Effects of Changing Air Temperature at Different Sleep Stages on the Subjective Evaluation of Sleep Quality

Jack Ngarambe, Geun Young Yun, Kisup Lee and Yeona Hwang
Additional contact information
Jack Ngarambe: Department of Architectural Engineer, Kyung Hee University, Yongin 17104, Korea
Geun Young Yun: Department of Architectural Engineer, Kyung Hee University, Yongin 17104, Korea
Kisup Lee: Air Purification Research Center, Digital Appliances Business, Samsung Electronics, Suwon 16671, Korea
Yeona Hwang: Air Purification Research Center, Digital Appliances Business, Samsung Electronics, Suwon 16671, Korea

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: The thermal environment in bedrooms is important for high-quality sleep. Studies confirm that, even during sleep, the human body remains sensitive to the ambient air temperature. This study assesses how changing indoor air temperatures at different sleep stages affects the subjective evaluation of sleep quality. We compare reports from two identical sleeping environments with different thermal control systems: an IoT-based control system that adjusts the indoor air temperature according to the sleep stage and a fixed control system that maintains a constant temperature throughout the night. Ten subjects participated in the experiments and completed a questionnaire about their sleep quality. Our results show that, overall, the subjects experienced better sleep in the room with the IoT-based control system than in the one with a fixed thermal control. The mean differences in sleep satisfaction levels between the two sleeping environments were generally statistically significant in favor of the room with the IoT-based thermal control. Our results thus illustrate the suitability of using the IoT to control the air conditioning in bedrooms to provide improved sleep quality.

Keywords: indoor environment; sleep quality; thermal environment; energy evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/5/1417/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/5/1417/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:5:p:1417-:d:211812

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().