Sleep quality may decline as global temperatures rise

     Sleep quality may decline as global temperatures rise

:Researchers investigated the effects of temperature on sleep quality via wearable sleep-tracking devices.

:They found that higher nighttime temperatures are linked to poorer sleep quality globally.

:The study concluded that climate change is projected to erode sleep and widen global inequalities.

Sleep quality and temperatures

The researchers examined 10 billion sleep observations for their study, comprising over 7 million repeated daily sleep records from 47,628 adults across 68 countries on every continent, excluding Antarctica. These observations included nighttime sleep duration and sleep timing: sleep onset, midsleep, and offset.

The researchers then compared this data with geolocated meteorological and climate data .They found that increases in nighttime temperature reduce sleep duration regardless of location and that effects intensify as temperature increases.

They noted that the probability of sleeping less than 7 hours increases gradually up to 10°C, and when the temperatures exceed 10°C, the chance of reduced sleep increases at an elevated rate.

Nighttime temperatures higher than 25°C were linked to 14 minutes less sleep than those sleeping at temperatures below 10°C.

Certain demographics were more affected than others. A one degree  Celcius  increase in minimum temperature affected the elderly twice as much as other groups.

Those living in poorer countries were almost three times more affected than those in wealthier countries, and women were significantly more affected than men.

They further found that people do not adapt to sleeping in warmer temperatures meaning that sleep quality is generally poorer in warmer climates than in cooler ones.

HEALTH ZONE