--- title: How Climate Change Is Causing Sleep Loss description: High nighttime temperatures led to 5% more sleep lost worldwide over the past five years, according to a new study. canonical: https://time.com/7134431/climate-change-sleep-loss-heat-health/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-10-30T02:30:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-10T23:02:18.822Z article:section: Health og:title: How Climate Change Is Causing Sleep Loss og:description: High nighttime temperatures led to 5% more sleep lost worldwide over the past five years, according to a new study. og:url: https://time.com/7134431/climate-change-sleep-loss-heat-health/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ac67de5c10e630c/698a921a011682996498bbd0/climate-change-sleep-loss.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3840 og:image:height: 2160 og:image:alt: climate change sleep og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Climate Change Is Causing Sleep Loss twitter:description: High nighttime temperatures led to 5% more sleep lost worldwide over the past five years, according to a new study. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ac67de5c10e630c/698a921a011682996498bbd0/climate-change-sleep-loss.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Climate Change Is Causing Sleep Loss > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Olivia Rudgard / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Olivia Rudgard / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 30, 2024 2:30 AM UTC  Mature woman is trying to sleep in bed but suffering from heat Mature woman is trying to sleep in bed but suffering from heatGetty Images by [Olivia Rudgard / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Olivia Rudgard / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 30, 2024 2:30 AM UTC Climate change is increasingly disrupting people’s sleep. High nighttime temperatures led to 5% more hours of sleep lost worldwide over the past five years compared to the period between 1986 and 2005, according to the latest edition of the Lancet’s study of climate and health. It marks the first time the prestigious medical journal has examined this metric. Sleep loss peaked in [2023, the hottest year on record](https://time.com/6554830/2023-hottest-year-ever/), when there was a 6% rise. The eighth annual Lancet Countdown on health and climate change report, authored by 122 global experts, found that high temperatures, drought and heavy rainfall are increasingly impacting people’s health. In 2023, a record 512 billion potential hours of labor were lost globally due to high temperatures. Heat-related deaths in people over the age of 65 reached the highest levels on record, 167% higher in the 1990s. “This isn’t just about extreme weather events,” said Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist at the World Health Organization. “This is about every week, every month of the year, and the impact on all of our health.” **Read More:** [_Here’s How Much Sleep You Need According to Your Age_](https://time.com/7016186/how-much-sleep-do-you-need-age/) In many places, nighttime temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures. As well as impacting sleep, overheating at night reduces the body’s ability to cool down and recover from the heat of the day, exacerbating heat wave deaths, especially among people with pre-existing heart and respiratory problems. The study used historic sleep-tracking and temperature data to estimate the effects on sleep from high nighttime temperatures across different years. The biggest increases in lost sleep were in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Even in more temperate climates, overheating at night can be exacerbated by poor building design that leaves indoor temperatures warmer than outdoor temperatures. Buildings can be better ventilated or shaded to reduce how much they heat up during the day and how much they retain that heat. Power demand from air conditioning use is expected to triple by 2050\. A lack of sleep negatively affects attention span and quality of life and can also have knock-on effects for other health conditions. Kevin Lomas, a professor of building simulation at Loughborough University who studies the relationship between heat and sleep, has found in the UK that bedroom temperatures higher than about 27C (80.6F) is the threshold at which people struggle to cool themselves down. “Once you start tinkering with how much sleep people get, then the consequences aren’t just relatively trivial things,” said Lomas, who wasn’t involved in the Lancet study. “They can be long term.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7134431/climate-change-sleep-loss-heat-health/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7134431/climate-change-sleep-loss-heat-health/"},"headline":"How Climate Change Is Causing Sleep Loss","datePublished":"2024-10-30T02:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-10T23:02:18.822Z","description":"High nighttime temperatures led to 5% more sleep lost worldwide over the past five years, according to a new study.","url":"https://time.com/7134431/climate-change-sleep-loss-heat-health/","keywords":["climate change","wire","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ac67de5c10e630c/698a921a011682996498bbd0/climate-change-sleep-loss.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia Rudgard / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ac67de5c10e630c/698a921a011682996498bbd0/climate-change-sleep-loss.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"climate change sleep","caption":"climate change sleep","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7134431/climate-change-sleep-loss-heat-health/","name":"How Climate Change Is Causing Sleep Loss"}}]}] ```