Climate Change is Causing Worldwide Sleep Loss, Study Finds

Human-induced climate change is heating up the globe at a speed that mankind and the natural world are not prepared for. The Western United States is experiencing a megadrought and wildfires, as heat wave warnings have scorched the Eastern US and deadly temperatures in India have caused birds to literally drop from the sky.

On Friday, researchers released a study in the journal One Earth illustrating the negative impact of rising temperatures on our health, such as decreased sleep.

According to the study, if temperatures continue to soar, each person across the world will see their sleep cut back by 50 to 58 hours a year by the end of the century. Those who are particularly vulnerable to sleep loss due to rising heat are the elderly, women, and those in low-income countries, as well as hotter regions.

Those who don’t have access to air conditioning or other tools to control the rising temperature of their home or residence will suffer the most, further dividing inequalities caused by climate change across the globe.

“The impact of shifting weather patterns, droughts, flooding, and storms hits poor and marginalized communities first and worst, causing unpredictable growing seasons, crop failures, and sharp increases in food prices,” writes the global organization Oxfam. “[...] long standing gender, racial and economic inequalities mean that historically marginalized communities are the hardest hit and most impacted by the climate crisis.”

Sleep is a necessary function that affects both a person’s physical and mental health. Sleep helps support a healthy immune system, cognition, attention, and mood/behavior. But a lack of sleep will deteriorate a person’s mental and physical health causing cardiovascular issues, depression, anger and can even result in early death.

Mental health issues linked to sleep loss include sleep deprivation psychosis, causing a person to hallucinate or be prone to delusional thinking. According to the driver's education-focused National Highway Safety Administration falling asleep at the wheel is linked to at least 100,000 crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 deaths each year in the United States.

Researchers of Friday’s study found warmer nighttime temperatures have an adverse effect on a person’s sleep, negatively impacting sleep quality. Officials conducted their study by tracking 7 million sleep records from more than 47,000 adults across 68 countries.

The researchers discovered that those sleeping in temperatures of 86 degrees Fahrenheit lost 14 minutes from their sleep schedule.

“In order to make informed climate policy decisions moving forward, we need to better account for the full spectrum of plausible future climate impacts extending from today’s societal greenhouse gas emissions choices,” said lead author Kelton Minor of the University of Copenhagen.

“Our bodies are highly adapted to maintain a stable core body temperature, something that our lives depend on,” Minor said.