Extreme Heatwave Unevenly Disrupted Circadian Rhythm in the United States Using Multi-Sourced Geospatial Big Data

Keywords: Circadian Rhythm, Social Media, Heatwave, Spatial and Temporal Analysis
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

The human circadian rhythm refers to the routine or activities that a person typically follows an approximately 24-hour biological clock. Previous studies have revealed that disruptions like light, noise, and social isolation can elevate the stress on the intrinsic clock that modulates circadian hormone release, leading to disrupted behaviors such as delayed sleep phase syndrome or irregular sleep-wake patterns. Since extreme heat events' increasing frequency, duration, and intensity have significantly impacted human society, the effect of ambient severe temperature changes on human circadian rhythm is still unclear. Meanwhile, social media enables billions of users to post digital footprints anytime and anywhere. These posts are inherently time-stamped and sometimes geotagged, making them a promising resource for observing human daily patterns at unprecedented geographical and temporal scales. This research aims to innovatively use multiple geospatial big data to reveal the impact of social heatwaves on daily pattern alternations during heatwave and non-heatwave periods. We estimated the daily patterns at the city level in the United States using social and natural geospatial data to explore their geographical and temporal disparities. This study designed a novel method to leverage large-scale human-generated data to quantitatively portray human daily patterns, their variations, and their associations with heat disruptions. The proposed framework sheds light on using social sensing data and climate datasets to research the etiology of daily patterns and sleep behaviors.