Do you really need to open your bedroom window when you sleep?

What difference does it really makes to the quality of your sleep if you keep your bedroom window open or closed at night? A bigger difference than most people realize.

Open window when you sleep

I’m always amazed when someone tells me they sleep with their windows closed, and especially if they do this with their air-conditioning or heating turned on. This is fine once in a while in conditions of extreme heat, extreme cold, or because you are travelling and have no alternative but to stay in a hotel that has sealed windows. But if you sleep like this every night it will affect you in ways you may not realize.

The connection between vitality and life force energy

The reason why this matters is because it’s the vitality of our life force energy that determines how healthy we are and how well we feel.

The ancient Chinese had a name for this etheric vitality. They called it chi. In India, it’s called prana. In Japan, it’s known as ki. The closest term we have in the West is “life force energy”.

It can’t be measured by any scientific equipment. But it can be felt, even by people who have no spiritual background or energetic sensitivity. A good example of this is the difference between how a room feels when it has been closed up for some time and is filled with stale air, and how it feels after it has been opened up and aired. A freshly aired room has more etheric vitality or life force energy.

What happens during sleep?

Most people have no idea what happens during sleep. All they know is that they go unconscious for a while, have a few dreams they may or may not remember, and then wake up with a fresh supply of energy.

Some people experience good quality sleep. Others awake not feeling fully refreshed. More and more people these days fall into the second category so instead of asking ‘what happens during sleep?’ it would be more accurate to ask, ‘What is supposed to happen during sleep?’

What needs to be understood here is that it’s not the physical body that runs low on physical stamina. It’s the etheric body, which permeates the physical body, that runs low on life force energy.

What is supposed to happen during sleep is that the subtle body structures that constitute our upper complex (the astral body and Higher Self) lift out of the lower complex (the physical body and the etheric), allowing the lower complex to be refreshed and the upper complex to access higher realms.

The mystery of sleep

If you are interested to know more about what happens during sleep, you can find a brief explanation in Chapter 13 of Awakening The Third Eye by Samuel Sagan, and a comprehensive explanation in the Clairvision Knowledge Track The Fourfold Model.

Also in Awakening The Third Eye, you can find a remarkable technique called Night Practice that teaches you how to consciously separate the upper complex from the lower complex in order to get better quality sleep. It can also be used during the day as an advanced power napping technique. I have used both techniques on a daily basis for the last 20 years and can highly recommend them.

Why you need to open a window when you sleep

Where I am going with this is that in order to maximize energetic revitalization, it works best to sleep with a window open to provide a circulation of fresh air. Even opening a window a tiny crack is better than not opening one at all, although of course there are some parts of the world where it is too hot or too cold to do even that.

In our modern world, some buildings are designed with sealed windows that can never be opened. This can create huge problems because occupants not only suffer a diminished level of etheric vitality but are also permanently exposed to the toxic fumes of cleaning chemicals and the outgassing of carpets and furniture.

Another issue is that opening a window may not provide a circulation of fresh air at all. It lets in toxic traffic fumes or other forms of air pollution that can seriously damage your health, as well as traffic noise or noise from other sources. It’s crazy that we’ve let the world get this way. Never mind the energetic level. At a purely physical level, everyone needs fresh air to thrive!

Why meditators need fresh air too

Experienced meditators know that there is a massive difference between meditating in a room that has a circulation of fresh air and one that does not. This isn’t so noticeable if you are doing the type of technique that is designed to simply help you to centre yourself or relax. But if your purpose for meditating is to access higher states of consciousness, the etheric quality of the air in the room becomes very important.

If you are new to meditation, by the way, I need to point out that it does not follow that meditating in the open air is therefore better. Yes, the air will be more vital, but there will be too many destabilizing energy draughts and influences passing through the space for you to be able to deeply internalize. There may also be disturbances caused by weather fluctuations, passing insects, animals, people, and so on.

Meditating in a closed space is much better, as the ancients who meditated in caves or temples knew. It’s only in modern trendy magazines that you see people posing to meditate in the open air.

Copyright © Clear Space Living Ltd 2019, updated 2022


Related articles
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How Wi-Fi can affect your sleep
If opening a window leads to better sleep, why don’t we do it?

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About Karen Kingston

Karen Kingston is a leading expert in clutter clearing, space clearing, feng shui, and healthy homes. Her two international bestselling books have combined sales of over three million copies in 26 languages and have established themselves as "must-read" classics in their fields. Her best-known title, Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, is now in its fifth edition. She is best known for her perspective-changing insights and practical solutions that enable more conscious navigation of 21st-century living.
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9 Responses to Do you really need to open your bedroom window when you sleep?

  1. I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea related to a heart condition, I was put on a CPAP machine, I do sleep better/longer, but the air (although I scrupulosity clean the equipment) still doesn’t feel quite fresh and I feel a little dried out in the mornings. My doctor insists this is important for my heart condition, Feels like a catch 22.

  2. is it advisable to run a noise machines to cancel any background noise when windows are open? Or is that too much noise?

    And in winter months do you still advise to air out the bedroom (and the house in general)?

    Thirdly I notice a basement smell ~thankfully we have windows so I hope to air it out even though this house is new it’s a noticeable stenchy smell that hits my nose 1/2 way down the basement!

    Thank you Karen!

    1. Hi Ruby – This article is about the benefits of opening a bedroom window when you sleep. I do appreciate that there are some places in the world where it is too hot, cold, noisy or polluted for opening windows to be practical, so in those locations you can only do the best you can to refesh the air in your bedroom and the rest of your home.

      White noise machines are not something I recommend. White noise is a wall of sound created by all the sound frequencies between 20 and 20,000 hertz jumbled together. Humans do not need complete silence to sleep, but there is a huge difference between hearing sounds of nature and listening to an artificially created sound loop of white noise.

      A number of studies have found that this causes the stress hormone cortisol to be released, which means your body never fully rests. Elevated cortisol levels are implicated in weight gain, gastrointestinal problems, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hormone imbalances, inflammation, a general weakening of the immune system and other health issues.

      Listening to white noise night after night will wear you down. It’s far from ideal and I would never use a white noise machine myself. Ear plugs are a much safer option, although I don’t like them either. Long-term, the best solution is to move to a quieter location, if you can.

  3. Dear Karen,

    Thanks a lot for your quick reply. 🙂 I was absolutely certain you would answer this and it is a thought I’ve been thinking many times before. 😉

    The thing is that I am caring for my severely sick and slightly demented husband and I’ve got a 12 year old son. He goes to bed at around 9 pm and when he is in bed, we pray together and say good-bye to the day. After that, I’ve need some time to finish projects of the day, organise the next day and talk to my husband, who goes to bed later. With my evening routine (undressing, cleaning, toothbrushing, organising my clothes) it quickly gets 10 o’clock or later, and in this time of double or triple burden, the only luxury I give myself is sleep (and I don’t want to hurry through my evening routine). I wouldn’t like my son to go to sleep without his mum praying with him and giving him a good-night kiss at the bedside, and after that I need some time to unwind after a restless and stressful day. Thus, getting up in the early morning is not an option at the moment.

    1. Hi Ann – I can see this arrangement with your son would have worked very well when he was younger and went to bed earlier. And that it will become impractical for you to continue this as he grows older, goes to bed later and becomes more independent. The only options I can therefore suggest in the meantime are to continue to sleep with your window closed (not ideal) or move to a home in a quieter location, if you possibly can.

  4. I would love to keep the window open, but traffic begins to be really noisy at around 5 or 5.30 a.m. and it really disturbs my sleep in the early morning. Any ideas what I could do? (I go to bed between 10.30 and 11 p.m. and I really need my 7-8 hours of sleep.)

    1. Hi Ann – I had a similar problem during the 20 years I lived in Bali, except that the noise was from neighbours’ cockerels, not traffic. They would start crowing at dawn, which interrupted my morning meditation. The solution I found was simple — go to bed earlier and get up before the cockerels. It became a way of life for me, as this article explains: Early rising. I grew to genuinely love early rising and still do it to this day, even though it’s ten years since I lived in Bali. Early morning is the best part of the day, when everything is fresh and new. Early rising has far more benefits than staying up late. I sincerely recommend you give it a try.

  5. That makes a lot of sense, but my partner won’t sleep with the window open (is scared of spiders). Any ideas what I could do? Thanks.

    1. Here in Australia where spiders and other nasties can be a serious menace if they get inside the home, all windows are fitted with nets. If these aren’t standard in your country, search for “fly screen nets” or ‘”insect mesh” to find options in your part of the world.

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