Open a window for better sleep? Study explores
Photo: Meeko Media/iStockphoto
Lyngby, Denmark — Better work performance could be tied to the air quality in your bedroom while you sleep, a team of Danish researchers has concluded.
The researchers conducted a field intervention of 40 bedrooms in Denmark over a two-week period and tracked participants’ sleep quality via a wearable monitoring device. The participants also kept an electronic log of their daily activities and sleep. Each morning, they underwent a three-minute cognitive-abilities test.
With windows open, 87% of the participants said they experienced deep sleep, compared with 70% of those who slept with their windows closed. The next morning, participants who slept with an open window also performed better on the cognitive test.
“This suggests that bedrooms should be ventilated with clean outdoor air or supplied with air equivalent to clean outdoor air during the night,” said lead study author Xiaojun Fan, a doctoral student at Technical University of Denmark.
The study was published online in the journal Building and Environment.
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