Room Check
Most bad nights that have a cause in the room have one of six causes, and each one shows up on a cheap instrument before it shows up anywhere else. Answer what you notice, and the check names the likeliest cause, the reading that would confirm it, and what to change first.
How the check reasons
The check works from what you notice rather than from what you own, because the first sign of a room problem is almost always a symptom at three in the morning, and only afterwards a number on an instrument.
Every result names one reading to take, where in the room to take it and the range that matters, so the answer can be tested in your own bedroom before anything is bought or moved.
Whatever you answer is held in this browser alone, so the site can remember the result for you, and a single button removes it.
What it asks, and what each answer points at
1. When you wake in the small hours, what do you notice first?
- I am too warm, or the covers are off. Waking hot points at room temperature first, because a bedroom that holds heat overnight stays warm long after you have gone to sleep.
- A dry throat, nose or lips. A dry throat on waking is the usual first sign of air that is too dry, which is most common with the heating on.
- A heavy head, or the room feels stuffy. A stuffy room and a heavy head point at air that has not changed all night.
- A sound woke me. Being woken by a sound puts noise first, and noise is the one cause you can measure in a minute with a phone.
- It is already getting light. Waking to light points at the room's light, which in summer can reach the bed an hour or more before you mean to be up.
- A smell I cannot place. A smell you cannot place is worth checking against anything new in the room and against damp.
- Nothing about the room. I just wake. If nothing about the room stands out, the honest answer may be that the room is not the cause.
2. How is the room at night: door and window? (asked only after i am too warm, or the covers are off or a heavy head, or the room feels stuffy or a smell i cannot place)
- Door shut and window closed. A shut door and a closed window leave the air in the room to be breathed all night, which is when stale air and heat build up.
- Door open, window closed. An open door lets the air mix with the rest of the home, which usually keeps it fresher than a sealed room.
- Window open. An open window changes the air, and points away from stale air and toward what comes in with it: noise, cold or damp.
3. Where is the bedroom?
- Top floor, or under the roof. A top-floor room collects the heat the rest of the building gives off, and holds summer heat into the night.
- A middle floor. A middle-floor room sits between other homes, which usually keeps its temperature steady.
- Ground floor or below. A ground-floor or basement room runs cooler and more often damp.
4. How is the room heated? (asked only after i am too warm, or the covers are off or a dry throat, nose or lips or a heavy head, or the room feels stuffy or a smell i cannot place)
- Warm air through vents. Forced warm air dries a room quickly, because warming air lowers its relative humidity.
- Radiators or baseboards. Radiators dry the air more slowly than vents, but a radiator near the bed still warms the air you breathe first.
- It is not heated, or barely. An unheated room rules heating out, and points at the building and the season.
5. When is it worst?
- Winter. Worst in winter points at the heating: dry air, or a closed room warmed all night.
- Summer. Worst in summer points at heat held in the building, and at early light.
- All year. All year points away from the season and toward something constant: the room, what is in it, or what is outside.
6. Has anything new come into the room in the last few months? (asked only after a heavy head, or the room feels stuffy or a smell i cannot place)
- Yes: a mattress, furniture, paint or flooring. New mattresses, furniture, paint and flooring release chemicals into the air for weeks, and a closed bedroom concentrates them.
- No, nothing new. Nothing new rules out fresh materials, and points a smell toward damp.
The seven possible answers
The room stays too warm overnight, and a thermometer at the pillow will show it
Readers who wake hot, especially in top-floor rooms, closed rooms and summer.
The air is too dry or too damp, and a hygrometer beside the bed will say which
Readers who wake with a dry throat in the heating season, and readers whose room smells damp.
The air goes stale with the door shut, and a CO2 reading will show how fast
Readers who wake heavy-headed in a shut room where the air does not change all night.
Noise is waking you, and a sound reading at night will show when
Readers woken by a sound, whether from the street, the building or inside the home.
Light reaches the bed before you mean to wake, and a check at dawn will show where
Readers woken by early light, most often in summer and in rooms facing east.
Something new in the room is still releasing chemicals, and a VOC reading will show it
Readers who notice a smell in a closed room that has had a new mattress, furniture, paint or flooring recently.
Nothing in the room may be the problem
Readers who notice nothing about the room itself. This site covers the room, and says plainly when the room is not the answer.