Exploring the effects of indoor air quality on sleep and sleep quality of older people
H. S. M. Kort, M. G. L. C. Loomans
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AbstractWe all are familiar with the phenomenon that when having a bad night's sleep we feel lousy the next day. This is also the case for people with dementia. We received a cry for help from a family carer claiming that his spouse with dementia displayed agitation and other symptoms of Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) after a bad night while being exposed to poor indoor air. Nurses and family caregivers do report that some BPSD problems occur when heaters/air-conditioners are not switched on sufficiently early enough to maintain a comfortable indoor thermal environment (Wong et al., 2014). In a case study by Cremers (2015) findings showed that restlessness behavior (apnea, panic, humming) is observed in a person with dementia during the night when CO2 levels in de bedroom exceed 800 ppm. Poor indoor air quality (IAQ), measured via carbon dioxide (CO2) as a proxy, has a negative effect on people’s health and performance (Wyon & Wargocki, 2013; Allen et al., 2016). Furthermore, it is known that bedroom air quality relates to sleep quality and next-day performance in healthy young adults (Strøm-Tejsen et al., 2015). Little is known though about the influence of indoor air quality on persons with dementia. To explore this, we first wanted to reproduce the study of Strøm-Tejsen, before moving to involve ageing people because of ethical and practical reasons.Keywords: quality of life, dementia, indoor environment, older people
H. S. M. Kort, M. G. L. C. Loomans (2022). Exploring the effects of indoor air quality on sleep and sleep quality of older people. Gerontechnology, 21(s),2-2
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2022.21.s.593.2.sp3