When the Sleeper Becomes the Photographer: Recurrent Smartphone Photography During NREM Parasomnia-A Case Report.

There is growing evidence that exposure to nature, or green- and bluespaces, is linked to human health and well-being. Potential links between nature and health include stress reduction, attention restoration, promotion of physical activity and social cohesion, improvement of sleep quality, and buffering from coexposures such as air pollutants, noise, and extreme heat. A study by Hu et al. in explores how green- and bluespaces might prevent mortality during extreme heat events using both traditional administrative data and satellite-based approaches to characterize the spaces themselves, as well as novel greenspace metrics derived by applying deep learning models to street-view imagery. Using a time-series approach based on daily all-cause mortality from nearly 3 million deaths and temperature data from 2009 to 2020 in 1,085 subdistricts of Zhejiang Province, China, the authors quantify how 12 green- and bluespace types modified associations between heat and mortality risk. These green- and bluespace types include farms, natural reserves, forests, shrubs, parks, street greenery, lakes, rivers, wetlands, reservoirs, and coast. The authors found that, for instance, a 30% increase in exposure to overall greenspace was estimated to reduce heat-related mortality by 4.8%, whereas a 30% increase in bluespace was expected to reduce heat-related mortality by 16.2%. This is the first study to our knowledge to assess the heat-related mortality burden under different green- and bluespace scenarios and has far-reaching implications for policy, as it provides empirical evidence on the role of certain types of nature infrastructure that can help combat heat-related diseases and mortality, especially in China, a country that is rapidly urbanizing. This study adds to the existing literature by examining the role of specific green- and bluespace components in heat-related mortality risk based on nearly 3 million deaths over an 11-year period. It is crucial to consider the interactions among various environmental factors that affect health outcomes. Although recent studies have explored the role of greenspace in modifying heat-related mortality risk, their results have been mixed. For example, our recent study found that winter average temperature was inversely correlated with mortality in low-greenness areas among myocardial infarction survivors in a US cohort but did not find that greenspace modified the summer temperature–mortality relationship. Similarly, an ecological study in Hong Kong did not find a significant modifying role of green- and bluespace on heat-related mortality. These inconsistencies likely stem from relying solely on satellite imagery to assess green- and bluespace exposure, which may not reflect ground-level experiences and cannot distinguish the specific impacts of different green- and bluespace components on heat-related mortality.