Today I woke up at 2am. Why? Because it was incredibly hot throughout the night, and yesterday San Francisco shattered it’s same day record (which had been in place for over 100 years) by a shocking 8 degrees. Eventually I just settled down on a couch- but I was still unable to get a sound sleep simply due to the extreme heat (about 70 degrees). Yet this is not unique to myself, and according to the National Sleep Foundation, the ideal room temperature for sleep lies between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Any temperature beyond or under that range can lead to restlessness and worst sleep. And my room was around 80 degrees. So yeah, you can imagine the effect that had on me. But the effects of this bad sleep extend far beyond one day, and some of the long term effects of sleep deprivation are:
- A weakened immune system caused by a reduced production of the antibodies that your body usually produces in its sleep
- Obesity or overeating; a lack of sleep messes with your ability to gauge your own fullness
Heatwaves also have other adverse consequences
- Power outages
- Wildfires
- According to the CDC, extreme heat now “results in the highest number of annual deaths among all weather-related hazards”
- Nearly 30,000 people died from the deadly and record breaking heat wave that swept Europe in 2019
And these heatwaves are not going away anytime soon, as Climate Change continues to progress. But I would just like to take a moment to examine how these heatwaves are affecting my psyche. First of all, I think they have led me to a greater appreciation for ‘normal weather,’ that is, days in the mid 60’s and no crazy rain or sun. But then again, what is ‘normal?’ Am I talking about the ‘normal’ of 2012 or the ‘new normal.’ You see, that is what I struggle so much with- the fact that these heat waves really here to stay, because I soooo wish for the weather to just go back to my normal, the normal of my elementary school days. It’s also so weird to think about such a momentous change happening over just the last couple of years, because everything had seemed so stable before I noticed anything was going array. Now this new realization has led me to view hot days as the villain, a product of climate change- even if other explanations may be afoot. Before, say 2016, maybe I would look forward to a nice, hot day at the beach, but now I just see it as the beginning of a tortuous season. And I think all this really says something about how everything is always changing, and you may not notice anything is gone until that ‘normal’ is no longer with us.
https://www.healthination.com/health/how-heat-affects-sleep/
www.vox.com/world/2019/6/26/18744518/heat-wave-2019-europe-france-germany-spain.
sf.curbed.com/2019/9/25/20883404/bay-area-sf-weather-heat-september-2019-forecast.
