Contents
A Danish researcher found that one of the causes of insomnia is global warming. The sleep of women and the elderly in warm poor countries suffers the most from rising temperatures.
What’s going on
- Dr. Kelton Minor of the Center for Social Research at the University of Copenhagen has studied the impact of global warming on sleep deprivation.
- The scientist compared data from 10 billion sleep observations of 47 people from 68 countries with weather and climate data.
- It turned out that due to the increase in temperature, a person began to sleep an average of 45 hours a year less. At the same time, people fall asleep later, and the process itself takes longer.
- Sleep problems start as early as 10°C and worsen as the temperature rises.
- The elderly and women in low-income countries are hardest hit by climate change. According to the researcher, this happens for several reasons. Firstly, due to limited access to air cooling technologies, such as air conditioners. Secondly, due to increased sensitivity to heat in old age.
- When the temperature rises, people in warm countries suffer from insomnia more often than in cold ones.
What does it mean
According to the UN, global warming has an adverse effect on human health. And the people most affected are those living on the coastlines of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as in sub-Saharan Africa.
Between 1970 and 2020, 2 million people died due to the effects of climate change. Moreover, according to WHO reports, 2030 thousand people will die annually in 2050-250.
Health effects of global warming include food and water shortages due to drought, foodborne infections, waterborne infectious diseases, insect-borne diseases, and extreme weather events such as heat waves, storms, floods, tornado.