Effects of bedroom environment on sleep quality and adaptive behaviour in a transitional season

The last decade has seen a renewed interest into sleep environments and their impact on our sleep quality. Improvements in technology have enabled researchers to collect more sleep data in field studies, which are thought to be more representative of realistic sleep conditions. While there has been some progress surrounding the influence of sleep environments on sleep quality, most studies have concentrated on conditions during summer or winter. How people adapt to changes in their sleep environments through a transitional season has yet to be explored. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the dynamics of a transitional season influences sleep environments and sleep quality in a real-life scenario. This study conducted a field survey investigation with 30 participants in Sydney, Australia from late summer (February) to early winter (May) in 2021, to cover the transitional season of autumn. Sleep quality and sleep environments were evaluated using questionnaire surveys and field measurements throughout the study period. The statistical analysis showed that the indoor climate in a transition season was moderate compared to summer or winter, but still impacted sleep quality and adaptive behaviours. Environmental control behaviours, especially opening windows, was shown to decrease significantly during the transition from warm to cool indoor temperatures, which led to the deterioration of indoor air quality and further affected sleep quality. Maintaining cooler thermal conditions overall tended to improve participants’ subjective sleep quality in terms of ease of falling asleep and awakening, whist slightly decreasing their objective sleep quality. Overall, participants surveyed in this study were satisfied with the thermal, air quality, and acoustical aspects of their bedroom environment during the transitional season of autumn, even when objective measurements of noise and air quality exceeded recommended levels for optimal sleep