Impact of heat exposure on sleep health and its population vulnerability in the United States - Research findings

Sep 30, 2026

Uploaded by dhado

Rising temperatures are linked to worse sleep quantity and quality, but the extent of population vulnerability remains unclear. This study evaluated associations between heat exposure and sleep health, considering sociodemographic, spatial, and health-related factors, and projected future impacts across the United States. Longitudinal sleep data from digital wearables in the All of Us Research Program (2010–2022) were linked with gridded meteorological records, using multi-stage linear mixed-effects models. A 10°C increase in daytime and nighttime temperature anomalies corresponded to reductions in total sleep time and varied by vulnerable groups and climate zones.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Author Manuscr ipt Author Manuscr ipt Author Manuscr ipt Author Manuscript | | HHS Public Access
Author manuscript
Environ Int. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2026 January 07. | | --- | --- | Published in final edited form as: Environ Int. 2025 December ; 206: 109942. doi:10.1016/j.envint.2025.109942 . Impact of heat exposure on sleep health and its population vulnerability in the United States Jiawen Liaoa,* , Rima Habrea, Erika Garciaa, Sandrah P. Eckela, Joe Kossowskyb,c,d, Megan M. Hertinga, Wu Chena, Chenyu Qiua, Zhenchun Yanga, Rob McConnella, Frank Gillilanda, Susan Redlined,e,f,** , Zhanghua Chena,* a Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States b Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States c Department of Anesthesia, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States d Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States e Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States fDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States Abstract Rising temperatures are associated with impaired sleep quantity and quality. Yet, little is known about population vulnerabilities. We aim to assess the sleep health associations with heat exposure and by sociodemographic, spatial, and health-related factors with projected future changes in the United States. This study linked longitudinal sleep records measured by digital wearablesin the All of Us Research Program from 2010 to 2022 with gridded meteorological data. We assessed daily daytime and nighttime temperature anomalies as heat exposures. Sleep duration, continuity, onset, and stages associations with heat were assessed using multi-stage linear mixed effect models. Vulnerability to heat by sociodemographic, spatiotemporal, and health-related This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ([http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)). *Corresponding authors at: Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, [United States. liaojiaw@usc.edu](United States. liaojiaw@usc.edu) (J. Liao), [zhanghuc@usc.edu](zhanghuc@usc.edu) (Z. Chen) . **Corresponding author at: Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, [United States. sredline@bwh.harvard.edu](United States. sredline@bwh.harvard.edu) (S. Redline). CRediT authorship contribution statement Jiawen Liao: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Resources, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Rima Habre: Writing – review & editing, Methodology, Investigation. Erika Garcia: Writing – review & editing, Investigation. Sandrah P. Eckel: Writing – review & editing, Methodology. Joe Kossowsky: Writing – review & editing, Methodology. Megan M. Herting: Writing – review & editing, Resources. Wu Chen: Writing – review & editing, Methodology. Chenyu Qiu: Writing – review & editing, Resources. Zhenchun Yang: Writing – review & editing. Rob McConnell: Writing – review & editing, Funding acquisition. Frank Gilliland: Writing – review & editing, Funding acquisition. Susan Redline: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Methodology. Zhanghua Chen: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Conceptualization. Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Author Manuscr ipt Author Manuscr ipt Author Manuscr ipt Author Manuscript Liao et al. Page 2 factors

FAQs

What relationship did the study examine between heat exposure and sleep health?

It assessed how daytime and nighttime temperature anomalies related to sleep duration, continuity, onset, and sleep stages. Associations were modeled using multi-stage linear mixed-effects models.

What were the main quantified effects of temperature anomalies on sleep time?

A 10°C increase in daytime temperature anomalies was associated with a 2.19-minute decrease in total sleep time, and a similar 10°C increase in nighttime anomalies corresponded to a 2.63-minute decrease.

Which groups and regions showed stronger vulnerability to heat effects on sleep?

Effects were greater among females, Hispanics, and individuals with lower socioeconomic status or chronic health conditions. Spatially, effect estimates were larger in marine climate zones than in other regions, including greater reductions projected for June to September.

Sep 30, 2026

Uploaded by dhado