Sleep quality may decline as global temperatures rise

They found that increased outdoor temperatures are linked to lower sleep duration.“Studies from multiple disciplines have repeatedly shown that poor sleep is implicated in a range of negative health outcomes, from reduced immune function to worsened cardiovascular outcomes to poorer mental health,” said Marshall Burke, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Earth System Science at Stanford University, who’s not involved in the study. Chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk of other health problems, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and depression,” noted Dr. Capon.Dr. Alison Hwong, Ph.D., Fellow at the University of California San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences, not involved in the study, told MNT: “In the long-term, reduced sleep time may contribute to an elevated stress response, interfere with memory consolidation, and affect the immune system. When asked about limitations to the findings, Ed Harding Ph.D., Postdoctoral Neuroscientist at the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, also not involved in the study, told MNT: “We should bear in mind that people who chose to wear sleep-trackers are likely to be more affluent than is captured by per country income data used in this study, and have greater access to adaptations such as air conditioning, so the effect may well be underestimated.”Dr. Burke added: “It would be great if future studies were able to somehow collect more data in many lower-income regions of the world [as] Africa has nearly no coverage in their data.”“It would also be great to collect more data on sleep quality instead of just quantity, as eroded sleep quality could be an alternate mechanism through which higher nighttime temperatures could affect health and economic outcomes.” Researchers suggest that eating foods high in saturated fat and sugar and low in fiber - just for 1 day - may lead to poorer sleep quality.Men and people aged 65 and over were less likely to report insufficient sleep when they had access natural environments like parks, the beach, green…In this Special Feature, we investigate five myths associated with sleep.