Reference; http://seino-1987.jp/html/
Modified and translated by CFJA
5. The effects of air-conditioning on sleep
In the past, when air-conditioning systems were not available, large ice cubes were placed in the operating room at four all corners to cool the room in China, and this was still the case when they were performing acupuncture anaesthesia in Shanghai in 1985. When fans first started to be sold, people who initially bought them probably heard that it was cooler to sleep with a fan on all night and turned the fan on all night. When fans did not have a swivel function, it is likely that they would have left the cold air blowing directly on their bodies. If a person goes into a sleep state while exposed to a fan, their body temperature drops rapidly, leading to death due to a heart attack.
In fact, while those sad accidents had happened many times, the risk of lowering the body temperature should have been known. The next sales pitch for the air conditioner was, “You can leave it on all night and not die of a heart attack.” It is true that air conditioning regulates and cools the entire room, so the body temperature does not drop as rapidly. However, the temperature does drop gradually, and living in a constant low temperature all the time lowers the body’s functions.
When Sleeping in an air-conditioned room
- You will always be breathing cold air, which will cool your lungs and make you more susceptible to catching a cold. People who already have a cold or have illnesses such as bronchitis or asthma are more likely to get pneumonia.
- The body is placed in an environment with a temperature lower than normal body temperature, which is under 36°C, forcing the body to work harder to maintain a constant body temperature throughout sleep. This puts a particular strain on the liver, making it difficult to recover from daily fatigue.
- If you sleep without a duvet or in light clothing, your feet start to get cold and the work of the kidneys are impaired. As a result, the digestive system function is reduced food eaten at night is left over in the morning, the stomach feels upset, the appetite is lost and the calves tend to cramp. Pregnant women in particular need to be careful. To compensate for the loss of appetite, they are tempted to eat and drink cold food, which in turn increases the feeling of cold and lethargy.
Conditions 1 to 3 above. In addition, you will have many other minor discomfort symptoms.
However, living conditions in large cities are often far from ideal, and we even have the impression that many people in Canada prefer to sleep at lower room temperatures. Even if you have to turn on the air-conditioning in the summer season to get to sleep, you should be very careful about the temperature you set.
The following is our opinion.
- People who live with a room temperature setting of 26 degrees Celsius or lower think that their bodies are cold and sometimes feel tired during the day
- People with a room temperature setting of 23-25°C are more likely to feel pain or discomfort somewhere in their bodies.
- People with a room temperature setting of 20-22°C are living with some discomfort and enduring it.
- People with a room temperature setting of 19°C or lower are more likely to be diagnosed with any diseases in western medicine.
The room temperature should ideally be about 2°C lower than the outside temperature. Nights in Toronto, even in summer, are unlikely to exceed 30°C, but room temperatures above 30°C are too hot to sleep in. However, when the outside temperature is around 25 to 26°C, it is best not to turn on the air-conditioner. Setting the temperature to 28 to 30°C can be difficult for people who are used to having the air-conditioner on, but we believe that simply turning a fan upwards will create a convection current that will cool the whole room. Why not try sleeping with the air conditioning on for an hour by setting up a timer?