Ten questions concerning thermal environment and sleep quality

People spend about one third of their lives sleeping. Sleep is essential for the recovery of the body from both physical and psychological fatigue suffered throughout the day, the refreshment of mind, and the restoration of energy for maintenance of bodily functions. Current thermal comfort theories and standards are mainly concerned with people in waking state. However, many problems regarding thermal environment are found within a few field surveys in bedrooms, pushing out the need to investigate thermal environment and thermal comfort for sleeping people. In this paper, the questions concerning the measurement and evaluation of human sleep quality, the correlation between thermal regulation system and sleep regulation, and the characteristics of night-time space cooling load etc. are answered. The evidences illustrating the effects of thermal parameters on human sleep quality are also provided, in an attempt to shed light on the thermal comfort requirements of sleeping people. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.