The impact of climate related disasters on sleep and associations with mental health

Climate change is increasing the incidence and severity of climate related disasters. These disasters can cause significant disruption to people, environments, and critical services and infrastructure. While many people recover from disaster experiences, a substantial minority may go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder, and other persisting psychological concerns. Sleep concerns are also common following exposure to a traumatic event and have been found to co-occur with both depression and PTSD. Despite the prevalence of bushfires and climate related disasters within Australia, there has been limited domestic research on the relationship between disasters, sleep, and mental health.

To guide future research and the provision of appropriate intervention for disaster impacted individuals and communities it is important to understand how sleep disturbance may present following disaster, and how this may interact with or impact the development of other mental health conditions. To build this knowledge base, it is necessary to consider how these outcomes are being assessed in current research, and how this may inform measurement decisions for future research and data collection.

This research project developed a set of brief recommendations and considerations for measuring post-disaster sleep and associated mental health outcomes for those conducting research and collecting data from people impacted by or at risk of future climate disasters. A copy of these recommendations can be downloaded from this page - we hope you find them useful.

Resources

Understanding the impact of climate related disasters on sleep and associations with mental health: Recommendations and considerations for measurement.

Investigators

Ms Robyn Molyneaux, The University of Melbourne
Professor Amy Jordan, The University of Melbourne
Dr Penny Burns, Australian National University
Dr Kristen Glenister, The University of Melbourne
Dr Tegan Podubinski, The University of Melbourne
Dr Claire Leppold, The University of Melbourne
Dr Maya Schenker, The University of Melbourne

Funding

This work was made possible through the University of Melbourne Climate CATCH Lab “Climate and Health Seed funding” (2023-2024).

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