Rise in temperature levels aka global warming is causing sleep loss: Study

Warmer-than-average temperatures eroded human sleep, "primarily by delaying when people fall asleep and by advancing when they wake up during hot weather".

London: Increasing ambient temperatures, caused by human-induced climate change, can negatively impact how humans sleep around the globe, finds a study. The study, published in the journal One Earth, suggests that by the year 2099, suboptimal temperatures may erode 50 to 58 hours of sleep per person per year.

In addition, it found that the temperature effect on sleep loss is substantially larger for residents from lower income countries as well as in older adults and females.

"Our results indicate that sleep - an essential restorative process integral for human health and productivity - may be degraded by warmer temperatures," said first author Kelton Minor from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

"In order to make informed climate policy decisions moving forward, we need to better account for the full spectrum of plausible future climate impacts extending from today's societal greenhouse gas emissions choices," Minor added.

It's long been known that hot days increase deaths and hospitalisations and worsen human performance, yet the biological and behavioural mechanisms underlying these impacts have not been well understood.