Who likes humid and hot nights? We all don’t! We won’t sleep well because we are restless and we get no good quality of sleep. As a result, we wake up in a bad mood and slow paced routine. It’s troublesome, isn’t it?
Also, bad quality of sleep will lead to sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation can increase the heart disease risk, severe mood disorders, slow one’s ability to learn, and many more.
But, what is the relationship between sleep and climate change? How can climate change affect our sleep?
Research done by the University of Copenhagen figured out that overnight temperatures are getting warmer as a result of climate change, pushing bedtimes later and waking times earlier. In consequence, we lose our valuable nighttime sleep.
There was research between 2015 and 2017 when they tracked 50,000 people’s activity and their sleep. The researchers then matched the participants’ location with location-specific data. The result was people tended to sleep in outdoor temperatures which were below 10 degree Celsius at that moment.
When the temperatures rose, the more sleep time-loss they experienced and the loss was fast. When the outdoor nighttime temperatures reached 30 degree Celsius, people lost 15 minutes of their sleep.
Unfortunately, people over 70 years old lost more sleep time than the average. They lost 30 minutes of sleep time rather than 15 minutes because they were more sensitive to temperatures. Women also had a different pattern in sleep time-loss. They lost 25% more sleep than the average.
Since the 1800s, climate change, which is caused by humans, has made the earth warmer 1.1 degree Celsius. However, these days are warmer than ever. In the US, summer nights are twice as hot as summer days.
Though, the night time is supposed to be used to cool our body off. The research above shows us how climate change raises the temperature and degrades our sleep quality and time. If our crucial health resource starts to be troubled, shouldn’t we start to be more concerned about climate change now?
