Ep. 01: Your Air - The hidden health cues of high CO2 levels in the bedroom
Your Air
Have you ever wondered about the invisible environmental factors causing your health to worsen, especially in our most private spaces? As an Architectural designer, I know we undergo years of training and are taught specific life and safety issues to look out for. So, we go about our professional lives doing just that and coordinating with all the different trades to keep our homes safe. But what about the changes that happen after our work is complete? What about the invisible dangers and the changes to a home when a family grows, and your occupancy numbers change by the added children, roommates, pets, oversized furniture, clutter, and, for some, their nightmare, “the aging inlaws”? Is that space still healthy for your physical and mental health? Are you silently being plagued by sick building syndrome caused by toxins and high levels of CO2 in the air? What are the health cues? What are the long-term risks? How can I check for this? What should I do to remedy the situation?
These questions may not personally keep you up at night. Yet, for some, this precise topic is why some people stay up at night: high levels of CO2 exposure in the bedroom can significantly affect your physical and overall cognitive health, not allowing you to get the proper rest you need. This is also one of the many factors I’ve concluded led to the uprise in mental health issues during the pandemic; as everyone was forced to transform their once places of refuge into work and learning spaces, the CO2 levels in our homes skyrocketed, and those who lived in small spaces, older homes, and urban environments, suffered the most. But if this sounds like an issue you may still be dealing with, keep reading. I’m excited to share my knowledge and findings with you.
Firstly, let’s examine what carbon dioxide is and what’s the big deal:
Carbon dioxide is a gas naturally present in the Earth's atmosphere; its unit measurement is represented by a number shown as PPM, which means “parts per million.” This unit measurement is used to measure small substance concentrations in the atmosphere. Anything above 1000PPM is considered unsafe to be in for an extended period. For indoor environments like a bedroom, the following guidelines are often used:
400-600 ppm: This range is considered excellent. It's close to outdoor air quality.
600-800 ppm: This is still considered good air quality. Most modern buildings will fall into this range.
800-1,000 ppm: This is where you might start to see a decrease in air quality. It's not uncommon in crowded or poorly ventilated spaces.
1,000-1,400 ppm: This range can lead to drowsiness, and poor air quality is more noticeable.
Above 1,400 ppm: At these levels, people might experience headaches, lethargy, and other symptoms of poor air quality.
CO2 is released through natural processes like respiration in living organisms and human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation. Yet, before you call me a granola liberal trying to make you care about climate change, I’d like to revert the attention to the CO2 levels in “your bedroom” and why it matters. Also, not to be overly dramatic, but no one with high levels of CO2 in their bedroom has enough energy to save the planet because they are too busy trying to save themselves from being lethargic and feeling like the Walking Dead. Yet, finding out if you have High levels of CO2 in your bedroom is crucial because we often spend much of our time there, especially parents hiding from small children trying to get their 5-minute breather in.
To investigate this topic further, I sought to find out how the air quality in our bedroom stacked up against other parts of our house. So, for Christmas, my gift to the family was a fancy CO2 monitor (they were not as excited as me), but what we ended up discovering, though alarming at first, provided much clarity and knowledge. In the first week of my experiment, I did not change how the space was used; I only observed the standard patterns throughout the week.
By the second week, when I realized our levels were unhealthy, I made some new house rules for how we used the space. Most importantly, I learned that the maximum occupancy during the winter months for our room was two people at a time, and anytime the dog and kid were inside, it pushed the levels to unsafe. So the days of my kid waking up in the middle of the night to sleep in mommy's bed were ending. I also learned that the CO2 levels went up by 250 PPM whenever my partner entered the room, and the average PPMS per night was 900PPM, which is not over the unhealthy 1000PPM threshold but also not the greatest.
Yet, I didn’t stop there. I needed to confirm that my CO2 hypothesis and conclusion checked out. So, to do that, I downloaded ten years of sleep data from my step tracker, and after analyzing the logs, I saw that my sleep quality went down immediately when we moved into the new house. It took another dip when we introduced the dog. It went from 8hrs a night to barely 6hrs a night. This tells me that the new house's bedroom air circulation was probably not as good as our old townhouse and that the dog added to the sleeping quarters was adding extra CO2 levels and extra movement in bed during the night.
With the new data and old sleep logs, I concluded that I’ve been a silent victim of high levels of CO2 in our bedroom for the last 4.5 years, and this is just one element that has added to my decline in sleep quality and overall well-being. Also, if it affected me, it was surely silently affecting everyone else in the family. I sometimes felt like a ghostbuster, holding my CO2 monitor and placing it at different heights and corners everywhere. Still, I was happy to finally have something I could find practical and easy solutions for.
Now that you know more about CO2 and the information I relied on, the following list is why you, too, may have CO2 issues at home, but most concerning in your bedroom.
Occupancy: The more people or pets in the room, the higher the CO2 levels due to respiration.
Closed Environment: Shutting windows and doors, especially in small or poorly ventilated rooms, exacerbates the issue. Winter months are worst because opening a window or sliding room door is not an option.
Combustion Appliances: Devices like portable heaters can increase CO2 if they're not properly vented.
And here are the health cues you may experience if you’re too a silent victim:
Difficulty breathing, as CO2 buildup in the body lowers oxygen levels. Some children can even develop asthma if exposed to high levels at a young age.
Cognitive impairment:
Poor concentration,
Poor decision-making skills
Poor overall brain function.
Headaches
Dizziness (common due to reduced oxygen circulation.)
Cardiovascular problems, as the body struggles to maintain oxygen and CO2 balance.
Fatigue
Sleep disturbances (which impact overall well-being and productivity.)
Luckily, there are many ways in which you can take action to improve the air quality in your home, especially your bedroom. Here are a few examples:
Monitor CO2 Levels: Use CO2 detectors in living and working areas.
Improve Ventilation: Ensure regular air exchange to reduce indoor CO2 levels by using methods such as:
Natural Ventilation:
Opening Windows and Doors: Allows fresh outdoor air to replace indoor air.
Cross Ventilation: Opening windows or doors across each other for better airflow.
Vents and Air Bricks: Utilize existing vents or air bricks in walls for continuous air exchange.
Mechanical Ventilation:
Exhaust Fans: These are especially effective in kitchens and bathrooms to expel indoor air.
Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRV) and Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERV): Exchange indoor and outdoor air while conserving energy.
Air Handling Units (AHU): These units circulate and filter air for larger spaces.
Mixed Mode Ventilation:
Combining Natural and Mechanical Methods: Use a combination of methods to optimize air exchange based on weather and indoor air quality.
Plant Presence: Utilize indoor plants with high CO2 absorption abilities such as:
Prayer Plant
Snake Plant (Sansevieria): Exceptional at absorbing CO2, especially effective at night, making it one of the best choices for indoor air purification.
Areca Palm (Dypsis lutescens): Known for its superior air-purifying abilities, it is effective in removing CO2 and improving air quality.
Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica): With its large leaves, it is highly efficient at CO2 absorption and is also easy to maintain.
Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum): While known for removing toxins like formaldehyde and benzene, it is also good at CO2 absorption.
Aloe Vera: Renowned for its medicinal properties, Aloe Vera is also effective in absorbing CO2 and emitting oxygen, especially at night.
Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum): A rapid grower and excellent at improving indoor air quality by absorbing CO2 and other pollutants.
Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata): Effective at removing pollutants and CO2 from the air, it also acts as a natural humidifier.
Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii): Besides its aesthetic appeal, it's good at absorbing CO2 and improving indoor air quality.
English Ivy (Hedera helix): A versatile plant that’s effective at reducing CO2 levels as well as other indoor air pollutants.
Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii): Known for its bright flowers, it is effective at removing CO2, particularly at night, and is beneficial for improving sleep quality.
(*note it would take a jungle of plants to achieve the same results as simply having proper ventilation. However, it doesn’t hurt to use the plants mentioned as added air cleansing power).
Regular Health Check-Ups: Monitor for symptoms and consult healthcare providers. Implementing these steps should be ongoing, with immediate actions like improving ventilation and routine health monitoring.
In conclusion, it’s essential to know that Air quality is one of the most crucial building blocks and basic physiological needs for humans to maintain proper health and well-being; without proper air quality, no one's pursuit of happiness can even begin. Maintaining the proper balance in your living and working environments is critical to long-term health and well-being. Long-term exposure eventually leads to more significant chronic issues, primarily affecting respiratory and cognitive functions, which then can potentially cascade onto other portions of your life, like relationships and mental well-being.
So before it’s too late, let us all do an act of self-care this year and take a look at our CO2 levels “in bed.” you may be surprised what you find there; who knows, it could potentially be the linchpin that has been holding you back from a healthier and more balanced life, it can’t hurt, right? Happy CO2 huntings.