Seasonal and geographical impact on human resting periods

TL;DR

This study analyzes how seasonal and geographical factors like daylight and temperature influence human resting patterns using mobile phone data, revealing latitude-dependent seasonal variations and temperature thresholds affecting afternoon rest.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the seasonal and geographical variations of human resting periods and their relation to environmental factors using large-scale mobile phone data.

Findings

Nocturnal resting is strongly influenced by daylight length.

Seasonal variation in resting depends on latitude.

Total daily resting time remains relatively constant across seasons.

Abstract

We study the influence of seasonally and geographically related daily dynamics of daylight and ambient temperature on human resting or sleeping patterns using mobile phone data of a large number of individuals. We observe two daily inactivity periods in the people's aggregated mobile phone calling patterns and infer these to represent the resting times of the population. We find that the nocturnal resting period is strongly influenced by the length of daylight, and that its seasonal variation depends on the latitude, such that for people living in two different cities separated by eight latitudinal degrees, the difference in the resting period of people between the summer and winter in southern cities is almost twice that in the northern cities. We also observe that the duration of the afternoon resting period is influenced by the temperature, and that there is a threshold from which this influence sets in. Finally, we observe that the yearly dynamics of the afternoon and nocturnal resting periods appear to be counterbalancing each other. This also lends support to the notion that the total daily resting time of people is more or less conserved across the year.