Dear Tom,
I have trouble sleeping when there is a big weather change. Could changes in air pressure cause this?
— Ashley Broadbent, Salt Lake City
Dear Ashley,
Probably not. A person’s experiences with sleep are individual and, while valid for that person, there are no objective studies that relate weather changes directly to sleep. So says Dr. Mark Mahowald, formerly the director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. However, there do appear to be seasonal sleep disorder variations. Research shows that we sleep more in the autumn and winter, and are more likely to suffer from insomnia during the summer. Mahowald adds that this does not appear to be as dependent on changes in the hours of sunlight as it is on “circannual rhythm” — changes in eating patterns and appetite over the course of a year.
