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On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality

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

#251
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're on track to reach 1000ppm by the end of the century, if levels continue to rise at their present (accelerating) rate. This is about the threshold where cognitive effects become reliably detectable. However, such levels also bring climate change on such an apocalyptic scale (4.5+ degree temperature rise) that industrial activity could well wind down as society collapses.

> We're on track to reach 1000ppm by the end of the century Probably won't be in my lifetime. Not my problem.

Why was it so important to you to say something so perversely selfish that you felt compelled to make a throwaway account to do so?

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

#252
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…

I've certainly worked in poorly ventilated offices, and my bedroom is even worse. But I don't think I've ever gotten dizzy in an office. Is this something that affect different people at different rates?

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

#253

In modern houses the solution to this is a “whole house air exchanger” which acts to cycle on low power the airflow in/out of house. You can also get these for single rooms and equipped with a heat recovery component.

I was under the impression that heat recovery ventilators weren't worth their cost. They're a lot more expensive to buy, and a hell of a lot more expensive to install (complicated ducting etc). Has that changed in recent years?

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

#254
post #122

With every similar news I feel dumb. Because my parents and my grandparents used to say same things. It was easy to dismiss all the advice as grumbling, but I really should refresh air before sleeping, humidify air in heating season, eat more vegetables... etc. etc.

The problem is that parental figures previously based such general information on gut feelings, personal anecdotes and old wives tales. A lot of what parents say can be correct, but when there is a lack of information to fill the gaps to a childs understandable inquisitiveness it's filled with ignorance or scorn by the parents that are going through the motions who have no answer. It's an interesting dynamic with the resources available for information to the general public that it will be the children that can quash misconceptions perpetuated by parents. We all, including future generations, will become better parents for it.

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

#255

In Japan, the building code requires every room to have an air vent [1]. Initially I was skeptical of them and was looking to close them to save on heating costs in the winter. But after doing a little research, I decided they are probably best left open to reduce condensation and mold growth. Now I'm curious how effective they are at keeping down CO2 levels at night. I would like to try this experiment in my house.…

There are regulations[1] in the UK too.

We've had new UPVC windows installed over the past few years and they've all got hidden 'trickle' vents.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ventilation-appro...

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

#256
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…

As someone who has built my fair share of houses and worked on many more over the last 25 years, I have to agree that our ability to seal air better than ever is causing problems, especially if you don't have forced air heating and cooling running all the time. People just completely ignore or haven't ever thought about room ventilation, positive or negative room pressures, and where and how to ventilate to the outsi…

This is a bit of a side quest comment.

South Africans are (at least historically) quite different in this respect. Everyone is cold in the winter due to complete disregard for insulation (at least, when compared to Europe). People also don't get layering. The comments about construction do hold mostly. In the warmer areas of the country usually you are cold in the winters for only a couple hours per day.

When we go overseas we tend to open all the windows. Maybe this is because we are not used to long winters.

My grandparents were experts at opening select windows in their houses to create drafts in the pre-aircon age.

There is a meme: "If a guy invites you to a braai at his home at 3am, it really is a braai."

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

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Don't know if above is getting downvoted by the the rightists or by the leftists here, what is fun. But probably getting d.v. because of being too caustic, too snarky and too ironic, what is not fun and I confess I deserve. And, most important off all, I am getting downvoted for being Not polite to xeromal, and I apologise to xeromal for this. My comment sounded like he was being discriminative or something like that…

Hi, I didn't downvote you, but hopefully I can shed some light on why other's did.

This is a conversation about the levels of CO2 and how it effects a person, especially their sleep. In this part of the conversation people have started to talk about how the temperature also effects your sleep. This was a natural progression, as less CO2 needs more ventilation, and brings with it colder temperatures.

You then started talking about two groups of indigenous people in different climates. Brilliant, I'm interested in how these two groups of people sleep! You however did not talk about these people's sleeping habits (as would have been another natural progression for the conversation) but instead go completely off the topic of conversation and talk about a bunch of unrelated topics, with very tenuous links between them.

Your comment did not add to the conversation, at all. Neither has mine of course, but I hope it goes some way to explaining the unpopularity what you said.

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

#258
post #122

With every similar news I feel dumb. Because my parents and my grandparents used to say same things. It was easy to dismiss all the advice as grumbling, but I really should refresh air before sleeping, humidify air in heating season, eat more vegetables... etc. etc.

The problem is that parental figures previously based such general information on gut feelings, personal anecdotes and old wives tales. A lot of what parents say can be correct, but when there is a lack of information to fill the gaps to a childs understandable inquisitiveness it's filled with ignorance or scorn by the parents that are going through the motions who have no answer. It's an interesting dynamic with the…

I agree, but at the same time I feel that we are losing some of this common folk knowledge. It is strange, because we are in this information age, however it's full of noise. I'm not saying that it's bad to know how things are extensively with scientific rigor. It's good, but we are sometimes throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

My parents had limited vocabulary, but in a way they meant the same thing. Stale air (a hopefully faithful translation from my language) can have many meanings, but in context it means air with high CO2 concentration. I'm wondering how much of this is also the disconnect caused by fast technological progress and evolving language with it.

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

#259
post #122

With every similar news I feel dumb. Because my parents and my grandparents used to say same things. It was easy to dismiss all the advice as grumbling, but I really should refresh air before sleeping, humidify air in heating season, eat more vegetables... etc. etc.

The problem is that parental figures previously based such general information on gut feelings, personal anecdotes and old wives tales. A lot of what parents say can be correct, but when there is a lack of information to fill the gaps to a childs understandable inquisitiveness it's filled with ignorance or scorn by the parents that are going through the motions who have no answer. It's an interesting dynamic with the…

I thought the same. Rearing a newborn recently, I find that much of the parental/pre-parental advice works well. However, I just now realized, they probably actually understood the problems. But since only the advised actions stuck in my mind, without the problem analysis, I came to think they would act on gut feelings. I think this is sort of a child/grandchild bias.

This leaves aside parental scorn/ignorance as you describe it. Sounds like stressed-out parents, if I may say so. However, I don't know how future generations will get better at it, only that you may get better at it.

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

#260
post #122

With every similar news I feel dumb. Because my parents and my grandparents used to say same things. It was easy to dismiss all the advice as grumbling, but I really should refresh air before sleeping, humidify air in heating season, eat more vegetables... etc. etc.

Not all of it was correct. My parents' generation "learned" to avoid eating fats to not become overweight. My grandmother knew that you shouldn't eat fresh bread before it cooled down (unhealthy or so).

We researched the latter recently and found out, that this idea was spread after the war so that the children would not eat too much of the freshly baken bread, because it tasted better. No health implications at all.

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