How do we create a healthier thermal environment for sleep? A review of sleep thermal comfort and sleep quality

What the study found

Thermal needs vary between and within people; pre-sleep adjustment alone may not meet overnight sleep and comfort needs.

Limitations

Models still require validation across ages, climates and real dwellings.

Neurodesign interpretation

Sleep turns thermal comfort into a time-series problem. Static design targets miss the changing physiology of an eight-hour exposure.

Possible design implications

Use adaptive or personalized night-time control rather than fixed room setpoints.

Why it stays in the corpus

Retain as the current sleep-thermal synthesis.

Study design

Systematic review

Population

Humans across two decades of research

Setting

Bedrooms and sleep laboratories

Field

Sleep environment

Mechanism

Dynamic thermal needs, airflow, bedding microclimate

Spatial variable

Temperature, humidity, airflow, bedding

Keywords

sleep, airflow, humidity, temperature, personal control