Sleep apnoea may become more severe, prevalent as climate warms, finds study

A new study has found that sleep apnoea could become more common and severe as temperatures continue to rise due to global warming. Sleep apnoea is a common sleep disorder that is characterised by having trouble breathing properly while sleeping. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications. 

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) affects nearly a billion people worldwide. The condition occurs when muscles in the throat narrow the airways, impacting breathing and blood oxygen levels during sleep. The study found that one's chances of experiencing sleep apnoea could spike by 45 per cent on days with higher temperatures. 

The study has found that the effect is projected to be stronger in European countries. However, the chances of these effects in populations of countries with a lower gross domestic product per capita, including India, Israel and Brazil, are higher.

Dr. Bastien Lechat from Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute Sleep Health, Australia, and lead author, said the study helps "understand how environmental factors like climate might affect health by investigating whether ambient temperatures influence the severity of OSA."

The study also projected that the burden, impacts, and costs of obstructive sleep apnoea could double by 2100, under a warming of 1.8 degrees Celsius in global ambient temperature above pre-industrial levels.

In 2023, the increased prevalence of sleep apnoea due to global warming was "associated with a loss of over 780,000 healthy life years and 105 million workplace productivity days across 29 countries," the authors wrote. The authors quantified well-being and productivity burden due to sleep apnoea.

The overall loss was found to be



USD 98 billion, with a workplace productivity loss of USD 30 billion, and a well-being loss of USD 68 billion. The study is the first of its kind outlining how global warming could be expected to affect breathing during sleep and impact the world's health, wellbeing and economy, Dr. Lechat added.

Studies have related sleep apnoea with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and mental conditions, including anxiety, depression, dementia and Parkinson's disease.

More than 500 nights of sleep data of 116,620 people from across 41 countries -- a total of about 62 million nights -- were analysed. Data was gathered using a sensor placed under the participants' mattresses.

The researchers then compared this sleep data with detailed 24-hour temperature information sourced from climate models. The authors said, "Globally, higher temperatures were associated with a 45 per cent higher probability of having OSA (obstructive sleep apnoea) on a given night."

Further, "scenarios with projected temperatures (of over) 1.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels would incur a further 1.2 to 3-fold increase in OSA burden by 2100," the study said.

A 2023 study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews, estimated that 104 million Indians of working age suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea, of whom nearly 50 per cent have it in a moderate or severe form.

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