Investigating the Relationship of Outdoor Heat Stress upon Indoor Thermal Comfort and Qualitative Sleep Evaluation: The Case of Ankara

Abstract

The necessity of exploring the relationship between sleep quality and the thermal environment has amplified regarding increasing heat stress risk on the human body due to climate change, particularly in vulnerable uninsulated buildings in Ankara. Within this scope, this study investigated occupants’ sleep quality and human thermal comfort in insulated and uninsulated buildings under three local extreme heat event thresholds: (1) typical summer days (TSD25), (2) very hot days (VHD33), and lastly, (3) heat wave events (HWE31). Within a two-tiered approach to thermal comfort evaluations, the human thermal comfort of occupants was identified through the calculation of physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) from the climatic data of local meteorological stations. The psychological thermal comfort and sleep quality of participants were evaluated by questionnaires during each heat event. The results of this study demonstrated that the physiological thermal load of the participants was highest during VHD33s, given that both outdoor and indoor PET values presented their highest values within VHD33 events. Furthermore, the outdoor PET values reached extreme heat stress based on physiological stress grades with 43.5 °C, which indicated the exacerbated vulnerability of Ankara during extreme heat events. The PET values were consistently higher in uninsulated buildings than in insulated buildings. Also, most of the mean psychological thermal comfort votes and sleep quality votes were better in uninsulated buildings than in insulated ones during TSD25s and HWE31s, while it was the opposite within extreme conditions of VHD33s. The outputs of this study contribute to interdisciplinary efforts to attenuate the existing and impending risks of climate change on human life by defining the influence of increasing outdoor heat stress on indoor spaces, thermal comfort, and the sleep quality of occupants.