Long-term monitoring of subjective sleep thermal comfort and adaptive behavior in nine cities of China

To study the sleep thermal comfort of residents in different climate zones, conducts a one-year monitoring campaign on sleep thermal comfort of 166 residents in nine cities across five climate zones. Through the analysis of 4 260 questionnaires collected, finds that the subjective sleep quality is the highest when the sleep thermal sensation is neutral, and the quality of sleep under the hot sensation is worse than that of the cold sensation. Residents will actively adjust the sleep environment by changing the thermal resistance of the bedding system, opening/closing windows and using air conditioners. As a result, up to 84% of the thermal sensation votes are slightly warm, neutral and slightly cool. However, since the lack of air conditioner in summer and excessive heating in winter, the overall thermal sensation votes of residents living in the northern cities show that the proportion of feeling warm and hot votes is higher than the proportion of feeling cool and cold votes (1.2% to 4.0% higher), while due to the lack of central heating in the southern cities, the proportion of feeling cool and cold votes is higher than the proportion of feeling warm and hot votes (1.0% to 4.4% higher). From a national perspective, focusing on seasonal features in different climate zones and behavior adjustment to improve seasonal sleep thermal discomfort is the key to residential sleep environment control.