Sleep is important for numerous regulatory processes of health and cognition and sleep impairments can lead to impairments in these outcomes. Sleep and breathing disorders such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) have been well documented in impairing sleep, health and cognitive outcomes. While breathing disorders such as OSA have been well documented in their outcomes, the relationship has not been studied much for healthy breathers. Other factors surrounding the sleep environment of an individual, such as the temperature of their bedroom, ambient light exposure and noise have been shown to contribute to poorer sleep and cognitive performance but little work has examined the quality of the bedroom air. Additionally, research suggests that poor air quality leads to cognitive impairment. This study investigated the relationship between bedroom air quality, sleep quality and cognition. Sixty-one participants used two devices to record particulate matter and carbon dioxide (CO2) within their bedroom, wore an actigraph, and completed a daily sleep diary and cognitive battery for three days. Results were analyzed via a multi-level mediation regression to examine the direct and indirect relationships of air quality on cognition through sleep within and between participants. High CO2 was found to negatively influence both objective and subjective sleep quality as well as directly but not indirectly reducing working memory performance. More sleep disturbances were found to impair working memory performance. This research highlights the importance of having clean air within sleep environments and the importance of breathing during sleep for individuals, regardless of sleep disorder diagnosis.
