Ambient and Bedroom Heat in Relation to Sleep Health in a Marginalized Community That Is One of the Hottest in Los Angeles

Caballero-Gomez, Hasibe; Johnston, Jill; Jackson, Chandra L.; Romano, Lizette; Cushing, Lara J.

doi:10.3390/ijerph22091391

Open AccessArticle

Ambient and Bedroom Heat in Relation to Sleep Health in a Marginalized Community That Is One of the Hottest in Los Angeles

by

Hasibe Caballero-Gomez

¹

,

Jill Johnston

²,

Chandra L. Jackson

^3,4

,

Lizette Romano

¹ and

Lara J. Cushing

^1,*

¹

Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

²

Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA

³

Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA

⁴

Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(9), 1391; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22091391

Submission received: 22 July 2025 / Revised: 21 August 2025 / Accepted: 29 August 2025 / Published: 6 September 2025

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Abstract

The majority of Americans do not regularly get the recommended amount of sleep and sleep deficiencies disproportionately burden marginalized communities. We conducted a longitudinal cohort study measuring bedroom air temperature and humidity over three non-consecutive weeks (N = 19 participants; 409 observation nights) using HOBO loggers and sleep health using wrist-actigraphy and sleep diaries. Outdoor temperature and humidity were obtained from a nearby weather station. Linear mixed-effects regression models assessed relationships between temperature and sleep health metrics. Nighttime indoor apparent temperature ranged from 26 to 35 °C and averaged 5 °C higher than outdoors. On average, participants slept 6.7 h per night with 83% sleep efficiency. After adjustment, a 5 °C increase in indoor nighttime dry bulb temperature was associated with a 23 min reduction in mean total sleep time (β = −23.30 [−43.30, −3.45]) and mean onset latency increase of approximately 2 min (β = 1.85 [0.50, 6.65]). Nighttime heat waves were associated with a 4% reduction in mean sleep efficiency (β = −3.71 [−6.83, −0.66]) and an 11 min increase in onset latency (β = 11.32 [2.60, 20.75]). We found evidence that rising summertime temperatures reduced sleep health in a disproportionately impacted community, suggesting that climate change will worsen existing sleep health disparities.

Keywords: health disparities; temperature; climate change; environmental justice

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MDPI and ACS Style

Caballero-Gomez, H.; Johnston, J.; Jackson, C.L.; Romano, L.; Cushing, L.J. Ambient and Bedroom Heat in Relation to Sleep Health in a Marginalized Community That Is One of the Hottest in Los Angeles. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22, 1391. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22091391

AMA Style

Caballero-Gomez H, Johnston J, Jackson CL, Romano L, Cushing LJ. Ambient and Bedroom Heat in Relation to Sleep Health in a Marginalized Community That Is One of the Hottest in Los Angeles. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2025; 22(9):1391. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22091391

Chicago/Turabian Style

Caballero-Gomez, Hasibe, Jill Johnston, Chandra L. Jackson, Lizette Romano, and Lara J. Cushing. 2025. "Ambient and Bedroom Heat in Relation to Sleep Health in a Marginalized Community That Is One of the Hottest in Los Angeles" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 22, no. 9: 1391. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22091391

APA Style

Caballero-Gomez, H., Johnston, J., Jackson, C. L., Romano, L., & Cushing, L. J. (2025). Ambient and Bedroom Heat in Relation to Sleep Health in a Marginalized Community That Is One of the Hottest in Los Angeles. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(9), 1391. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22091391

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Ambient and Bedroom Heat in Relation to Sleep Health in a Marginalized Community That Is One of the Hottest in Los Angeles

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