2 - Better Night’s Sleep

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The Ideas

We spend a third of our lives asleep. Each night we reboot our minds and bodies to better engage with a new day. Ideally, we should do this for around 8 hours over four stages of REM sleep within a diurnal cycle. Sleep is essential for quality mental and physical health, productivity and overall wellbeing.

Lack of sleep increases the risk of medical conditions including Diabetes, heart disease, obesity and ultimately impacts on both mental and life expectancy. New, compelling research highlights the very dynamic nature and quality of sleep. Poor sleep lowers the immune systems making us vulnerable to viruses including COVID-19 and is now known to accelerate the onset of Dementia.

Sleep deprivation costs the UK economy £40-50 Billion each year. In Japan the cost is around $138 Bn, Germany $60 Bn and Canada $21 Bn. Rand reported these staggering statistics but concluded that these costs could be dramatically reduced with minimal interventions.

Simple, easily achievable and low-cost interventions offer multiple positive outcomes both for the individual and indeed for the nation. These include: A nocturnal lighting regime (colour temperature and intensity), aspect, orientation, bed inclination, optimised colour ways, anthropometric furniture and fittings, noise screening/cancellation, sleep regime, optimum air temperature and air quality. More exotic solutions include medical interventions, sleep clinics, biophilia and homeopathic treatments.

Health care insights and evidence-based research need to be harnessed and embedded in our designs. Letting our designs reboot our sleep into a better tomorrow.

The benefits

The key benefits of a good night’s sleep are:

• Reduces stress and anxiety • Lowers blood pressure • Improves immune system • Improves memory • Increases life span • Helps reduce day-time errors • Reduces falls • Helps maintain a healthy body weight • Reduces risk of chronic illness • Can help reduce pain.

The evidence

‘Why sleep matters: the economic costs of insufficient sleep’ Rand Europe 2016 https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1791.html

Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford University – Investigating Impacts of COVID-19 on sleep and daily rhythms.

Better Night’s Sleep #2

Optimise home environment to support healthy sleep patterns:

• Nocturnal lighting regime (colour temperature and intensity) • Aspect • Orientation • Bed inclination • Optimised colour ways • Anthropometric furniture and fittings • Noise screening/cancellation • Optimum air temperature and air quality.