This is how it ruins our rest according to science

On the most suffocating nights of summer, leaving the air conditioning on until dawn seems like the only way to get some sleep. However, what begins as relief often turns into a sore throat, congestion, dry eyes, and a strange feeling of tiredness the next morning. And this is simply something that our elders already repeated to us: Continuous air conditioning is not good for your health.

The alteration of rest. During the natural sleep cycle, core body temperature decreases physiologically, but subjecting the body to a continuous flow of cold air comes into direct conflict with this mechanism, so our rest is not entirely efficient.

Here, a study published in Extreme Physiology & Medicine analyzed how air flow impacts the quality of rest, and they saw that people who slept with the air jet impacting their body had a greater number of micro-awakenings, which prevented them from achieving a deep and restful sleep.

And there is more. Furthermore, this continuous air causes an increase in heart rate and body movements, especially affecting light sleep. The conclusion here is that the flow of cold air should never be directed directly towards a sleeping person, since they will wake up much more tired than they should. Added to this is also the mechanical effect on the musculoskeletal system that, by enduring constant cold, causes the contraction of blood vessels, which results in muscle hardening and the classic neck or back contractures as soon as you wake up.

A paradise for viruses. One of the great mysteries of summer is why we get colds if it’s not cold. Here the Spanish Society of Otorhinolaryngology It is estimated that 20% of summer colds They are the fault of air conditioning, which lowers the temperature of our mucous membranes and makes them more susceptible to microorganisms.

It is studied. In this case, pioneering research from Yale University demonstrated the thermal dependence of our antiviral response. It was clearly seen that when we breathe cold air, the temperature inside the nose drops from the usual 37-36 °C to about 33 °C. At this lower temperature, the local immune system collapses and the secretion of extracellular vesicles, which is our first line of defense, drops by 42%, losing up to 77% of the receptors that act as “decoys” to trap pathogens and destroy them before they cause disease.

Given that approximately 20% of people carry asymptomatic rhinovirus in their nasal passages, this cooling allows the virus to find its way, doubling its replication capacity in infected cells and, therefore, becoming much more pathogenic.

The humidity. The other great invisible enemy of air conditioning is extreme dehumidification, since for our respiratory system to function correctly, the relative humidity of the environment must be between 40% and 60%. The problem is that air conditioning equipment extracts that humidity and makes the environment much drier until this percentage plummets below 40%.

Here we have studies that observed that in environments with humidity around 24%, there is a severe decrease in nasal permeability and an increase in mucosal inflammation. The explanation is that, as the humidity drops, the respiratory cilia lose their mobility, and this is essential because these cilia are small ‘hairs’ that move to prevent a virus or bacteria from settling on our mucosa.

Its effects. Breathing this dry air all the time not only causes rhinitis or pharyngitis, but it can trigger attacks in patients with asthma or COPD. But in addition, it also affects the eyes, causing irritation, the skin and also makes us much more sensitive to allergens.

How to use it. To avoid these unwanted effects, the correct thing to do would be to turn on the air conditioning 30 minutes before going to sleep to cool the room, and turn it off when the function is shortened or programmed. Sleep which modulates the temperature and ends up turning off the equipment.

The temperature is also essential, and the correct thing would be to never drop below 22 ºC, staying between 23 and 25 ºC. And if we go further, a humidifier can be used to maintain that 40-60% humidity in the room, which is essential to keep our barriers in their optimal state.

Images | Magnificent Slaapwijsheid.nl

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