Environment/Climate Change
Assessing the Relationship Between Indoor Air Pollution and Sleep Quality in Disadvantaged Communities Tianjun Lu* Tianjun Lu Yisi Liu
Indoor air pollution poses a significant but underexplored threat to sleep quality, particularly in disadvantaged communities. We used low-cost PurpleAir monitors to continuously measure indoor PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) data over 22,836 hours from 11 households across disadvantaged communities in South Los Angeles from June to September 2022. We administered five bi-weekly surveys per household, collecting information on sleep quality (e.g., time taken to fall asleep, bedtime, and overall sleep quality). Using mixed-effect linear models, we analyzed the association between hourly PM2.5 concentrations and sleep latency, adjusting for confounders such as temperature, relative humidity, perceived stress. We tested the impact of daily PM2.5 concentrations on time taken to sleep, and the lag effect of exposures during the 1-6 hours before bedtime. We found that concentrations peaked at 9:00 am, with higher weekend levels before noon and higher weekday levels after noon. For each 10µg/m3 increase in 24-hour indoor PM2.5 concentrations, the time taken to fall asleep increased by 0.11 min (95% CI: 0.04, 0.17). Notably, we found that PM2.5 concentrations around 3 hours before bedtime held the greatest impact, that time taken to fall asleep increased 0.22 min (95% CI: 0.03, 0.41) for each 10µg/m3 increase in PM2.5. Adjusting for additional confounders slightly impacted the sleep latency results. These results underscore the need for targeted interventions to reduce indoor air pollution and its impact on sleep health, particularly in vulnerable populations. Our work highlights the importance of precise, community-specific approaches to mitigate environmental health disparities.