How Climate Change Is Stealing Our Sleep
Shane Naughton
5 days agoA sleepless night can be the worst. You wake up two to three times with your mind wandering, or you have the frustrating inability to fall asleep or stay asleep. You may be able to have a new cause to blame.
A recent study published in Nature Communications studied how rising global temperatures caused by climate change are quietly undermining the quality and duration of our sleep, with serious consequences for our health. Its main points talk about how the deep sleep phase is shortening due to global warming, yet another negative aspect of rising temperatures.
23 million sleep records were taken from a population of 214,000 people across mainland China as they were measured while wearing devices in their sleep. This research reveals that for every 10°C increase in daily average temperature, the odds of sleep insufficiency increase by 20.1%, while total sleep duration falls by almost 10 minutes, with deep sleep suffering the most significant loss (down by 2.82%).
If global temperatures continue to get hotter, it could lead to a potential 33 hours of lost sleep per person by the end of the century. The study sheds light on a worrying trend that many people are already experiencing, and many don’t know how much more they can take.