{"id":4427,"date":"2026-07-21T09:08:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4427"},"modified":"2026-07-21T09:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:08:22","slug":"when-its-really-hot-mental-health-can-suffer-harvard-t-h-chan-school-of-public-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4427","title":{"rendered":"When it\u2019s really hot, mental health can suffer | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4410\" title=\"Hong Kong schools are using tech to reshape teen mental health support\">Mental Health<\/a><br \/>\nWhen it\u2019s really hot, mental health can suffer<figcaption>Favor_of_God \/ iStock<\/figcaption><p>Extreme heat can take a major toll on mental health Chan School of Public Health\u2019s Amruta Nori-Sarma<\/p>\n<p>In a July 7 <a href=\"https:\/\/theworld.org\/segments\/2026\/07\/07\/how-extreme-heat-impacts-mental-health\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">interview on PRX\u2019s The World<\/a>, Nori-Sarma, assistant professor of environmental health and population sciences, said that a growing body of literature over the past decade has shown a connection between extreme heat and mental health harms. Mood disorders, anxiety, stress, self-harm, substance use disorders, and schizophrenia tend to worsen during very hot weather, and mental health-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations tend to increase.<\/p>\n<p>Nori-Sarma said there are a number of potential reasons why heat can harm mental well-being. One is loss of sleep. When it\u2019s very hot it can be harder to sleep\u2014and lack of sleep can exacerbate mental health conditions. Another is that extreme heat can change the effectiveness of certain <a href=\"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4415\" title=\"Is medication the best first option for childhood ADHD?\">medication<\/a>s<\/p>\n<p>She recommended checking in on <a href=\"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4399\" title=\"Baby and Family Wellness Brand Names CEO\">family<\/a> and friends with mental health conditions during heat waves. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to make sure that people who are suffering from some sort of mental illness are not suffering alone, especially when it\u2019s hot outside and we might expect that their symptoms might be exacerbated,\u201d she said<\/p>\n<p>Nori-Sarma was also quoted about the impact of heat on mental health in a July 7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio\/thecurrent\/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder-9.7257513\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CBC article<\/a> on summer seasonal affective disorder, a condition also known as \u201csummer SAD\u201d or \u201creverse SAD.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the interview on PRX\u2019s The World: <a href=\"https:\/\/theworld.org\/segments\/2026\/07\/07\/how-extreme-heat-impacts-mental-health\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How extreme heat impacts mental health<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Read the CBC article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio\/thecurrent\/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder-9.7257513\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Feeling summertime sadness? Seasonal affective disorder is not just a winter thing<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Environment &amp; Climate Health,Mental Health<\/p>\n<h3>Amruta Nori-Sarma<\/h3>\n<p>Assistant Professor of Environmental Health and Population Science<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mental Health When it\u2019s really hot, mental health can suffer Favor_of_God \/ iStock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[40,58,169,170,82],"class_list":["post-4427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental","tag-really","tag-suffer","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4428,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions\/4428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}