opposition.
Of course, any impacts of wind farms (or other sources of energy) should be monitored closely. But the research strongly suggests wind turbines are safe. Meanwhile, climate change is very real, and wind turbines are an important tool when it comes to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
The study was published in Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.
