The Old-Fashioned Secret to Better, Healthier Sleep
Do you sleep in fresh air? The average person will answer, ‘Yes.’ Nearly everyone has experienced the effects of sleeping in a closed room, and, in doing so, has roused with a feeling of suffocation or dull headache. An open window in the sleeping room seems almost a necessity. –Suburban Life Magazine, 1913
According to the McKays:
[The] . . . studies, while suggestive, certainly don’t prove that sleeping with your windows open will preserve or enhance your health. But the real reason to adopt the practice isn’t ultimately scientific, but experiential. Anecdotally, I know when I sleep with the windows open at night, I sleep more deeply and restfully, and wake up feeling refreshed and in a better mood. Is it the constant influx of oxygen? The soothing symphony of night noises? Just something intangible about the effects of fresh air? Beats me, but it does seem to work.
The article is a good read.