Air Pollution Is Linked to Poor Sleep

By Dr. Mercola If you’re among the 35 percent of U.S. adults who are not getting the recommended seven hours of sleep each night,1 a silent intruder in your bedroom could be to blame: air pollution. With well-known adverse effects on your heart and lung health, research presented at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 2017 International Conference suggests poor air quality may also disrupt your sleep.2 The study looked closely at the effects of two widespread pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is traffic-related air pollution, and PM2.5, or fine-particle pollution, which is less than 2.5 micrometers in size and is responsible for reduced visibility. Both of the pollutants had an influence on study participants’ sleep efficiency, which is a measure of the time spent actually sleeping as opposed to lying in bed awake. In fact, the people in the top quarter of NO2 exposure were 60 percent more likely to have low sleep efficiency over a five-year period compared to those in the
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