TAYLOR
Ian is a freelance science writer and the former deputy editor of BBC Science Focus.
ILLUSTRATION: JOE WALDRON
How are you supposed to get 40 winks when it feels like the temperature in your bedroom is pushing 40°C (104°F)? As our climate warms and intense heatwaves become more common, scientists note that temperatures are rising faster at night than during the day.
It means climate change is something to lose sleep over, literally. Around 44 hours of lost sleep is attributed to heat each year, and it’s happening everywhere. Earlier this year, a team of researchers published the first planet-scale evidence that warmer temperatures are eroding human sleep.