New studies have found that Air Pollution and its adverse effect on an individual can also result in lack of sleep. High level of AQI can indirectly put your sleeping hours to have an uneven cycle. Chronic Sleep Deprivation can, in turn, raise many other health-related problems. Not having to sleep enough doesn’t just reduce a person’s performance but also increases the chance of accidentally getting unexpected mood swings at the wrong junctures of one’s day.
Sleep Apnea – A Phenomenon in which breathing stops as you sleep is a real thing. Air Pollution has become a major cause of the rise in particulates smaller than 2.5 microns. These particles directly go into the respiratory tract and increase the reasons for major respiratory infections that can cause heart-attacks during peaceful sleep-time. Chronic obstructive disease and other strokes have also amped the reasons for sleep-disorder.
While people have now become familiar with the diseases that are caused due to the rise of air pollution, there is still a lot that needs to be understood when Air Pollution as a major cause of sleep-disorder is concerned. Antonella Zanobetti – A senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health who is also the first one to study the link between Air Pollution and Sleeping Disorder has said that “With this study, we found air pollution also increases the risk of poor sleep.”
Also, Read – House Air Pollution – 5 Easy Ways to Reduce Indoor Toxicity
The studies have found that an increase in air pollution has also disturbed the way a person breathes while they sleep. Sleep – which is basically a state where only the subconscious mind is active is affected when breathing is uneven. It can also lead to low blood oxygen levels which can reduce quality sleep to one that wakes you up at unwanted hours during the night.
It has also been found that a major cause of Insomnia could be constant exposure to artificial outdoor light during the night time. Also termed as light pollution, this exposure can lead to teary-eyes and lack of proper retinal function. Air Pollution, on the other hand, can also lead to the same results if not checked. They can indirectly change the body-clock that is fixed by a person when they choose to sleep at a certain time.
In major cities in India itself; people – Especially the young crowd that goes out for studies or for work during the day, has been found to have sleeping problems. Most of them complain that more than 80% of their time spent in bed is reduced to waking-state rather than a good night’s peaceful sleep. Others have also notified that their sleep quality has reduced considerably when they have chosen to go out of their houses for prolonged periods of time during the day.
Air Pollution is a serious threat to everyone. Absence of Quality sleep could result in some major setbacks for people who have been healthy all their life. Controlling the sleeping hours is very important for a person’s sanity and Air Pollution should never be a cause for it.
