High nighttime temperatures led to 5% more hours of sleep lost worldwide over the past five years compared to the period between 1986 and 2005, according to the latest edition of the Lancet’s Study of Climate and Health. health and climate change report, authored by 122 global experts, found that high temperatures, drought, and heavy rainfall increasingly impact people’s health. In 2023, a record 512 billion potential hours of labor were lost globally due to high temperatures. Heat-related deaths in people over the age of 65 reached the highest levels on record, 167% higher in the 1990s. nighttime temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures. As well as impacting sleep, overheating at night reduces the body’s ability to cool down and recover from the heat of the day, exacerbating heat wave deaths, especially among people with pre-existing heart and respiratory problems. Even in more temperate climates, overheating at night can be exacerbated by poor building design that leaves indoor temperatures warmer than outdoor temperatures A lack of sleep negatively affects attention span and quality of life and can also have knock-on effects for other health conditions. Kevin Lomas, a professor of building simulation between heat and sleep, has found in the UK that bedroom temperatures higher than about 27C (80.6F) is the threshold at which people struggle to cool themselves down. “Once you start tinkering with how much sleep people get, then the consequences aren’t just relatively trivial things
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!
Tuesday, December 3, 2024