Differences in environmental perception of gender and sleep quality in self-regulating sleep thermal environment

Abstract

This study was to explore gender differences in response to subjective comfortable thermal environment by performing human experiments in summer. A total of six discontinuous conditions for self-regulating ambient temperature were designed with five males and five females. Sleep onset latency and slow wave sleep, from the physiological indices of electroencephalograph, electromyography and electrooculography, measure sleep quality objectively. Results indicate that gender differences in subjective temperature preferences, thermal sensation and sleep quality are reflected by temperature or temperature intervals. In particular, women have a significantly higher temperature range than men. Meanwhile, the temperature sections of males and females corresponding to thermal sensation and sleep quality are summarized under the same thermal resistance. Moreover, the results of temperature difference between men and women on thermal perception and sleep quality showed that the temperature difference of subjective sleep quality coincides with the objective one, but greater than the subjective thermal perception results implying that a greater discrepancy between males and females in sleep thermal physiological needs than during their awake.