Sleeping with a bedroom door closed affords a feeling of privacy and security when we need it most. After all, we’re never more vulnerable than while sleeping. Equally, some people feel safer with their bedroom door open, making them feel less isolated.
Sleeping with a bedroom door open means that you’ll be exposed to any noise around the home; anybody else can see or hear you, and it works against the principles of feng shui. However, it can also lead to superior ventilation and alertness to sounds.
Fire safety experts recommend sleeping with a bedroom door closed, as this will slow the spread of a blaze. Sleeping with a bedroom door closed will also help maintain a consistent ambient temperature and stop you from keeping others awake if you snore.
You’ll probably know if you sleep with your bedroom door open or closed. Consider elements of safety and superior rest alongside personal choice, ensuring that your decision leads to a good night of sleep.
Should You Sleep with Your Bedroom Door Open or Closed?
Everybody knows whether they prefer to leave a bedroom door open or closed at night. Living arrangements will play a role in this, as will the location of your bedroom in the layout of your home.
Let’s review the fundamental elements that play into your decision about whether to open or close your door at night, aiding you in making the best decision for your unique needs and preferences.
Privacy and Security
Our bedroom is our sanctuary in the home. Sleep is a time of peace and vulnerability, so it’s crucial that you feel safe and secure in your bedroom. In many cases, that means closing the door behind us.
This isn’t the case for everybody. Some people fear sleeping alone and in complete darkness. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality stated that many adults harbor apprehension about sleeping in a dark room with closed doors.
Closing the door is recommended if you’re looking for privacy in a bedroom because you prefer to sleep naked or retain the opportunity for intimacy with a partner. This will also prevent other people or pets from entering your room uninvited.
However, if somebody needs to access your room urgently, closing a door can cost valuable seconds. Despite this, most emergency services recommend closing bedroom doors, including firefighters.
Overall, if you share a home with roommates or pets that like to jump on your bed and disturb sleep, the privacy afforded by closing a door can ensure a better night’s sleep. An open-door policy may be preferable if you prefer to bring additional light into a room or provide easy access for children.
Noise
Closing a bedroom door at night will block noise from elsewhere in your home. If you don’t live alone, that could be vital. Nobody wants to be kept awake by family members watching TV in the living room or roommates clattering in the kitchen.
Closing your bedroom door at night also protects other people in your home from the noise you make. If you live with sleep apnea or are prone to loud snoring, you may block sleep for others.
Sleeping with your bedroom door open will make it much easier to hear a fire alarm, an intruder alarm, or a child that cries for your attention during the night.
There are ways around the latter, such as placing a baby monitor at your bedside. However, if you need to remain alert to possible noise overnight, sleeping with a bedroom door open could be a safer option.
Ventilation and Air Flow
A study in Indoor Air claims that sleeping with a bedroom door open improves general ventilation in a room. This study was based only on 17 individuals, but it still raises an interesting idea.
It’s understandable why sleeping with a bedroom door open would improve air quality and ventilation in a home. Rather than trapping yourself in an enclosed space, regularly breathing the same recycled air, you will constantly refresh the oxygen supply.
Consider if sleeping with a bedroom door closed could protect you from potential toxins, though. Nobody should sleep in a freshly-painted bedroom until the paint is dry; the same applies to a newly-wallpapered room.
If you have painted or wallpapered another room in the house, sleeping with a bedroom door closed will offer respite from any fumes created by this process. Closing a door also prevents potential allergens, such as pet dander, from entering your room while you sleep.
You can enjoy superior ventilation in a bedroom with the door closed. While sleeping with a fan by your head is inadvisable, you can open a window if it’s safe.
Alternatively, get an air purifier or decorative plants to fulfill the same function.
Temperature Regulation
Moderating your body temperature is a critical element of sleeping well at night, and ambient temperature in a bedroom will influence this.
Sleeping with the door closed will maintain the general temperature in your bedroom.
A lower body temperature will ease you into sleep faster than feeling too warm. If you cool your bedroom in advance, closing the door before climbing into bed will trap any cool air in the room.
If your preferences fly in the face of this belief, closing a bedroom door can trap hot air in a room. If you wish to apply a heat source without warming the entire house, a localized radiator can create a toasty room with the door closed.
Sleeping with the door allows mingling with ambient temperatures from elsewhere. This is ideal if you wish to start the night in a cool climate but wake up in warmer surroundings. Ensure other residents in your home are OK with a potential cool draught from your room.
Feng Shui
Originating in China, this tao revolves around the belief that arranging furnishings in a home according to natural balance creates harmony. If you wish to follow the teachings of this metaphysical belief structure, sleep with your bedroom door closed.
According to feng shui, positive energy (often referred to as “chi”) must flow in a loop around us. You’ll keep the chi in your room while sleeping by closing the bedroom door overnight.
Leaving a bedroom door open means positive energy can leave a room, and negative energy can enter its place. To fully abide by feng shui, close any closet doors and dresser drawers in your bedroom while sleeping.
Feng shui should never precede the advice of fire safety experts or even your comfort.
Fire Safety
Everybody hopes they’ll never need to worry about a fire in the home. If the worst happens, sleeping with the bedroom door closed is much safer than leaving it open.
The Fire Safety Research Institute attempts to raise awareness of this with its slogan, “close before your doze.” The thinking here is that household fires rarely start in a bedroom, which means that smoke and fumes could spread before you discover the problem.
By sleeping with the bedroom door closed, toxic smoke and fumes won’t reach you for some time. This enhances survival odds.
A closed door keeps carbon dioxide to 1,000 parts per million, which is the upper tier of safety. Open doors can increase CO2 exposure to 10,000 ppm. Equally, the temperature of a room with a closed door typically peaks at 100OF – it’s closer to 1,000OF with an open door.
This advice can apply to every room and door in a home. It’s arguably most pivotal for a bedroom, though, as we all wake up groggy when roused unexpectedly from sleep. Buying yourself time to gather your thoughts may make all the difference in a fire emergency.
Weigh up all of these factors, and decide if you will get a better night’s sleep with your bedroom door open or closed. Settle upon an approach that enables you to rest comfortably.
