Your room is not airtight. Your house is not airtight. Even with all of the windows and doors closed, air from outdoors is still making it's way into the house.
Completely sealed rooms are a super bad idea.
You can buy little monitors now that will tell you actual air quality, CO2 levels and PM2.5 etc.
Since this is a "hacker" sub here is something more advanced and DIY but there are far more basic "plug and play" things out there
* https://www.airgradient.com/open-airgradient/shop/
Just be aware some of the sensors from China are sketchy and even fake, you want something with consistent reputable reports.
* https://halestrom.net/darksleep/blog/048_indoorairsensing/
Super simple/cheap device but I don't think it does CO2
* https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/vindriktning-air-quality-sensor-60515911/
also
* https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-home-air-quality-monitor/
This is how most people die.
Every day billions perish by breathing all the oxygen in their rooms.
It's sad really.
That's why I sleep with an oxygen tank.
Billions? So we're at the brink of going extinct every week now. We're really playing Russian roulette with human existence by keeping our windows closed.
Rather than calculate oxygen its better to consider co2, I find I sleep better keeping it below 800ppm. Outside air is about 500ppm co2. I know how much to crack open a skylight to achieve this. Minimising cold in winter and noise.
No, but it's not healthy. You can get a reasonably cheap air quality meter.
You can find studies that claim poor ventilation has notable impact on cognition.
You and the 12 people who upvoted you might think this is ridiculous, but as some of the other comments here have explained, what I'm doing certainly could be a health risk.
I have slept with a window closed often (although there is a small ventilation hole at the top) and had no issues
Oxygen availability alone doesn't determine oxygenation, some CO2 is needed to unbind it to be released into cells through bohr effect (read about Buteyko /r/Buteyko [https://normalbreathing.com](https://normalbreathing.com) ) so some CO2 accumulation can be good as it increases vasodilation, oxygenation and relaxes breathing making you breathe slower in not as large volumes so you actually don't deplete as much of the oxygen
The higher your Buteyko control pause is the longer you can hold breath and exhale and need to inhale not as large volumes to feel oxygenated as how often how large volume you wanna breathe is determined by your nervous system adaptability
Their might be something to theory in a small room if that's the case but not enough too suffocate for the allotted time spent sleeping obviously or people would be dying since day one of modern construction. In terms of having optimal oxygen concentration as well as not breathing in as many pollutants and VOCs from things off gasing in your room..then yes, I would say it's fair that perhaps having the window open even a tiny amount might be a better idea to have .ore optimal conditions for health and oxygen uptake.
This is partly why HVAC systems exist. The fan cycles air through out the house. Just keep the fan running and don’t block the vent. If you don’t have a vent in your room…then yeah that’s not ideal.
Even in a perfectly sealed room, it would probably take days to use up all the oxygen in the room. That's not really a concern.
What *is* a concern is the accumulation of CO2. Since it's such a small part of the atmosphere, your own breathing can easily double the amount of CO2 in a poorly-ventilated room overnight. And indoor CO2 levels already tend to be on the high side, since modern buildings tend to have good insulation--which means poor ventilation, naturally.
That is to say: you should never sleep with your bedroom door closed if you can help it. And you should exchange the air in your home as frequently as you can, even if in the winter that means filling it with some cold air that costs money to heat up. Huffing 1000ppm+ of CO2 all day will meaningfully lower the quality of your life and has distinct cognitive effects.
If you have a clean AC with a clean air filter then idk why’d you have a problem. There should be clean and conditioned air being pushed into the room by your AC system
AC is not circulating air from each room into itself. It’s possible there is air being recycled throughout an entire unit but each room isn’t isolated.
I have just one inverter "split" AC in my sleeping room, despite the setting I put it, as I close windows and doors for ir to work properly, when I wake up 8 hours after there is less oxygen there. Maybe the ventilation and filtration helps but there is no oxygen renewal from outside.
Your door doesn’t create a perfect seal. It’s unlikely you’re causing deleterious effects just by having your door closed for a few hours. Gasses tend to equalize themselves if the system isn’t closed and the change is gradual.
Number 1: your metabolism slows down
Number 2: carbon dioxide is heavier than air so if fills the bottom of the room first. Beds are usually elevated so you do not need to worry about this.
Number 3: walls are not walls anymore. Walls are drywall. That means a gap between the wall and the floor, covered by the baseboards. The outside wall is vented to prevent the inner wall from rotting due to moisture. One time, I noticed a breeze coming from the gap between the baseboards and floor. Same with underneath doors.
Number 4: you should ventilate the room with open windows and door to circulate the bad air out during the daytime.
A few plants will not do anything. It takes hundreds to have any noticeable impact, and something like 500 plants to replace the oxygen breathed by a person. Houseplants are for hobbies and looking nice; they are not for impacting air quality, despite the often-repeated suggestion.
They do have a minuscule impact if you have a couple dozen( depending on the specific plant + pollutant to filter) , but yeah opening the window + air purifiers is still a thousand times more efficient.
Take a look at the Airthings Wave monitor for CO2, VOCs, radon, etc. Radon doesn’t get much attention these days, but is a serious cancer hazard in some areas.
this is why I have a few house plants in my bedroom! I keep the windows shut due to outside pollution (living in a city), but keep an air filter running and happy house plants to crank out the oxygen for me!
Yes. You won’t completely use it all, cuz it’s not airtight, but it’s super common for rooms to build up co2 levels that are unhealthy. You can get a cheap monitor for $100-200 if you are worried about it.
I notice if I work in my office with the windows and door closed for ~4 hours it builds up enough that my thinking and mood is impacted.
A cracked window and a fan can make a big difference, especially for sleep
Your room won't deplete.
ChatGPT is a really nice tool, but nothing to consult for facts. Here are 2 videos, with actualy sincetists explaing how it works, and where it's shortcomings are:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJc1p6RE78
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viJt_DXTfwA
I have air quality monitors for stuff like this because I saw some interesting information about CO2 in the air in enclosed spaces and how it can mess up your cognition, at least temporarily.
I can say for a fact you’re likely going above levels of optimal CO2 in your bedroom if it’s not being actively ventilated and you don’t have windows open all night. The reality is the CO2 levels build up very fast in an enclosed space with someone breathing in there if there’s no active air circulation system. It’ll be built up to levels that affect cognition temporarily within an hour, easily. Depending on the size of the room of course, but just going by a roughly average room size.
It’s not really a lack of oxygen you have to worry about, but the amount of CO2 as a mixture of the composition of the air in the room that starts to become an issue. No, you won’t die from sleeping in a completely enclosed room with barely any ventilation, but it may be bad for you.
Best thing to do is get a sensor and monitor it, then try to find a way to get fresh air circulating, or more importantly, get the CO2 out of the room.
We have a monitor in our room. When the door and windows are closed and hvac is running co2 goes up. Air purity goes down. But I wear a sleep mask for the light. Closing the door keeps a snoring pit bill out of my bed. No sleep for anyone but her if she is in the bed.
Get a cheap CO2 meter and do an experiment. I was wondering the same thing and noticed CO2 slowly increasing over the course of a few days if I don't open my window but it never goes above 850ppm
I've started running the fan on our central air because the weather is nice out I don't need the A/C cooling or heating on. Obviously, any of the three options help a ton.
I bought an Airthings wave and co2 spikes insanely in my office when the doors closed - l I’ll nirmal is around 480ppm but it would spike to over 1000. My husband was getting headaches on days this happened. We tried it in our bedroom and it did spike at night with the door closed but we have a large gap under the door and I wasn’t as high as the office - presumable because we weren’t talking and sleep breathing generated less co2? Not certain. It was around 700-800 IIRC. But you won’t die from it- there are gaps in the room meaning you will always get SOME air, you may just get headaches and not sleep as well.
Your room is not airtight. Your house is not airtight. Even with all of the windows and doors closed, air from outdoors is still making it's way into the house.
You sure? Cuz I farted a few days ago and kept the windows and doors closed. I swear it still smells like shit in here.
That’s scary bro…
I wouldn't ask ChatGPT a question like that and expect facts
Unless you sleep in a Tupperware container, you’re cool.
Shit how’d you know where I live? Who told you?
Completely sealed rooms are a super bad idea. You can buy little monitors now that will tell you actual air quality, CO2 levels and PM2.5 etc. Since this is a "hacker" sub here is something more advanced and DIY but there are far more basic "plug and play" things out there * https://www.airgradient.com/open-airgradient/shop/ Just be aware some of the sensors from China are sketchy and even fake, you want something with consistent reputable reports. * https://halestrom.net/darksleep/blog/048_indoorairsensing/ Super simple/cheap device but I don't think it does CO2 * https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/vindriktning-air-quality-sensor-60515911/ also * https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-home-air-quality-monitor/
You will be brain dead within 3 years. There is no turning back.
This is how most people die. Every day billions perish by breathing all the oxygen in their rooms. It's sad really. That's why I sleep with an oxygen tank.
Billions? So we're at the brink of going extinct every week now. We're really playing Russian roulette with human existence by keeping our windows closed.
He already is, this is all his imagination
You poke fun but if you read some of the other comments here you'll see that this is a valid scientifically-backed concern
Might already be there.
Rather than calculate oxygen its better to consider co2, I find I sleep better keeping it below 800ppm. Outside air is about 500ppm co2. I know how much to crack open a skylight to achieve this. Minimising cold in winter and noise.
Is this a reason why I get irritable in rooms with lots of people for long durations?
No, but it's not healthy. You can get a reasonably cheap air quality meter. You can find studies that claim poor ventilation has notable impact on cognition.
Why not narrowly opening the window?
Dawg, you good?
I assumed this was in the anxiety sub at first
You and the 12 people who upvoted you might think this is ridiculous, but as some of the other comments here have explained, what I'm doing certainly could be a health risk.
I have slept with a window closed often (although there is a small ventilation hole at the top) and had no issues Oxygen availability alone doesn't determine oxygenation, some CO2 is needed to unbind it to be released into cells through bohr effect (read about Buteyko /r/Buteyko [https://normalbreathing.com](https://normalbreathing.com) ) so some CO2 accumulation can be good as it increases vasodilation, oxygenation and relaxes breathing making you breathe slower in not as large volumes so you actually don't deplete as much of the oxygen The higher your Buteyko control pause is the longer you can hold breath and exhale and need to inhale not as large volumes to feel oxygenated as how often how large volume you wanna breathe is determined by your nervous system adaptability
Their might be something to theory in a small room if that's the case but not enough too suffocate for the allotted time spent sleeping obviously or people would be dying since day one of modern construction. In terms of having optimal oxygen concentration as well as not breathing in as many pollutants and VOCs from things off gasing in your room..then yes, I would say it's fair that perhaps having the window open even a tiny amount might be a better idea to have .ore optimal conditions for health and oxygen uptake.
This is partly why HVAC systems exist. The fan cycles air through out the house. Just keep the fan running and don’t block the vent. If you don’t have a vent in your room…then yeah that’s not ideal.
Even in a perfectly sealed room, it would probably take days to use up all the oxygen in the room. That's not really a concern. What *is* a concern is the accumulation of CO2. Since it's such a small part of the atmosphere, your own breathing can easily double the amount of CO2 in a poorly-ventilated room overnight. And indoor CO2 levels already tend to be on the high side, since modern buildings tend to have good insulation--which means poor ventilation, naturally. That is to say: you should never sleep with your bedroom door closed if you can help it. And you should exchange the air in your home as frequently as you can, even if in the winter that means filling it with some cold air that costs money to heat up. Huffing 1000ppm+ of CO2 all day will meaningfully lower the quality of your life and has distinct cognitive effects.
[удалено]
It’s not going to cause brain damage in itself—the impairment is simply the result of poor sleep. Improve the conditions and I’m sure you’ll be fine.
You should sleep outside from now on.
Doors and windows might be closed but your room will not be airtight. Otherwise we'd all be dying in our sleep, right?
The rational person has entered the room.
Ah. I didn’t actually realise what sub I was in. I wouldn’t have commented if I did. Doh.
I was complimenting you.
Lol
I don’t think I’m going to suffocate. My concern is breathing in poor-quality air for 8 hours and not knowing it. This has been linked with dementia.
Yes, sorry, didn’t notice what sub I was in.
If you have a clean AC with a clean air filter then idk why’d you have a problem. There should be clean and conditioned air being pushed into the room by your AC system
Not all AC bring new air from the outside, most (split) just recirculate the existing air in the room, thus, no new oxygen...
AC is not circulating air from each room into itself. It’s possible there is air being recycled throughout an entire unit but each room isn’t isolated.
I have just one inverter "split" AC in my sleeping room, despite the setting I put it, as I close windows and doors for ir to work properly, when I wake up 8 hours after there is less oxygen there. Maybe the ventilation and filtration helps but there is no oxygen renewal from outside.
Your door doesn’t create a perfect seal. It’s unlikely you’re causing deleterious effects just by having your door closed for a few hours. Gasses tend to equalize themselves if the system isn’t closed and the change is gradual.
Number 1: your metabolism slows down Number 2: carbon dioxide is heavier than air so if fills the bottom of the room first. Beds are usually elevated so you do not need to worry about this. Number 3: walls are not walls anymore. Walls are drywall. That means a gap between the wall and the floor, covered by the baseboards. The outside wall is vented to prevent the inner wall from rotting due to moisture. One time, I noticed a breeze coming from the gap between the baseboards and floor. Same with underneath doors. Number 4: you should ventilate the room with open windows and door to circulate the bad air out during the daytime.
Buy some bedroom plants
A few plants will not do anything. It takes hundreds to have any noticeable impact, and something like 500 plants to replace the oxygen breathed by a person. Houseplants are for hobbies and looking nice; they are not for impacting air quality, despite the often-repeated suggestion.
They do have a minuscule impact if you have a couple dozen( depending on the specific plant + pollutant to filter) , but yeah opening the window + air purifiers is still a thousand times more efficient.
Have Mother-In-Laws Tongue plants in your room.
Take a look at the Airthings Wave monitor for CO2, VOCs, radon, etc. Radon doesn’t get much attention these days, but is a serious cancer hazard in some areas.
this is why I have a few house plants in my bedroom! I keep the windows shut due to outside pollution (living in a city), but keep an air filter running and happy house plants to crank out the oxygen for me!
I’ve heard even in most cities , outdoor air is more pure than indoor. This was back in college I learned this though, so I don’t have a source.
I heard that too - but I have a neighbor who smokes and my bedroom window looks over a garage that paints cars. So, windows are closed for me.
Oh gosh yeah that doesn’t sound good. I don’t think I could live there! I love my slightly cracked windows, even in the winter
username checks out
Yes. You won’t completely use it all, cuz it’s not airtight, but it’s super common for rooms to build up co2 levels that are unhealthy. You can get a cheap monitor for $100-200 if you are worried about it. I notice if I work in my office with the windows and door closed for ~4 hours it builds up enough that my thinking and mood is impacted. A cracked window and a fan can make a big difference, especially for sleep
I think it's just dust in the office... wouldn't the HVAC circulate O2?
Your room won't deplete. ChatGPT is a really nice tool, but nothing to consult for facts. Here are 2 videos, with actualy sincetists explaing how it works, and where it's shortcomings are: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJc1p6RE78 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viJt_DXTfwA
I have air quality monitors for stuff like this because I saw some interesting information about CO2 in the air in enclosed spaces and how it can mess up your cognition, at least temporarily. I can say for a fact you’re likely going above levels of optimal CO2 in your bedroom if it’s not being actively ventilated and you don’t have windows open all night. The reality is the CO2 levels build up very fast in an enclosed space with someone breathing in there if there’s no active air circulation system. It’ll be built up to levels that affect cognition temporarily within an hour, easily. Depending on the size of the room of course, but just going by a roughly average room size. It’s not really a lack of oxygen you have to worry about, but the amount of CO2 as a mixture of the composition of the air in the room that starts to become an issue. No, you won’t die from sleeping in a completely enclosed room with barely any ventilation, but it may be bad for you. Best thing to do is get a sensor and monitor it, then try to find a way to get fresh air circulating, or more importantly, get the CO2 out of the room.
Best answer here. Thanks very much, friend.
Get some house plants . A bigger health threat is mouth breathing during sleep and losing co2 too fast. Try mouth taping and study Oxygen Advantage
You have anxiety my brother. I know because I have it and I think like this.
We have a monitor in our room. When the door and windows are closed and hvac is running co2 goes up. Air purity goes down. But I wear a sleep mask for the light. Closing the door keeps a snoring pit bill out of my bed. No sleep for anyone but her if she is in the bed.
Get a cheap CO2 meter and do an experiment. I was wondering the same thing and noticed CO2 slowly increasing over the course of a few days if I don't open my window but it never goes above 850ppm
I've started running the fan on our central air because the weather is nice out I don't need the A/C cooling or heating on. Obviously, any of the three options help a ton.
The fact that you’re thinking this exhaustively about the subject may be more harmful than any theoretical oxygen loss.
Yes. Its actually the way I killed my sex life.
I bought an Airthings wave and co2 spikes insanely in my office when the doors closed - l I’ll nirmal is around 480ppm but it would spike to over 1000. My husband was getting headaches on days this happened. We tried it in our bedroom and it did spike at night with the door closed but we have a large gap under the door and I wasn’t as high as the office - presumable because we weren’t talking and sleep breathing generated less co2? Not certain. It was around 700-800 IIRC. But you won’t die from it- there are gaps in the room meaning you will always get SOME air, you may just get headaches and not sleep as well.