HEATWAVES ARE STEALING PEOPLE'S SLEEP

NEW YORK, JULY 15 /SRNA/ - High nighttime air temperatures caused by climate change are gradually depriving people around the world of sleep, with the average person now losing nearly 56 hours of sleep per year, a new analysis has revealed.

Tropical nights, when nighttime temperatures do not fall below 20 degrees Celsius, are becoming increasingly common worldwide, and sleep is paying the price.

According to the results of a study by the "Climate Central" agency, the average person lost nearly seven nights of sleep per year due to high temperatures between 2020 and 2025.

In almost every one of the more than 1,300 cities analyzed, the amount of temperature- and climate change-related sleep loss has at least doubled since the early 1970s, with the greatest impact recorded in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where people lost an average of between 55 and 91 hours of sleep annually.

In the early 1970s, people living in an average city of 500,000 residents lost around 46 hours of sleep per year due to nighttime heat. By 2020, that figure had risen to around 50 hours, and between 2020 and 2025 it increased further to 56 hours, with climate change being the main factor responsible.

Although extremely warm nights affect cities around the world, significant differences can be observed across different continents.

In Europe, the greatest sleep losses were recorded in the south. People in Naples lost 51 hours of sleep per year due to heat over the past five years.

In Athens, the loss amounted to 45 hours per year; in Valencia, 42 hours; and in both Lisbon and Marseille, 40 hours.

However, even in the northernmost countries, although to a lesser extent, people are also suffering from heat-related sleep loss.

People in Edinburgh lost 21 hours of sleep, while Stockholm and Helsinki each lost 20 hours. The smallest impact was recorded in Oslo, with 18 hours.

A recent study found that warmer nights affect sleep more than twice as much among people over the age of 65 compared with middle-aged people, and nearly three times more in lower-middle-income countries than in high-income countries.

Nighttime is when the body is supposed to recover, but when temperatures do not drop, this recovery does not take place, and the body remains under strain.

Poor sleep is linked to effects on mood, cognitive abilities, productivity, as well as the cardiovascular and immune systems.