Rising Temperatures Are Taking a Toll on Sleep Health

## How Rising Temperatures Affect Your Sleep

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night, gasping for air and struggling to breathe. This is what it’s like for people with sleep apnea—a condition that affects your ability to get quality sleep. And did you know that climate change could make this even worse? As temperatures rise globally, we might see an increase in sleep apnea cases.

The connection between heat and sleep apnea might seem surprising at first, but there are good reasons why they’re linked. When it’s hot outside, our bodies tend to do everything they can to cool us down. One way they do this is by making us sweat more, which helps remove excess body heat. But another way is by altering the muscles that help us breathe.

In a normal night’s sleep, your breathing is usually smooth and consistent. However, when you have sleep apnea, your airway becomes blocked during sleep, causing pauses in your breathing or shallow breaths. This happens because the muscles responsible for keeping your airway open relax too much while you're asleep.

Here's where the heat comes into play: When it’s hotter outside, our bodies need to work harder to stay cool, which can increase the production of certain hormones and chemicals that make these muscles even more relaxed than usual. As a result, they might be more likely to block your airway during sleep, making it harder for you to breathe.

To put it simply: As temperatures rise due to climate change, we might see an increase in sleep apnea cases because heat makes our bodies relax the muscles that keep our airways open while we're sleeping. This could make breathing difficult or even pause it completely.

So what can we do about this? The first step is being aware of how climate change affects not just our planet, but also our health. By taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint and combatting climate change, we may be able to lessen the impact on our sleep health too.