Deteriorating air quality in Indian urban communities has turned into a worry health experts, environmentalists, and people in recent years. Air contamination is one of the main health dangers of our times.
An examination evaluated around 1.2 million passings in India in 2017 due to air contamination. According to another study, 2018, one million Indians were killed due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, caused by long term lung exposure to toxins in the air.
But, the impact of air pollution is not limited to heart and lung health as is commonly believed. Long term exposure to air pollution can interact with the normal functioning of the entire body, including your sleep and mood.
Researchers are analyzing the impact of air pollution on the overall functioning of the brain and sleep related problems. A small body of research is pointing towards a link between exposure to air pollution and sleep apnea — a serious disorder that occurs when breathing is interrupted during sleep.
People with sleep apnea tend to stop breathing briefly during their sleep, which is not only debilitating but may also have larger implications on health.
According to research published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, there is a positive correlation between obstructive sleep apnea and increase in two of the most common air pollutants: fine particulate pollution, known as PM2.5, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
While body mass index, high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking are primary causes of sleep apnea, the kind of air we breathe is another factor that impacts our quality of sleep.
Due to their toxicity, air pollutants might have a role also in the etiology of mental disorders leading to anxiety, changes in mood and problems in cognition and behavior by impacting the central nervous system.
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