Sleep and the temperature field of the bed

1.1. In order to find a correlation between the thermal conditions in bed and the quality of sleep, 5 young, healthy persons were tested in a thermal climate chamber.2.2. The sleep of each person was thoroughly monitored during 5 nights (stages I to IV, REM, awake) with continuous registration of 14 temperatures, 12 distributed in the bed, the distal skin temperature and the ambient temperature.3.3. Shortly after the test persons went to bed and shortly after they woke up their blood pressure and pulse were taken and they were asked to fill in a questionnaire.4.4. The results of this pilot project show a correlation between the quality of sleep and the variations of temperature and that larger fluctuations of temperature in the bed are connected to a shorter deep-sleep time.5.5. In order to investigate the thermal comfort it is recommended to undertake detailed analyses of the time and exact interplay between the local thermal conditions during sleep and changes of the sleep-EEG.