Guwahati: Climate change is no longer just making Guwahati hotter—it is also quietly stealing people’s sleep.
A new analysis by Climate Central has found that residents of Guwahati now lose an average of 72 hours of sleep every year because of high nighttime temperatures, with six of those hours directly attributable to climate change.
New research by Climate Central finds that across all 1,338 major global cities analysed, the amount of temperature-related sleep loss linked to climate change has at least doubled since the early 1970s, with severe health impacts.
India has emerged as one of the global hotspots for climate-related sleep loss, with warmer nights driven by climate change increasingly disrupting sleep across 107 Indian cities.
This is the first analysis to directly quantify how many hours of sleep have been lost due to climate change by combining cutting-edge research on the effects of temperature on sleep with the latest attribution science.
As the world heats up due to burning fossil fuels, nighttime temperatures are increasing even faster than daytime temperatures, posing a growing and serious risk to public health.
The science is clear that sleep is essential for our health, and climate change is eroding sleep by pushing up nighttime temperatures.
For Guwahati, the trend is unmistakable. Between 1970 and 1975, residents lost an average of 65 hours of sleep annually due to heat, with only three hours linked to climate change, accounting for about 4% of the total.
By 2020-2025, total annual sleep loss had risen to 72 hours, while the portion attributable to climate change had doubled to six hours, representing 9% of all temperature-related sleep loss.
The findings place Guwahati within a broader national trend that identifies India as one of the world’s hotspots for climate-related sleep disruption.
Across 107 Indian cities included in the study, warmer nights are increasingly affecting sleep, with southern Indian cities recording the highest losses—between 78 and 91 hours annually, including 8-9 hours directly linked to climate change.
Major metros such as Chennai (93 hours), Mumbai (84 hours) and Kolkata (80 hours) reported the highest overall sleep losses, while Bengaluru showed one of the strongest climate change signals, with eight hours of sleep lost annually due to human-caused warming.
Scientists warn that the findings have important public health implications. Sleep deprivation caused by warmer nights has been linked to cardiovascular disease, weakened immunity, poorer mental health, reduced cognitive performance and lower workplace productivity.
The analysis comes as scientific evidence shows that nighttime temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures in many parts of the world, making it harder for the human body to cool down during sleep.
Globally, the average person lost nearly 56 hours of sleep each year because of high ambient temperatures during 2020-2025, with more than 10% of that loss directly attributable to climate change, according to the report.
While Guwahati’s climate change-linked sleep loss remains lower than that of India’s hottest cities, researchers say the increase highlights an emerging and often overlooked consequence of global warming.
As Northeast India experiences more frequent heatwaves and warmer nights, experts say the erosion of sleep quality could become an increasingly significant public health challenge, adding another dimension to the region’s vulnerability to climate change.
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Roopak Goswami
Reporter, EastMojo
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