How to Get a Good Night's Sleep
When you enter the bedroom at the end of each day, you should expect an atmosphere that makes it a relaxing place. Here are eight things you can do that will help you sleep, making it easier to wake up refreshed, rejuvenated, and eager for another day.
1. Suitable temperature
Feeling comfortable with the temperature of the air is essential. A cooler room can help lower the body's core temperature, which in turn helps in signaling that it's time to sleep.
2. Flooring and area rugs
As soothing as the carpet from wall to wall can feel underfoot in a bedroom, it makes a perfect hiding place for mites. An alternative is hard flooring with area rugs that can be easier to clean and store.
3. Dust and mite covers
If you have even the slightest sensitivity to dust mites, it can cause all sorts of symptoms that disrupt sleep. Keeping free of dust mites will keep your bedroom more welcoming, and the use of mite covers for pillows and mattresses can make a big difference.
4. Keeping free of odors
Storing dirty laundry in containers instead of an open laundry basket in the bedroom help prevents these offensive odors from permeating the room and spoiling the air quality.
5. Use fragrance-free laundry products for bed linen and towels
It is a good idea to use fragrance-free laundry products for bed linen and towels and fragrance-free cleaning products, especially if a bathroom is connected to the bedroom.
6. Rethink where your pet sleeps
We all love pets. But, if you notice that sleeping with your pet on the bed or even in your room at night causes symptoms such as watery eyes, sneezing, and congestion, it may be time to think again about where your pet sleeps.
If you insist on having a pet in the room, then get a separate pet bed.
7. Choose furniture wisely
Particles in the air will settle on the furniture. Curtains, upholstered furniture, and carpet are perfect places for dust. Surfaces that are easier to clean from dust are wooden floors, vertical blinds, or curtains that can be easily washed periodically and hung up again with little effort. Micro-suede and soft leather are excellent options for furniture that can be wiped and vacuumed.
8. Use a bedroom air purifier
Using a bedroom air purifier is a proactive approach to keeping airborne particles and pollutants to a minimum. An air purifier with with both HEPA and Activated Carbon filtration offers a great solution as do PCO and Ionization technology that may have the additional benefit of being quieter.
Relationship of Sleep Quality and Air Quality
It has been scientifically proven that there is a relationship between the quality of air one breathes and the quality of sleep. Researchers have consequently proven that people living in areas characterized by polluted air are more likely to face sleeping problems than their counterparts who live in neighborhoods whose air is less polluted. The Annals American Thoracic Society claims that polluted air can contribute to loss of quality sleep.
It is, therefore, essential that the air circulation within your bedroom is correctly regulated. Inhaling poor quality air is associated with fatigue, headaches, dizziness, hypersensitivity, and allergies. All these factors contribute to poor quality sleep. Furthermore, breathing in poor quality air can lead to asthmatic attacks and other lung complications. It is highly recommended that you regulate the quality of the air you breathe to achieve a good night's sleep.
Importance of Clean Air
The cellular metabolism in the human body is highly dependent on oxygen. Oxygen serves to nourish every cell in the body and powers metabolic functions such as energy generation, cell division, and better brain activity. As a result of the increased industrial activity resulting from human activities, the air around us may contain solid contaminant particles and liquid droplets in addition to oxygen.
When one breathes in these contaminants, the risk of contracting respiratory problems is increased. More often than not, these respiratory complications lead to delayed sleeping time, i.e., it takes too long to fall asleep whenever you go to bed. Moreover, when you wake up, you tend to feel sluggish and tired.
Sleeping Complications and Illness from Poor Quality Air
The following respiratory complications are results from breathing in lousy quality air and impact sleep quality:
Respiratory infections - Breathing in polluted air can lead one to contract such infections or worsen existing cases. People suffering from respiratory infections are highly affected by living in areas with poor quality air, and as a result, the quality of their sleep is compromised.
Aggravation of asthma - Inhaling contaminated air can obstruct the pulmonary vessels and lead to asthmatic attacks. Pollutants in dirty air could worsen chronic obstructive pulmonary disease cases, where the lungs' airways become narrow. Such complications also affect the quality of sleep and could be fatal when they occur in subconscious states.
Lung Cancer - Breathing in bad air has also been associated with the risk of contracting lung cancer. Some pollutants in the air can permanently affect the cell metabolism leading to abnormal growth in the lungs. Symptoms resulting from a lung cancer infection make it difficult for one to sleep. Such symptoms include sneezing and a hacking cough.
Complications resulting from inhaling poor quality air may also lead to fever and chills, making it difficult for one to fall asleep. People having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease suffer from episodes of hypoxemia during their sleep. Hypoxemia condition leads to a lower-than-normal amount of oxygen in the patient's blood.
A recent study demonstrated that more than 30% of the people who suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease experience disturbances in their sleep, characterized by breathing difficulties. Exposing oneself to air pollutants makes Hypoxemia symptoms worse, escalating a strained sleeping session problem.
Polluted air has contaminants that could lead to allergic reactions. These contaminants are associated with causing allergic infections as well as worsening existing cases. Achieving a good night's sleep will be difficult whenever allergic reaction symptoms are at their worst.
Allergy symptoms include sneezing, itchy eyes and nose, nasal congestion, and runny nose. It would be challenging to sleep well with all these symptoms edging into the quality of your sleep. These symptoms also lead to snoring and frequently waking up during the night.
Exposing yourself to air pollutants also increases the risk of contracting heart disease, primarily affecting the coronary artery. The contaminants in the air accumulate in arteries' walls, making them age faster and contracting heart disease. Inflammation resulting from heart diseases triggers arterial buildups, chest pains, and the patient constantly wakes up during the night. These heart complications also lead to compromised breathing rates and heart palpitations, leading to poor quality sleep.
Ways to Improve Air Quality and a Good Night's Sleep
There are various ways of improving air quality. It would be pretty evident that smoking cigarettes affects the quality of your air. Although quitting may be difficult, cutting down the number of cigarettes you smoke every day may be the best thing you do to improve the quality of the air you breathe!
To enhance the overall quality of indoor air in your home, you could use an air purifier. These devices contain filters that trap soot, dust, and other particles that are likely to aggravate allergic reactions. Using air purifiers is associated with 99+% elimination of allergens, viruses, dust particles, and bacteria.
Conclusion
There is a strong relationship between the quality of air that one breathes and the quality of sleep that one gets. Polluted air has contaminants that lead to allergic infections and other lung complications, which lead to the degradation of the quality of sleep. Symptoms from complications caused by pollutants in the air make sleeping difficult.
One can apply various techniques to improve air quality, such as quitting smoking and eliminating contaminants using air using purifiers. The better the quality of the air used, the better the quality of sleep achieved.
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