You are probably right if you believe that opening your windows helps you sleep better.
You may wake up feeling more energized and refreshed if you sleep with your windows open as opposed to closing them.
What exactly about the outside air seems to help us sleep more soundly and make us feel more refreshed in the morning, but how?
There are a few major advantages to sleeping with your windows open, which can explain why doing so can lead to a better night’s sleep. I’ll talk about these advantages in this article.
Of course, there are some situations in which it’s best to keep your windows closed at night, and those will be covered shortly.
Reasons Why Sleeping With Window Open Is Good For Health
Preventing CO2 Buildup
Even though you can’t see it, CO2 buildup is quite probable if you sleep in a room with closed windows and doors.
Simply put, when we exhale, the oxygen in our bodies changes to CO2. The CO2 that our bodies naturally produce, however, has a tendency to accumulate in our room at night while we sleep due to closed doors and windows and inadequate ventilation.
However, exposure to high levels of CO2 can be very harmful to your health, especially if you do so continuously throughout the night. It is well known that experiencing headaches, nausea, and vertigo while sleeping in a room with high CO2 levels can be harmful. The full impact is only apparent when you first awaken in the morning.
However, one of the simplest ways to stop this CO2 buildup in your bedroom while you sleep is to simply leave the windows open. Open windows allow CO2 to escape from your room rather than just accumulating inside.
Refreshing Breeze And Cool Temperatures
The wonderful evening breeze is one of the benefits of sleeping with your windows open.
Nothing compares to falling asleep in a cool and comfortable environment. Fresh air has a calming effect, but it’s not all in your head. The ability to relax and fall asleep more easily, according to some scientists, may be related to breathing in the cool, fresh air.
Natalie Dautovich, Ph.D., is an environmental expert with the National Sleep Foundation. told The Huffington Post that “Fresh air can have a cooling effect and we know that a cool bedroom environment is a key to getting a good night’s sleep”. According to Dautovich, breathing in fresh air and unwinding go hand in hand. Put another way, we are more likely to feel sleepy when we are comfortable.
Keeping your window open is a great idea for better sleep, provided that the air outside is cooler than that inside your room at night.
Gentle White Noise Of The Outside World
The sound of the crickets chirping or the light rain outside is the perfect background noise for sleeping.
Some people swear that the relaxing background noise of nature makes them fall asleep more quickly, even though it isn’t well-established that white noise like this can actually improve their sleep. Naturally, the only way to truly hear the wonderful sounds of the wilderness is to keep your windows open.
Not all places are peaceful 24 hours a day, but in a quiet suburban or rural area, the sound of nature can quickly put you to sleep through open windows.
Keeping Humidity Levels Low
Nobody wants to sleep in a stuffy room.
High humidity levels in the air make bedrooms feel warm and clammy, which makes sleeping there very uncomfortable.
There are several ways that this humidity can accumulate in your house. Without adequate ventilation, the humidity level in your home can easily rise above the outside level of humidity from cooking to showering.
To lessen the amount of moisture in the air, however, if the humidity level in your home is higher than it is outside, you can either get a dehumidifier or—you guessed it—open a window.
By allowing the humid air from inside to escape and allowing the dryer air from the outside to seep back inside, open windows help to reduce the relative humidity in your home.
Fixing Your Sleep Schedule
To restore your natural sleep cycle, it’s a good idea to leave your windows open and remove any window treatments.
Everybody, so to speak, has an internal body clock that controls when they feel awake and sleepy throughout the day. Your circadian rhythm is the name of this internal system.
Darkness and light have a significant impact on your circadian rhythm. Natural circadian rhythm for humans would entail rising early in the morning with the sun and going to bed not long after the sun sets. It can leave you feeling anywhere from completely exhausted and depressed to completely disoriented if you try to disrupt your circadian rhythm by trying to sleep during the day and be awake during the night6.
Conversely, keeping your window open is a great way to do this if you need to reset your internal clock to its natural settings. You can wake up earlier in the morning if you keep your window open because it lets light into your room at the crack of dawn. You can reset your biological clock to its proper setting by training yourself to get out of bed with the sunrise and go to bed at a reasonable hour.
What Happens To Your Body When You Sleep With Window Open
Sleeping with a window open can have significant health advantages, but depending on the weather, it can also make for a very uncomfortable sleeping environment if you’re not careful. There are advantages and disadvantages to leaving windows open at night, depending on the sounds outside, the temperature, and the weather.
Opening your windows increases airflow in your room, which not only can change the temperature of your sleep space, it can potentially improve the ventilation and decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, leading to a healthier night of sleep. Even better sleep quality was reported by participants in a 2017 study who slept with windows open (source: Healthline).
When You Shouldn’t You Keep Window Open
High Crime Areas
Naturally, leaving your windows open at night may not be the best choice if you reside in a neighborhood where crime is rife.
In a neighborhood with a high crime rate, keeping your windows open increases the likelihood that someone will try to enter your home through an unlocked window.
Naturally, if you sleep on the ground floor, this scenario is more likely to occur. Open windows at night may not be the best idea, even if you are higher up. After all, if your windows are open, the police sirens that frequently resound through these neighborhoods may keep you awake.
You Are Particularly Allergic To Pollen
Opening the windows at night might be the last thing you want to do if you have extremely bad allergies and it’s spring.
If you have a sensitivity to pollen, it can easily waft into your room, and if you wake up feeling itchy and uncomfortable, this can happen.
There are filters you can use, though, to keep the pollen at bay if you must leave your windows open at night. The drawback is that you might not get as much airflow from your windows as you would if the filter weren’t in the way.
Pollutants In The Area
If you need access to clean, outside air, living in an area with a lot of industry is not ideal.
It is well known that inhaling highly polluted air from the outside is bad for your health. You won’t be doing yourself any favors, of course, by leaving your bedroom windows open.
Running an air purifier in your bedroom as frequently as possible is one thing you can do to treat this air. Although it won’t entirely solve the issue, this will at least improve the quality of the air. You might, however, be better off keeping your windows closed depending on how polluted the air is where you are.
Climate Or Time Of Year
Of course, leaving the window open all night might not be the best idea depending on where you are and the time of year.
One tip is to keep your windows closed at night and turn up the A/C if you live in a particularly humid area. If not, you might become a swampy, sweaty mess when you wake up.
On the other hand, keeping your windows open will obviously make your room too cold to sleep in if it is the dead of winter and it is 10 degrees outside. Keep the windows closed in this climate to avoid paying twice as much as you should heat your home.
Noisy Areas
It can be very relaxing to drift off to sleep in a quiet rural town while hearing crickets.
Keeping your windows open might not be the best idea if you live in a city where the outside noise is a little less soothing. After all, no one enjoys hearing arguments and car horns honking at three in the morning.
Keeping your windows closed may be the best course of action if, however, you reside in an urban area where people are frequently seen passing by your home.
Final Words
In the end, as long as you don’t have a compelling reason (pollution, noise, etc.) to close your window, you should leave it open.) it is probably to your benefit to keep your windows open at night.
Getting fresh air is frequently better for your health in addition to helping you sleep better. This is especially true if your bedroom already has poor ventilation. Spending eight hours a day in a cramped bedroom with no ventilation can be quite harmful, despite the fact that you might not be aware of it.