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6 Ways To Improve Your Bedroom's Air Quality (When It's Too Hot To Open Windows)

Author:

Emma Loewe

August 16, 2024

By Emma Loewe

mbg Contributor

Emma Loewe is the former Sustainability and Health Director at mindbodygreen. She is the author of "Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us" and the co-author of "The Spirit Almanac: A Modern Guide To Ancient Self Care." Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,500 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes.

Image by Ivan Ozerov / Contributor

August 16, 2024

The average person dedicates about one-third of their time 1 to sleeping (or attempting to sleep), meaning we spend an outsized portion of our lives in bedrooms.

Unfortunately, pesky pollutants in bedroom air can exacerbate existing respiratory issues, impact breathing during the night, and reduce sleep quality 2—making it important to stay on top of them.

Depending on where you live, letting the outside in is the best way to clear the air in the bedroom, but record-hot temps are forcing windows around the world to stay locked shut this summer. Read on for tips on how to keep your sleep space clean while staying cool for the rest of the season.

Dust under the bed weekly

When we asked environmental toxicologist Ryan Blaser about the dirtiest spot in most of the homes he inspects, he said, without hesitation: the area under the bed.

Any spot that we spend hours on top of and, let's be honest, hardly ever clean, is bound to be a hotbed for dead skin cells, fiber particles, mites, and mold spores. If there's one place to make sure to add to your cleaning routine, it's this one.

Blaser recommends vacuuming under your bed once a week, especially if you have carpets, or you can also do a "damp dusting" by running a cloth lightly spritzed with a natural cleaner around the area. This is all the more reason to clear your under-bed space of clutter. Investing in storage containers that are easy to slide in and out can also make this process way less of a headache.

Replace your mattress as needed

If you've had your current mattress for more than half a decade, it's time to start thinking about your next upgrade. The average mattress lasts five-10 years; you don't want to hold on to them for much more than that because they accumulate dead skin cells that attract dust mites—air-quality menaces that can cause allergic reactions 3 and disrupt sleep quality 4.

In the market for a recommendation? Here are a few of our favorite new mattresses to choose from made from organic, nontoxic, and hypoallergenic materials:

The 8 Best Mattresses for Allergies + What Materials To Avoid

Your Guide to Buying a Nontoxic Mattress: Best Materials, Labels + Brands

6 Best Organic (& Nontoxic) Mattresses That We Tested in 2024

Use mattress and pillow covers

While you've got mattresses on your mind, it's worth considering how protected yours is from the sweat and sloughed skin you leave behind every night. Beds with mattress protectors have been shown to have roughly half as many dust mites 5 as ones that don't have one, and they're especially useful for those with foam mattresses (which tend to collect more mites than spring mattresses and hybrids).

Placing covers on pillows can also help prevent mold growth—which a remediation expert says is surprisingly common in pillows, especially if you sleep with wet hair.

Image by Marija Savic / Stocksy

Clean soft surfaces often

Soft fibers can trap contaminants and moisture, so they're important to wash (and dry!) often for the sake of air quality too. Functional medicine doctor Ann Shippy, M.D., recommends tackling pillows, sheets, carpets, etc., at least once a week. Wash bedding in hot water and dry completely before remaking the bed.

While the laundry is in, run over any carpeting and upholstered surfaces using a vacuum with a HEPA filter. Getting an attachment specifically for your mattress will also help keep your sleeping environment clean and in good shape for longer.

Be selective about scented candles

While we at mindbodygreen love smell-good candles, even the nontoxic ones can be a source of potentially harmful VOCs like formaldehyde. Over time, they can cause an itchy throat, watery eyes, or headache.

To be on the safe side, don't keep scented candles lit for over four hours, and avoid using them right before bed. When you do light them, run your air purifier afterward to get back to a healthy baseline. Or, if you don't have a purifier, place the candle next to the window and open it just a crack to get some airflow.

Monitor and purify your air

If you're going to put an air-quality monitor and purifier in one room of the home, the bedroom is a top contender. Investing in a monitor can help alert you when different types of pollutants like particulate matter and VOCs are in the danger zone. On high-pollution days, purifiers with a HEPA filter can remove these microscopic particles, leaving your sleep space ready for a night of clean air that's just as good if not better than the air outside.

The takeaway

You can avoid alcohol before bed, stay off screens at night, and follow all the sleep hacks in the world, but if your bedroom's air quality is poor, your sleep will suffer. Follow these tips to get your sleep space working with you, not against you, so you can breathe easy all year long.