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The Mental Health Risks of Extreme Heat
Extreme heat doesn’t just strain the body. It can take a toll on mood, sleep and mental well-being, and older adults may be especially vulnerable
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Key takeaways
- Extreme heat can affect mood, focus and emotional balance by disrupting systems that help regulate both body temperature and mood.
- Older adults may face greater mental health risks from heat because of medications, dehydration and sleep disruptions.
- Feeling anxious during hot weather may be a sign of overheating, and cooling down quickly can help ease symptoms.
The physical effects of extreme heat can be obvious: heavy sweating, intense thirst, a racing heart. But hot weather doesn’t just affect the body; it can also affect the mind.
“As it heats up, many people will notice a significant impact on their mood,” says Susan Albers, a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic. “And for those who struggle already with mental health issues — stress, anxiety and depression — the heat can really intensify it.”
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A study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that higher temperatures were linked to an increase in emergency department visits among adults for mental health conditions, including anxiety, stress and mood disorders. And a 2021 study in the journal Environment International found that mental health-related deaths rose 2.2 percent for every 1.8-degree increase in temperature, with older adults facing the highest risks.
When you’re exposed to high temperatures, one of the things your body does is try to “dump that extra heat,” explains Dr. Lorenzo Norris, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Blood gets redirected to the skin so the heat can escape. However, this process affects the hormones and chemical messengers that help to regulate our moods, Norris explains.
“When you’re getting hot, it’s not necessarily a coincidence that people start to lose a little bit of their patience, their focus, they may get a little bit emotionally unbalanced. It’s not just strictly due to the stress of being hot. Your body’s actually using the same systems that it uses to regulate your mood, to regulate heat,” Norris says.
Older adults face higher risks from heat
Just as older adults are more susceptible to the physical effects of heat, they are also more vulnerable to its mental health effects, Norris says.
Medications commonly taken by adults ages 50-plus — including diuretics and ACE inhibitors — can interfere with sweating or blood flow, making it harder for the body to regulate temperature, Albers explains. That can increase the risk of overheating, “which in turn can make you feel much more anxious, blue, frustrated,” she adds.
Research shows that older adults have a diminished thirst response and are more likely to become dehydrated. “And even mild dehydration could impact parts of the brain that are responsible for attention, decision-making and emotional regulation,” Albers says.
Older adults are also more likely to have trouble sleeping, and these issues can become exacerbated when it’s hot out. “Even one night of bad sleep can make you even more emotionally reactive, less able to cope with frustration the next day,” Albers says. “And so I highly recommend when it’s hot, using fans, cooling sheets, taking a cool shower, blackout curtains, anything that’s going to cool down your bedroom before you sleep to help prevent mood changes.”
Don’t ignore the warning signs
Experts say it’s important not to brush off mood changes on hot days, since they may be a sign your body is struggling to stay cool.
“One of the things I tell my clients quite a bit is that heat mimics anxiety,” Albers says. Both can cause a racing heart, sweating, dizziness and shortness of breath. “So, I encourage people, if they’re feeling anxious on a day that it’s particularly hot, to pause and to ask themselves: Am I feeling overheated? And the good news is that there are a lot of ways that you can really quickly cool down.”
Albers recommends drinking some ice water or holding a cold cloth on your wrist or behind your neck for 60 seconds. “Those [areas] contain blood vessels close to the skin to help to cool your body really quickly,” she says.
Try to get any outdoor work or errands done in the early morning or evening hours. And don’t forget to check in on your older friends, family and neighbors, Norris adds.
During a heat wave, he recommends calling every day and asking specific questions, like how much water they’re drinking and whether their air-conditioning is on. People can underreport their symptoms, Norris says, “particularly if they’re dealing with the effects of heat and they happen to be confused and are not giving you the same level of accuracy that you’re accustomed to.”
Albers says most people underestimate the impact heat can have on the body, including the mind. “And so being aware of it, I think we can do a lot of prevention, preparing and coping with heat,” she adds.
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
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