The Environment Around the Sleeper is Changing: A Perspective.

Abstract

Sleep is shaped by a complex interplay of biological, behavioral, and environmental factors. While substantial attention has been paid to the first two factors, the role of environmental exposures, particularly weather patterns, ambient temperature variability, and other dynamic atmospheric conditions, remains relatively underexplored in sleep research. This gap is notable given the increasing availability of high-resolution environmental data and growing evidence that ambient conditions can influence circadian regulation, thermal comfort, and sleep continuity. This perspective paper reviews emerging evidence linking environmental factors to sleep patterns, highlighting both direct effects (e.g., thermal disruptions) and indirect pathways (e.g., displacement or stress from extreme weather events). Recent advances in environmental sensing, geospatial data, and real-time monitoring offer new opportunities to capture high-resolution environmental data relevant to sleep. This perspective highlights the need for data infrastructure capable of integrating these dynamic environmental inputs with sleep metrics from, for instance, wearables, surveys, and clinical records. We also examine the methodological and informatics challenges of integrating environmental data with sleep measures and suggest directions for future research. As environmental conditions evolve, understanding their influence on sleep holds promise for advancing both scientific knowledge and public health relevance, particularly in identifying affected populations, designing responsive interventions, and contextualizing sleep within broader ecological systems.