Sunday Scaries: Sleeping Disturbances
With daylight savings shifting the clock, sleep is more important than ever. The loss of an hour of sleep can dramatically shift our mental, emotional, and physical health. However, getting adequate sleep is a difficulty for over 30% of Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 3 adults in the United States reported not getting enough rest or sleep every day. Poor sleep quality among adults has an estimated economic impact of more than $411 billion each year in the United States alone. For some this insufficiency is reliant on schedules, body aches, improper bedding, or distractions. However, one of the most overlooked causes of poor sleeping patterns is the lack of proper ventilation within the bedroom. When your house can’t efficiently keep temperature, humidity or circulation control, your body is required to work overtime during sleeping hours, often disturbing the sleep cycle. Knowing how to improve bedroom ventilation may be the difference between good sleep and great sleep, every night.
Why Ventilation is Important to Your Sleep:
Everyone wants better sleep. Sleep is fundamental for development and health and can create a drastic difference in our daily activity. The average person will sleep for almost 1/3 of their life, so why are we unable to get it right? There are approximately 60 million people who have ongoing sleep disorders. Among these disorders are insomnia, sleep apnea, and narcolepsy that can be detrimental to the physical, mental, emotional, and financial aspects of a person. While there are several factors that can affect this sleep cycle, ventilation can make a significant difference in improving sleep. Your core body temperature is approximately 98.6 degrees, but during the course of the night it can fluctuate about 2 degrees. While some of this fluctuation is biological, constant external temperature changes can interfere with the body’s thermoregulation patterns. These irregular thermoregulation patterns can create inadequacy in the sleep stages and the time spent in each. This can lead to problems like insomnia and fatigue due to the uncomfortable sleeping conditions.
In order to alleviate these problems, it is best to keep the room temperature at approximately 65 degrees. Infants are more sensitive to temperature changes and have better sleep performance at 69 degrees. Cooler temperatures are not considered to be as harmful to sleep quality, so it is much better to maintain an environment that is on the colder side.
Other possible concerns include stuffiness and humidity of the room. Without proper circulation, pollutants and moisture can build up, causing the air you breathe to have a musty smell that can also feel stale and uncomfortable. This can also lead to air sensitivity issues throughout the night, impacting the overall sleeping conditions.
How to Change Ventilation Patterns in Your Bedroom:
There are several ways in which one can improve bedroom ventilation. Opening doors and windows allows for constant air flow in and out of the room, while also providing fresh air to the space. Ceiling or plug-in fans are also efficient in creating circulation within a space, cooling down the surrounding area while also promoting air movement. Humidifiers can also be a great tool to have within dry climates that create air sensitivity issues. While this helps alleviate the symptoms of poor temperature and circulation control, it is important to make sure that your HVAC system is running smoothly to get to the real problem. If this system is not working to its full potential, it may be time for a repair or replacement. Products like dampers and wall vents can also help promote greater ventilation for your bedroom depending on the application.
Say goodnight to poor sleep. It’s time to start improving your bedroom ventilation today!
