How can climate change impact sleep patterns? This is what a recent study published in Environmental International hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated a link between increased heat exposure and sleep duration. This study has the potential to help researchers, climate scientists, legislators, and the public better understand the non-environmental impacts of climate change and the steps that can be taken to mitigate them.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data obtained from the All of Us Research Program (AoU), which is a health data company founded in 2017, with the goal of ascertaining a connection between sleep and weather. To accomplish this, the researchers analyzed data gathered between 2010 and 2022 from 14,232 adults totaling 12,531,244 nights of sleep. In the end, the researchers found that increases of 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) for daytime and nighttime resulted in the participants losing 2.19 and 2.63 minutes of sleep, respectively. The researchers predict that adults could lose between 8.5 and 24 hours of sleep annually before the end of the century.
“This work is an important step toward understanding how sleep is affected by environmental stressors like heat, which can increase the risk of disease and even death,” said Dr. Jiawen Liao, who is a research associate in the Keck School of Medicine of USC and lead author of the study. “If we can help people sleep better, we may be able to reduce illness and save lives.”
This study comes as climate change continues to ravage the planet, including increased summer temperatures that continue to set new record levels. Therefore, studies like this enable both scientists and the public to gain insight into how climate change is impacting humans directly, as opposed to simply the weather.
What new insight into climate change and sleep will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Environment International, EurekAlert!
