When you have a good night’s sleep you wake up feeling relaxed, refreshed and ready to start the day. All kinds of factors can affect your sleep, but creating a good, comfortable environment is extremely important to ensure its quality. Sleeping with an air conditioner or air purifier can help by creating just the right conditions for a good night’s rest.
The benefits of a good night’s sleep
How well you sleep at night can have a noticeable effect on how you function during the day. For most adults it is recommended to have around 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep to achieve the greatest benefit to both your physical health and mental wellbeing.
On a day-to-day level, getting consistent good sleep means your muscles relax and your body rests so your physical energy levels are improved when you wake up. In the same way, plenty of sleep at night means your brain can take a break to process and organise all the information it must deal with, so that when you wake you feel clearer and are more able to concentrate on what the day ahead.
Over the longer term, getting good sleep can have many health benefits. It can keep your immune system strong, helping you ward off infections and illness. While you sleep, your heart rate and blood pressure go down which can reduce your risk of developing conditions such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and diabetes. As your body relaxes, stress levels decline, boosting your mood and helping improve your mental health and wellbeing. Research has even shown that being well rested means you are less hungry, so getting enough sleep can help you maintain a healthy weight.
How the air can affect your sleep
Your sleeping environment goes a long way in determining how well you sleep and it’s a fact that air quality and sleep go hand in hand.
Allergens and Irritants
Respiratory irritants are everywhere. These miniscule particles can come from dust, pollen, mould, dust mites, pets, household chemicals and outside pollutants. Indoor air can actually be between 2 and 5 times more polluted that outdoor air as it is not so freely circulated.
These irritants can become even more of an issue at bedtime as they settle unseen on your bed during the day and get stirred up as you sleep. Some people are especially susceptible to certain allergens and are fully aware of how their symptoms can often become worse at night, but even those who don’t have allergies can have reduced quality of sleep because of these particles.
Washing your bedding and deep cleaning your bedroom frequently are some simple steps you can take to help reduce allergens and irritants.
Temperature
Research has shown that as our body prepares for sleep, there is a drop in core body temperature. In order to achieve a good night’s sleep, experts say the best temperature for your room is between 15 and 20°C.
Warmer air temperatures tend to cause more sleep disruption and getting too hot during the night can affect the quality of your sleep or cause you to wake up. Colder air doesn’t tend to affect sleep in the same way, provided you use sufficient warm bedding to keep your core temperature constant.
To help maintain your body temperature at night, in hot weather you can have a cool shower before bed, use only a thin sheet as a cover and keep a drink of iced water by your bed to cool you down. In cold climates, adding more blankets or a heavier duvet can help keep you warm.
Humidity
The ideal humidity range is between 40 and 60%. Increased humidity is often connected to higher temperatures as hot air can hold more moisture than cold air. However, whether humidity is too high or too low, either can make you more susceptible to infections.
High humidity can affect your sleep cycle by increasing your wakefulness and reducing the amount of time you are in deep sleep. High humidity is also associated with higher concentrations of allergens and can trigger the growth of mould and dust mites, which in themselves can have an impact on your sleep. To help reduce humidity you can increase ventilation in the room or use a desiccant that absorbs moisture from the air.
The lower humidity of colder air in winter has the potential to dry out your skin, cause nose, throat and eye dryness which can resulting in irritation and sleep disruption. Placing an open container of water near the heater in your room can help add moisture into the air and increase the humidity level.
Ventilation
Ventilation is extremely crucial for maintaining good air quality in your bedroom. A lack of ventilation means there is no air movement so allergens and irritants are more likely to build up, any humidity cannot be dispelled, and the room can become too warm.
The other significant factor where poor ventilation is concerned, is the accumulation of carbon dioxide. If your doors and windows are closed you can expect the carbon dioxide you breathe out while you sleep to increase levels in the room by up to 4 or 5 times. This can greatly decrease the quality of your sleep and make it harder to get back to sleep if you wake up. An easy way to improve ventilation is to use a fan and open the door or window of your room, even if it is internal the increased ventilation will help.
How can air purifiers and air conditioners help you sleep
While there are some simple things you can do to help make your environment better, for long-term improvement in the air quality of your bedroom it is best to consider using an air purifier or an air conditioner for sleep.
Air Purifiers and sleep
Air purifiers improve sleep by removing irritants and circulating the air in your room. They reduce dust and other particles that float in the air by capturing them and filtering them through HEPA filters and a deodorising filter absorbs unpleasant smells. Daikin air purifiers use Streamer technology that can breakdown and inactivate many pollutants including allergens, mould spores, bacteria, viruses and hazardous chemical substances.
Air purifiers can also have a built-in humidifier which maintains a comfortable level of humidity in the room preventing the air from getting dry.
Read more about Daikin air purifiers here.
Air Conditioners and sleep
An air conditioner can address all aspects of air quality helping to improve your environment for a good night’s sleep.
Sleeping with an air conditioner running at night will maintain a consistent, comfortable room temperature so your body will remain at the optimum core temperature for quality sleep. As the air conditioner cools the air, it also pulls out excessive humidity, maintaining a comfortable level of moisture.
At the same time, the air conditioner also filters out dust particles, allergens and pollutants keeping the air you breath while you sleep clean and healthy.
Daikin has a variety of air conditioners to suit your home and your needs. Explore the range here.