Summary: Results of recent studies enlighten the issue of environmental noise effects on human health. Due to globalization and urbanization, noise exposure concerns an increasing number of European citizens. The unfavorable effects of noise can be auditory or non-auditory. Prolonged exposure to environmental noise, especially during nighttime leads to sleep deprivation and fragmentation and also causes subjective distress described by annoyance. Pathophysiological stress disrupts homeostasis through autonomic nervous and endocrine system arousal, as well as oxidative and inflammatory pathways activation. Prolonged stress pathways activation due to chronic noise exposure results in arterial structure and function impairment and atheromatous plaque formation, resulting in subsequent artery stiffening, narrowing or occlusion, accelerating the development of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, ischemic heart disease and their complications. Noise-induced consequences like increased blood pressure, arterial stiffness and impaired left ventricular diastolic function are early, subclinical and potentially reversible changes, which precede the occurrence of cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction, heart failure, ischaemic and hemorrhagic stroke or peripheral vascular disease, as well as renal disease, atrial fibrillation or cognitive impairment. The awareness of the impact of noise on cardiovascular disease development allows to implement more individual assessment of cardiovascular risk among residents of urban areas, which may optimize the prevention, reducing the risk of complications.