Night-time Temperatures Soar, Climate Change Steals Sleep Worldwide

Climate change is making nights hotter and robbing people of sleep across the globe, with the impact more than doubling in the last five decades, according to a new study by Climate Central. The report, authored by Michelle Young, found that during the 2020-2025 period, residents of cities in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates lost an estimated 55 to 87 hours of sleep annually due to high night-time temperatures. Of this, approximately 12 to 16 hours of lost sleep each year was directly caused by climate change. A similar trend was observed in India and several Southeast Asian nations, where people lost between 78 and 91 hours of sleep per year, with around eight to nine hours attributable to the changing climate. In West Africa, communities in Niger, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso lost about 65 hours of sleep annually, with 10 to 11 hours linked to climate change. The impact is also felt across the Americas, including the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Venezuela. In the US, 235 cities lost an average of 36 hours of sleep per year due to high night-time temperatures, with roughly four hours, or 13 percent, directly influenced by climate change. Climate Central noted that while factors such as population growth, urbanisation, and air conditioning use have increased since the 1970s, climate change remains the primary driver of increased sleep loss. In the early 1970s, people lost an average of two hours of sleep per year due to climate change, a figure that rose to five hours per year by the 2020-2025 period. Overall, the average urban resident lost about 46 hours of sleep annually in the early 1970s, increasing to around 50 hours in the 2020s, with climate change playing a much larger role. Of the 1,338 cities analysed, 1,335 saw climate-driven sleep loss at least double, and 840 cities experienced a threefold increase. The report highlighted that sleep is crucial for regulating body temperature, and hotter nights disrupt this process, reducing both sleep duration and quality. The effects are not evenly distributed, with people over 65 years old and those in lower-middle-income countries facing disproportionately higher sleep disturbances. While air conditioning can mitigate the impact, only 35 percent of households worldwide had access to it in 2021, leaving many in South Asia and Africa particularly vulnerable.