Global warming will make people lose over 50 hours of sleep a year: study

As the world continues to heat, humans will lose 50-58 hours of sleep per year by 2099. Experts think the current rate of climate change will lead to about 10 minutes of sleep loss every night.

Scientists concluded after analysing the data collected by wristbands and smartwatches measuring sleep duration. Metrics from over 47,000 people living in 68 countries were collected between September 2015 and October 2017 for the study, reported HealthDay News.

Author Kelton Minor said nights that are randomly warmer than average slowly affected sleep duration globally. As the nights became hotter, the probability of having a short night of sleep increased. The study was conducted by planetary social and behavioral data science students at the University of Copenhagen.

The likelihood of getting less than seven hours of sleep increased by 3.5% as nighttime temperatures kept exceeding due to the climate crisis, said the study. The temperature of one's surroundings negatively influences the body temperature variation they need to fall asleep. When people go to sleep, the body drops the temperature to facilitate relaxation mode. This gets harder when it is warmer than it should be in the environment.

The paper is published in the journal One Earth.

Most people require seven hours of sleep to remain healthy. Lack of good quality sleep can affect the brain's functions like concentrating, processing information, and remembering things. Recent research has proven the brain starts to eat its own connections, cells, and debris when not enough rest is provided.

Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep to recover from the day and wake up feeling fresh.