Bedrooms as Regenerative Stations

How sleep and air influence brain health

The Pasqual Maragall Foundation has just published a report led by Dr. Laura Stankeviciute and Dr. Oriol Grau, concluding that “poor-quality sleep is associated with changes in the areas of the brain that are most vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease.”

The study monitored 171 cognitively healthy adults over a period of up to two weeks, using an actigraph to evaluate the quality of their sleep.
An actigraph is a device that tracks sleep patterns through movement and light exposure, providing objective indicators of sleep quality.

In parallel, participants underwent brain MRI scans and cerebrospinal-fluid analyses to quantify the levels of amyloid and tau proteins, both recognized as key biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.

The research confirmed that when sleep is of poor quality, there is an observable reduction in cortical thickness in certain regions of the brain—particularly in the temporal lobe, one of the areas most affected by the disease. Another finding was that these effects were more pronounced in women than in men.

The evidence suggests that poor sleep emerges as a potentially modifiable risk factor associated with Alzheimer’s disease. On a positive note, it is also a factor that can be addressed.
As Dr. Oriol Grau notes, “if we monitor and improve sleep during midlife and old age, we may protect our brains—and do so in time.”

This statement takes us back to 2019, when HAUS, together with Neuroelectrics, presented a research project aimed at obtaining resources to monitor how sleep quality, cycles, and phases were affected by the accumulation of CO₂ levels in bedrooms.

Contrary to what would be advisable, we traditionally ventilate bedrooms in the morning rather than during the night—precisely when the air we breathe, a volume ranging between 2,400 and 3,800 litres over eight hours of rest, gradually deteriorates to reach CO₂ concentrations between 2,400 and 3,500 ppm in closed rooms where two people sleep.

We now know that sleep interruptions are not caused solely by poor air quality. Air is just one factor.
As is often the case in health, almost everything is multifactorial. Here too, other environmental factors—beyond individual physiology—play a role: noise, electromagnetic fields, light exposure, relative humidity, temperature, and even atmospheric pressure.

Viewing our bedrooms as regenerative stations for the body would undoubtedly help us sleep better.

In this spirit, we invite readers to explore the work carried out at the Qgat Hotel in Sant Cugat del Vallès, where promoting restorative sleep has been a priority since the project’s very first sketch.

Ricard Santamaria
Director Partner at HAUS HEALTHY BUILDINGS