Home Heat Health (HHH): Sleep in the city

在发达国家，几乎每一种主要疾病——阿尔茨海默氏症、癌症、肥胖和糖尿病——都显示出与睡眠不足有因果关系。睡眠中断会损害精神健康，降低工作场所生产力，增加缺勤率，并增加卫生和社会保健系统的负担。晚上保持舒适的家庭可以保证高质量的睡眠，从而促进健康和福祉，并支持持续的独立生活。睡眠会受到许多个人因素的影响，比如压力和健康状况不佳，但环境因素也很重要，尤其是卧室温度。在最近的一项全国调查中，超过450万的英国家庭报告说，他们的卧室经常或总是热得不舒服。伦敦和英格兰东南部的住宅受影响最大，公寓、小型住宅和现代建筑尤其危险。社会弱势家庭受到的影响尤为严重。随着气候变暖，热浪的频率、强度和持续时间都在增加。随着城市变得更加密集，城市热岛加剧，噪音水平上升。在2003年的欧洲热浪中，欧洲16个国家可能有超过7万人过早死亡。有人担心，气温上升将促使人们在住宅中使用空调，这将给供电网络带来额外的负荷，而且由于空调的购买和运行成本高昂，将加剧社会不平等。卧室调整和行为改变可以改善室内环境。英国公共卫生部关于夏季保持凉爽的建议是通用的，它们是否适用于许多家庭尚不清楚。在努力减少新建住宅夜间过热的同时，没有任何指导和规定来保护现有住宅免受过热的影响。这个项目汇集了一个由睡眠科学家、工程师和以用户为中心的设计和健康专家组成的多学科团队。他们将与社会住房提供者、地方当局、住房开发商和政府部门合作。住在伦敦公寓里的所有年龄段的健康成年人都将积极参与这项研究。睡眠质量测量、睡眠日记、问卷调查、环境监测、住宅调查和热模型将寻求回答三个问题：1。哪些环境因素（夜间温度、噪音水平和空气质量）会导致不同人群的睡眠质量下降？例如，目前英国没有可靠的夜间过热标准。2. 人们如何才能获得更好的睡眠质量？睡觉前和睡觉时简单的行为改变，或者卧室的调整，比如遮阳和改善通风，都可以改善夏季的舒适度，但改善的程度有多大，住在哪种公寓里的人是谁？3. 如何翻新现有住宅，既减少能源需求，又提高夏季舒适度？这项工作涉及住在伦敦公寓里的人，他们将帮助完善研究项目，监测他们的卧室和睡眠质量，以及他们在热浪中控制温度的方式。他们将是这项研究的首批受益者。对于缺乏预测过热风险的可靠方法的建筑商、工程师和建筑师，以及希望客观地针对提供不可接受的夏季条件的社会住房提供者来说，这项工作非常重要。这项研究还将为社会和医疗保健专业人员提供更好的建议，告诉他们如何改善夏季夜间的舒适度；使社会住房提供者能够规划和优先考虑翻新，并告知未来有关在没有空调的情况下保持现有建筑物舒适度的建筑法规。最重要的是，随着城市化进程的继续和气候变暖，这项工作将保护英国公民的健康和福祉。

Almost every major disease in the developed world - Alzheimer's, cancer, obesity and diabetes- shows a causal link to lack of sleep. Sleep disruption degrades mental health, reduces work-place productivity and increases absenteeism, and increases the burden on health and social care systems. Homes that remain comfortable at night enable quality sleep which enhance health and well-being and supports continued independent living.Sleep is eroded by numerous personal factors such a stress and ill-health, but environmental factors are also important, especially bedroom temperatures. In a recent national survey over 4.5 million English households reported bedrooms that were often or always uncomfortably warm. Dwellings in London and the SE of England were most affected with flats, small dwellings and modern buildings particularly at risk. Socially disadvantaged households were disproportionately affected. As the climate warms, the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves is increasing. As cities become denser, the urban heat island intensifies, and noise levels rise. In the 2003 European heat wave, there may have been over 70,000 premature deaths in 16 countries across Europe. There are concerns that rising temperatures will initiate the uptake of air-conditioning (AC) in dwellings, which will place additional loads on the electricity supply networks and, as AC is costly to buy and run, will accentuate the societal inequalities.Bedroom adaptations and behavioural change can improve the indoor environment. Public Health England's recommendations on staying cool in the summer are generic, and their applicability for many households in unknown. Whilst effort is being directed to reducing night-time overheating in new dwellings, there is no guidance, and no regulation, to protect existing dwellings from overheating.This project brings together a multi-disciplinary team of sleep scientists, engineers and experts in user centred design and health. They will work with social housing providers, local authorities, housing developers and government departments. Healthy adults of all ages living in flats in London will be actively involved in the study. Sleep quality measurement, sleep diaries, questionnaires, environmental monitoring, dwelling surveys and thermal modelling will seek to answer three questions:1. What environmental factors (night-time temperatures, noise levels and air quality) lead to degradation of sleep quality in different people? Currently, for example, there is no credible UK night-time overheating criterion. 2. How might people achieve better quality sleep? Simple behavioural changes before and during sleep, or bedroom adaptations, like shading and improved ventilation, can improve summertime comfort, but by how much and for which people living in which sort of flats? 3. How might existing homes be refurbished to both reduce energy demand and improve summertime comfort? The work involves people living in flats in London, who will help refine the research programme and enable monitoring of their bedrooms and sleep quality, and the way they control temperatures during heat waves. They will be the first beneficiaries of the research.The work is important to builders, engineers and architects who lack a robust method for predicting overheating risk, and to social housing providers who want to objectively target properties that provide unacceptable summertime conditions. The research will also: provide social and healthcare professionals with better advice about how people can improve summer night-time comfort; enable social housing providers to plan and prioritise refurbishment, and inform future building regulations concerned with maintaining comfort, without air-conditioning, in existing buildings. Most importantly, the work will protect the health and well-being of UK citizens as urbanisation continues and the climate warms.