AT ATS 2025, San Francisco, California, USA, new research reveals that rising temperatures driven by climate change significantly intensify the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition already underdiagnosed and undertreated. The findings suggest that without intervention, the global burden of OSA could double within decades, raising urgent concerns for clinicians, health systems, and policymakers.
The study, led by Bastien Lechat, of Flinders University’s FHMRI: Sleep Health, analyzed data from more than 116,000 users of an under-mattress sleep sensor validated to detect OSA severity. The researchers assessed over 58 million sleep sessions against 24-hour ambient temperatures, uncovering a 45 percent increased likelihood of experiencing OSA episodes on warmer nights.
This association varied by region. While users in European countries experienced greater OSA sensitivity to heat, participants in the United States and Australia were less affected—but still showed significant temperature-linked OSA worsening.
Modeling future climate scenarios, researchers found that a global temperature rise of just 2°C could result in a 1.5-fold to 3-fold increase in OSA’s societal burden by 2100. Even under current conditions, climate change has already increased the OSA burden by 50 to 100 percent since 2000.
The study further estimated this burden in terms of disability-adjusted life years, productivity loss, and healthcare costs. Lechat emphasized that the widespread lack of OSA diagnosis and treatment amplifies the health and economic impacts of climate-driven temperature increases.
“There is a real opportunity to reduce this burden through better diagnosis and management of OSA,” said Lechat. He and his team now plan to explore targeted interventions that mitigate temperature effects on OSA and to investigate the underlying physiological mechanisms driving this link.
Reference
Lechat B et al. Climate Change Increases Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea. American Thoracic Society. 2025. Available from: https://site.thoracic.org/press-releases/climate-change-increases-severity-of-obstructive-sleep-apnea. Last accessed: May 18, 2025.
