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On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

gwern.net

161–170 of 322 posts

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#161
post #39

Went looking for devices for the bedroom, but ran into an article about plants that might help in that setting: https://thewgnews.com/planting-hope-air-cleaning-house-plant...

Most plants actually use oxygen at night and will increase the level of CO2 while you sleep. The exceptions will be plants that use the CAM pathway [0] - succulents mostly.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crassulacean_acid_metabolism

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#162
post #29

I was lucky to get my hands on 5 proper co2 sensors from university, while I was teaching and working. So plenty of test places. What I found: -Just a couple of hours in a office, without ventilation spikes the co2 enough to make everyone dizzy and tired by the end of the day. Keeping eye on the meter and ventilating properly, increased everyones productivity and people werent so tired by the end of the day. - Classr…

My previous employer had excellent air quality and I often stated this to others as one of the things I liked about working there. A lot of people look at you kind of funny if you say that but it really was remarkable, and I really felt a difference when working in that building compared to when I went to school and a lot of other places where you stay inside for a prolonged time. I felt much less tired there than most other places!

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#163
post #34
post #29

I was lucky to get my hands on 5 proper co2 sensors from university, while I was teaching and working. So plenty of test places. What I found: -Just a couple of hours in a office, without ventilation spikes the co2 enough to make everyone dizzy and tired by the end of the day. Keeping eye on the meter and ventilating properly, increased everyones productivity and people werent so tired by the end of the day. - Classr…

Curious if you have a link to what sensors you had? Think this is cool and i've been on/off looking for co2/o2 sensors greater than recreational precision

For a couple hundred bucks you can get a highly accurate CO2 sensor that reads out via a USB-serial connection: https://www.co2meter.com/products/k-30-co2-sensor-module

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#164

Scott Alexander (slatestarcodex) provided a meta-study and also described how reducing CO2 in his cottage reduced headaches, fatigue, and poor sleep: https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/08/23/carbon-dioxide-an-open... After reading this, I got a Netatmo CO2 monitor like Scott and Gwern. I found that CO2 peaked in my bedroom at around 1500 PPM at 6 AM with the door closed and that I could keep it under 500 PPM with the do…

How big should these 10 succulents be?

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colder temperatures also generally help people sleep.

I'm pretty sure I read 68F is the ideal sleeping temp

That depends if are an an Ianomami[1] born in Brazil or an Inuit[2] born in Denmark.

1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanomami

2- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit

: There is a risk, not for the Ianomami that are somewhat numerous, but that some other in Brazil are going to Extinction soon, after the last elections in that country. Only if they could move to Denmark...Or Northern Canada, where there are Inuits too. But North Canada recently is so full of political "moon landing" deniers that they probably would not be very welcome there. But Greenland is far enough from "civilezed" people. But they will have to learn how to hunt monkeys and collect mango fruits in the north-pole.

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#166
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder at what point will people have active systems to lower their CO2 below ambient in their homes.

You mean plants?

You need an enormous, full sun greenhouse just for one person’s CO2:

“An active person exhales about 1 kg of CO2 per day. So, you would need 1000 square meters of grass to absorb one person's CO2. That's a square about 32 meters on a side, or in archaic units, a quarter acre. A one-square-kilometer park could support 1000 people, just with the grass.“

(Or: Need about 16 trees per person.)

http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=20

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#167
post #29

I was lucky to get my hands on 5 proper co2 sensors from university, while I was teaching and working. So plenty of test places. What I found: -Just a couple of hours in a office, without ventilation spikes the co2 enough to make everyone dizzy and tired by the end of the day. Keeping eye on the meter and ventilating properly, increased everyones productivity and people werent so tired by the end of the day. - Classr…

Are atmospheric CO2 levels rising to an extent that currently projected levels would have a noticeable effect in the same way?

Indoor air co2 only lowers due to outdoor filtration. So, higher outdoor co2 will make us reach higher indoor levels faster. A change of outdoor air to 500 from 400 ppm, for example, means there's 16% less difference with indoor air at 1000 ppm.

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#168
post #29

I was lucky to get my hands on 5 proper co2 sensors from university, while I was teaching and working. So plenty of test places. What I found: -Just a couple of hours in a office, without ventilation spikes the co2 enough to make everyone dizzy and tired by the end of the day. Keeping eye on the meter and ventilating properly, increased everyones productivity and people werent so tired by the end of the day. - Classr…

My friend studied Interior Architectural Design, one of his professors there started one lecture a year by getting the CO2 sensors, placing them around the lecture hall, showing the readings at the start of the lecture, closing the doors and then after the hour long lecture showing the readings. During the lecture he mentioned the figures for CO2 concentration that led to symptoms, e.g. dizziness, sleepiness etc. The…

Maybe this is why I would feel sleepy during lectures. I always thought it was because I was mismanaging my sleep or the teacher was boring (it was probably a combination of the three).

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#169
post #29

I was lucky to get my hands on 5 proper co2 sensors from university, while I was teaching and working. So plenty of test places. What I found: -Just a couple of hours in a office, without ventilation spikes the co2 enough to make everyone dizzy and tired by the end of the day. Keeping eye on the meter and ventilating properly, increased everyones productivity and people werent so tired by the end of the day. - Classr…

This is wildly conjectural, but assuming the "CO2 is causing widespread cognitive problems" hypothesis is true, I wonder if there are whole colleges whose student bodies are getting slightly worse grades because of this. There are a couple of small colleges in my area that are regionally famous for their stuffy buildings.

Re: On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

#170
post #29

I was lucky to get my hands on 5 proper co2 sensors from university, while I was teaching and working. So plenty of test places. What I found: -Just a couple of hours in a office, without ventilation spikes the co2 enough to make everyone dizzy and tired by the end of the day. Keeping eye on the meter and ventilating properly, increased everyones productivity and people werent so tired by the end of the day. - Classr…

My friend studied Interior Architectural Design, one of his professors there started one lecture a year by getting the CO2 sensors, placing them around the lecture hall, showing the readings at the start of the lecture, closing the doors and then after the hour long lecture showing the readings. During the lecture he mentioned the figures for CO2 concentration that led to symptoms, e.g. dizziness, sleepiness etc. The…

This now makes me wonder if there is another dimension to the “people who get in early or stay late are more productive than those who work traditional hours.”

I’ve attributed this to “fewer people, fewer distractions.” However, with a CO2 component... hmm.

Well, there is another project idea. Arduino with a CO2 sensor and plotting a running total. Or not displaying and instead have a “I feel productive” dial that would allow for correlation to the recorded data.

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