According to one study, air pollution, heat, and high levels of carbon dioxide, and ambient noise can all adversely affect our ability to get a good night’s sleep. The research, published in the journal Sleep Health, is among the first to measure a number of environmental variables in the bedroom and analyze their relationship with sleep efficiency – the time it takes to fall asleep relative to the time available for sleep.
Researchers found that in a group of 62 participants tracked for two weeks with activity monitors and sleep logs, higher bedroom levels of air pollution (particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size, or PM 2.5), carbon dioxide, noise And the temperature. All have been independently associated with reduced sleep efficiency. “These findings highlight the importance of the bedroom environment for high-quality sleep,” said study lead author Mathias Bessner, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the US.
Researchers said that in addition to work and family obligations that compete with sleep for time, rapidly changing environments due to increasing urbanization and climate change make it harder to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep that is of insufficient duration, or frequent disruptions leads to insufficient efficiency, affecting work productivity and quality of life. It is also associated with a higher risk of chronic diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression and dementia, he said.
The team, including researchers from the University of Louisville, US, recruited participants from the National Institutes of Health Green Heart Project, which examines the effects of planting 8,000 mature trees on the heart health of Louisville residents. For each environmental variable measured, the researchers compared sleep efficiency in the highest 20 percent of levels versus the lowest 20 percent of levels during exposure. They found that high noise was associated with a 4.7 percent drop in sleep efficiency, a 4 percent decrease in high carbon dioxide, a 3.4 percent drop in high temperature, and a 3.2 percent decrease in high PM2.5.
According to the researchers, two other sleep environment variables, relative humidity and barometric pressure, did not have any significant association with sleep efficiency among the participants. “It appears that we are subjectively attuned to our bedroom environment, and feel no need to improve it, when in fact our sleep may be disturbed night after night,” Basner said. , as evidenced by the objective measures of sleep used in our study.”