Environment/Climate Change
Associations of Objective Indoor Temperature and Parent-Reported Thermal Discomfort with Sleep Health Outcomes in an Urban Sample of School-aged Children Taylor Robinson* Taylor Robinson Jarvis Chen Gary Adamkiewicz Susan Redline
Objectives:
Thermoregulatory mechanisms influence sleep, with optimal sleep occurring at temperatures of 65-68°F. Rising global temperatures and indoor temperatures may contribute to insufficient sleep in vulnerable populations, contributing to health disparities. This study examined the association between objective indoor temperature measurements and parent-reported temperature concerns with sleep outcomes in children.
Methods:
The study sample included children aged 6-12 years, from predominantly low-income neighborhoods in Boston, enrolled in the Environmental Assessment of Sleep Youth (EASY) study. Both objective (temperature and actigraphy) and subjective (parent-reported thermal discomfort) measures were included to capture distinct but overlapping dimensions of how temperature influences sleep, acknowledging that subjective experiences may reflect nuanced interactions between environmental conditions and individual perceptions. Parents reported how often it was, “too hot to sleep at night,” with responses categorized as Never, Once in a while, and Often. Indoor temperatures were recorded in the main living areas continuously over 7-days using Environmental Multipollutant Monitoring Assembly devices. Sleep impairment and sleep disturbance were measured using the pediatric Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) surveys. Sleep efficiency and sleep duration were assessed using wrist actigraphy data collected over 7 nights.
Results:
Among the 329 children studied, 24.3% of parents reported it was “often” too hot for their child to sleep. In adjusted linear regression models, these children had 4.8-point higher sleep disturbance score and 5.4-point higher sleep impairment score compared to children whose parents never reported it being too hot. Objective nighttime temperatures were not significantly associated with these sleep outcomes or actigraphy-based measures in multilevel models.
Conclusions:
Thermal discomfort was linked to poor sleep quality and increased sleep-related impairment in children from low income neighborhoods. Device-based temperature and actigraphy measurements did not identify significant associations, possibly due to limited sampling periods.