The influence of the indoor environment on sleep quality

A good sleep is essential for human well-being and for a good performance at work or in school. The physical environment, especially the thermal conditions and the indoor air quality, is important for a good sleep. Wake people are influenced by these two parameters in many different ways, so one may suggest that sleeping people are susceptible for disturbances due to a bad physical environment as well. An extensive literature search identified 24 scientific studies in this field, only six of those deal with indoor air quality. Room temperature above thermoneutrality seems to influence sleep quality in the sense that slow-wave sleep, REM-sleep and total sleep time are reduced. The studies about indoor air quality showed no trends to influence sleep quality. As these studies form a rather thin basis for definite correlations much more research is required especially in the field of indoor air quality.