SINGAPORE – When local climate change projections for 2050 and the end of the century were released in early January, forecasts of more frequent days with temperatures exceeding 35 deg C dominated the headlines.
But climate and health researchers were equally, if not more, concerned about how warmer and humid nights will be a daily reality by 2100.
By 2050, at least 317 nights are expected to be warm, with temperatures at 26.3 deg C and above, the third national climate change study has revealed.
“A poorly rested person over time can never be healthy and productive. We need to have scalable and sustainable solutions to ensure proper rest. Without proper recovery, more problems ensue,” said Associate Professor Jason Lee, director of the Heat Resilience and Performance Centre at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
“I want to focus on the more warmer nights prospectively. This aspect is often neglected (in heat health research).”
Over the next several months, Prof Lee and his team at NUS, alongside partners from the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (Bears), will be tracking the sleep quality of construction workers in non-air-conditioned dormitories and residents in air-conditioned bedrooms. The latter will be conducted in a laboratory setting.
The aim is to develop novel cooling solutions in dorms and bedrooms at homes to ensure that the rising temperature does not take a toll on people’s rest.
Called Heats – Heat Exposure, Activity, and Sleep – the project is set to run for three years, and is funded by the National Research Foundation.
More than 100 construction workers and Singapore residents will have wearables tagged to them so that researchers can measure the effects of heat exposure on sleep. The devices will measure heart rate, a person’s sleep stages and wakefulness, among other things.
Currently, Singapore has about 76 warm nights each year, with the temperature hitting 28 deg C or above in some parts of the island.
To fight night-time heat and humidity, the researchers will develop smart systems that can adjust fan wind speed and air-con temperatures.
Professor Stefano Schiavon, a civil and environmental engineering expert from the University of California, Berkeley, and Bears, said: “Instead of having the AC on the entire night at a fixed temperature, the smart system can autonomously change the set point during the night to meet people’s needs.”
Prof Schiavon is co-leading the project with Prof Lee.
Prof Lee also noted that air-conditioning cannot be a solution to heavily rely on, since it releases waste heat and uses refrigerants that fuel global warming.
