Global citizens lose seven nights of sleep annually due to warmer temperatures. Climate change directly causes about ten percent of this lost sleep. Indian cities experience substantial sleep loss, with Chennai and Mumbai heavily affected. Climate...
Climate change from rise ingreen house gas emissions is one cause for rising night-time temperatures
New Delhi: Across the world people are losing sleep because of climate change. High temperatures and warm nights keep them awake more than climate anxiety. On average a person lost 56 hours or seven nights of sleep annually, globally, over the last five years due to warmer nights. Of these hours about 6 hours, or a little more than 10%, can be directly attributed to warming caused by climate change, according to new research by Climate Central, a US-based non-profit analysing climate science. Cities in the Middle East registered between 55 and 87 hours of sleep annually due to higher nighttime temperatures, with 12 to 16 lost sleep hours due to climate change. India has emerged as a hotspot with 27-93 hours of sleep lost annually due to high temperatures, with 8 to 9 hours directly attributable to climate change.
Climate change from rise in greenhouse gas emissions is one cause for rising night-time temperatures. Other factors such as urban heat retention, loss of green cover, waste heat emissions also affect night-time temperature. The study found that while the direct impact of climate change on sleep loss was relatively modest, its influence is substantially stronger. For example, the growing use of air conditioners is contributing to rising urban heat island effect; at the same time the increased use of air conditioners is driven by rising temperatures.
The study analysed sleep loss, rising temperatures and climate change in 1,338 cities across the world, 107 Indian cities are part of the study. The assessment demonstrates that the climate change-linked portion of this sleep loss has at least doubled since the early 1970s in nearly every city analysed (1,335 of 1,338) and has at least tripled in 840 of those cities.
Researchers combined the latest climate attribution science with the impact of heat on sleep to quantify a hidden but growing consequence of rising temperatures. The assessment, covering more than 1,300 cities, found that climate change has at least doubled temperature-related sleep loss since the early 1970s.
"The impacts of fossil fuel-driven warming extend beyond extreme weather to undermine one of the most fundamental requirements for human health," said Kristina Dahl, Climate Central's VP for science.
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In India, 107 cities were assessed. Cities in southern India registered the highest levels of sleep loss. Chennai recorded the highest hours of sleep loss at 92 hours per person annually, while in Delhi, the average loss was nearly 68 hours. In Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, climate change was a more pronounced cause for sleep loss, contributing to 10-12%or 7-8 hours of sleep. Other states' sleep loss attributed to climate change was anywhere between 6-9% of total sleep hours lost. In Dehradun, Jammu, Srinagar and Siliguri, 10-12% sleep loss has been attributed to climate change.
India's largest metros are losing between 65 and 93 hours of sleep each year because of high nighttime temperatures. Chennai (93 hours), Mumbai (84 hours) and Kolkata (80 hours) registered the highest overall sleep loss. On the other hand, at 66 hours a year, Delhi recorded the lowest overall sleep loss among the eight metros, with the capital's residents losing an extra 7% of sleep on account of climate change.
Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad showed the strongest climate change signal, even though these cities have comparatively milder climates.
