Ambient and Bedroom Heat in Relation to Sleep Health in a Marginalized Community That Is One of the Hottest in Los Angeles

Hasibe Caballero-Gomez, Jill Johnston, Chandra L. Jackson, Lizette Romano and Lara J. Cushing ()
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Hasibe Caballero-Gomez: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Jill Johnston: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Chandra L. Jackson: Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA
Lizette Romano: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Lara J. Cushing: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: The majority of Americans do not regularly get the recommended amount of sleep and sleep deficiencies disproportionately burden marginalized communities. We conducted a longitudinal cohort study measuring bedroom air temperature and humidity over three non-consecutive weeks ( N = 19 participants; 409 observation nights) using HOBO loggers and sleep health using wrist-actigraphy and sleep diaries. Outdoor temperature and humidity were obtained from a nearby weather station. Linear mixed-effects regression models assessed relationships between temperature and sleep health metrics. Nighttime indoor apparent temperature ranged from 26 to 35 °C and averaged 5 °C higher than outdoors. On average, participants slept 6.7 h per night with 83% sleep efficiency. After adjustment, a 5 °C increase in indoor nighttime dry bulb temperature was associated with a 23 min reduction in mean total sleep time (β = −23.30 [−43.30, −3.45]) and mean onset latency increase of approximately 2 min (β = 1.85 [0.50, 6.65]). Nighttime heat waves were associated with a 4% reduction in mean sleep efficiency (β = −3.71 [−6.83, −0.66]) and an 11 min increase in onset latency (β = 11.32 [2.60, 20.75]). We found evidence that rising summertime temperatures reduced sleep health in a disproportionately impacted community, suggesting that climate change will worsen existing sleep health disparities.

Keywords: health disparities; temperature; climate change; environmental justice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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