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Climate change could take us into unpredictable territory.
Even sleep.
Climate Change and Sleep Loss
According to a UK scholar that specializes in the connection between heat and sleep, we need to cool down when the night-time temperature touches 80°F. As a result, globally, we’ve lost 5% more sleep hours from 2019 to 2023 than between 1986 and 2005. But last year (2023), with the loss increasing to 6%, it was even worse. And, with the highest deficits in the Middle East and sub-Saharan countries, the impact depended on where you live:
Looked at through a numbers lens, there were 50 more days of health-threatening night-time heat in 2023 than expected. Below, based on geography, you can see the global range of health threatening heat days. HDI refers to the Human Development Index:
In addition, sleep quality matters. Combining the two–quality and hours–we wind up affecting our attention spans, productivity, and overall health. Meanwhile, we can find studies that indicate a statistically significant proportion of people with inadequate sleep are obese (5.6%). Studies also have connected less sleep to a higher incidence of diabetes, coronary disease, and breast cancer. At work, our productivity shrinks. Cognitively, our performance is less than optimal. We take more days off from work. Even per capita income is less.
You can see the average sleep time (especially on weekdays) of a sample of approximately 18,000 individuals. The ideal is 7 to 8 hours:
Our Bottom Line: Externalities
As economists, we know we are really talking about externalities. Defined as the impact of a contract or event between two parties on a thirs uninvolved individual or group. The negative externality of a noisy dormitory celebration would be the low test grade received by a distracted student trying to study in her room. Correspondingly, vaccines are good examples of products that have positive externalities when they help innoculated people and those that do not get the shot.
Returning to the climate change that is fed by factory emissions, we can say less extra sleep is the externality.
My sources and more: Thanks to my Bloomberg Green Daily (gated) and this free copy of the article for alerting me to our sleep deficit. From there, the research was in this Lancet paper.
