Best air purifiers for sleep and the bedroom

Working to get the best rest possible at night will mean you wake up feeling refreshed, energized and ready to tackle the day ahead.

Using an air purifier in the bedroom can have a wide range of positive effects. From better quality of sleep, waking up feeling more rested and can even help to improve skin conditions, mood and concentration levels.

Also improving the quality of the air, you breath in while sleeping, will mean you are breathing in less dust, pollutants and germs.

Almost a third of a persons life is spent sleeping. This means one of the easiest ways you can improve your overall health, is by ensuring that the place you sleep is filled with pure, fresh air!

It is definitely worth investing in a good night’s sleep.

This can mean anything from buying high quality pillows and bedding, to ensuring you have a great mattress and the often lesser considered air purifier for the bedroom.

A bedroom air purifier is often overlooked as an effective way to improve the quality of sleep.

This guide will run through the impact of bad sleep, causes and reasons for poor sleep as well as explaining why and how an air purifier can help ensure a good night’s sleep!

Sleep is an incredibly important part of everyday life, it’s our bodies way of resetting, recharging and processing information from the past day. Getting good amounts of sleep is an incredibly important way to ensure the body has enough energy to perform at optimal levels the next day.

A good night’s sleep has so many benefits its insane! From helping to improve concentration levels, reducing depression and also correlating to a higher level of performance in career and academic pursuits.

Sleep is when the brain rests and goes through a process of repairing, forgetting unneeded information and rebuilding damaged neural pathways.

The more oxygen your body absorbs whilst sleeping the better it can restore itself.

Now that we understand why sleep important for the body to reset, process and delete information, we need to understand what the signs of bad sleep are.

Sleeping badly will mean your body isn’t able to recover and operate at its best.

The most common signs of bad sleep include the following:

• Difficulty getting to sleep – taking a long time to drift off to sleep
• Waking up frequently in the night – generally being unsettled when sleeping
• Coughing during the night, due to poor air quality
• Restlessness when sleeping – tossing and turning
• Sensitive to noise in the night – due to sleeping lightly
• Waking up early and not be able to go back to sleep

The signs and causes of poor sleep can take place for lots of reasons, but simple changes to your current habits can make a big difference to the amount of quality sleep you get each night. This will also improve your mood and performance the following day.

If you suffer from any of the listed signs of bad sleep, it would be well worth investigating the cause and thinking about what small changes you can make to your sleep routine and habits. As these small tweaks could result in a big improvement to the quality of the sleep, you get each night.

Know that we know what bad sleep looks like, we can think about how these signs of poor sleep impact on day to day life.

If you are experiencing the signs of bad sleep, like restlessness at night or waking up frequently during the night. Then you may well find the following symptoms of poor sleep familiar.

Common symptoms of poor sleep include the following:

• Lots of yawning during the day
• Fatigue and general low energy levels
• Moodiness – a short tempered nature
• Depressed mindset – struggling to see positives in life
• Irritable and grumpy outlook
• Forgetfulness – struggling to recall details and dates
• Unable to concentrate – having a short attention span
• Difficulty with learning new information

Obviously suffering from the listed symptoms of poor sleep, can dramatically affect your day to day life. So there are clear benefits to trying to resolve some of these issues.

Sleep problems can be caused by environmental, physical and mental issues. So when tackling sleep issues, it is best to try and figure out what type of problem is resulting in a lack of sleep.

Modern day life can be a very hectic, stressful and unhealthy place, so several issues or situations can contribute to poor sleep.

The following extensive list shows a wide range of causes of sleep issues and gives an idea of what may be causing poor sleep.

1. Breathing issues
A chesty cough, cold or flu can be a major hinderance to a getting a good night’s sleep. If you are having trouble sleeping at night due to a cough, this can mean the difference between waking up rested and lengthening the impact of a cold and felling unwell.

2. Asthma
Asthma can be a very serious medical condition which is often difficult at night and can mean trouble getting to and staying asleep. A purifier will not cure asthma, but it can help to lessen the symptoms of the medical condition.

3. Congestion
Congestion can take on many forms including stuffy or runny noses, sinus headaches, shortness of breath or sneezing. None of which are key ingredients for a good night’s sleep!

4. Depression
Depression or worries can be a common cause for sleeping badly or even mean you sleep for longer than is needed.

5. Alcohol consumption
Consuming too much alcohol during an evening or the day before sleeping can make it is hard to get a good nights rest. Often alcohol consumption results in dehydration and will mean you wake up feeling unsettled during the night or wake feeling unrested the next day.

6. Food intake
If you have eaten too much before going to bed this can mean you are unable to sleep well due to feeling uncomfortable due to your stomach working hard to process foods.

7. Bedding and night clothes
A more overlooked cause of sleep issues could be scratchy or irritating bedding or sheets or even being too hot or cold in bed.

8. Temperature
Sudden changes in temperature can make it difficult to sleep at night and may mean you wake frequently during the night.

9. Noise pollution
Uncontrollable noise like traffic sounds or creaking of your house or flat, may be enough to keep you awake at night. Noise can seem like a small issue but can become incredibly annoying if it occurs over a long time frame and can’t be resolved.

Several air purifiers feature white or pink noise sound functions. This means the purifier produces soft noise when in sleep mode to help you sleep easily at night.

Using a purifier with a white or pink noise generating feature, can be a great way to handle noise pollution as it gives you a pleasant noise to focus on to help you drift off to sleep.

10. Odors
Less of a mainstream issue, but small irritations can make it hard to sleep. So, if you are annoyed by smelling an unpleasant odor when trying to sleep this may stop you from getting a good night rest.

11. Stress due to work
Many people suffer from work related stress and modern day careers can be incredibly stressful due to the use of modern technology. As emails are always available to be checked this can make it hard to switch off from ‘work mode’. If you don’t give your brain the time it needs to wind down before sleeping, you may find it hard to get to sleep due to thinking about work tasks.

12. Life events – worry
Life can be a stress inducing affair and relationships, house worries, or families can frequently lead to stress and strife. This can easily preoccupy your mind when it comes to the time to sleep and cause poor sleeping conditions.

13. Financial issues
Money worries may keep you up at night and over the long term, poor sleep will only make your financial situation worse! As ultimately the solution to some money issues is to work more or harder to earn extra money to pay off debts.

Money troubles can be a real struggle on less than optimal sleep levels.

14. Having small children
Small kids generally don’t sleep well, and parents have to endure broken sleep patterns. Where possible work to maximise the sleep, you do get. By trying to sleep deeply when you can get some much needed rest!

Just scanning through this list shows how many different factors could be hindering a good nights rest.

Even if you can’t resolve the issue directly, making sure your sleep environment is optimal, can help to reduce the impact of conditions which are resulting in poor sleep.

Customer reviews for leading air purifiers frequently mention that they have helped users get better quality and more restorative sleep.

An air purifier can help you sleep better in a number of ways due to their features and air purification process.

The following four areas, are the key ways in which an air purifier can help you sleep better if used frequently.

1. Improves air quality
Purifiers work constantly to removes pet hair, smoke, odors, dust particles and mites from the air you breathe in whilst sleeping. Improving air quality is a key way to improve the recovery rate of your body and will mean you lungs are working less to introduce clean air back into your body. Ultimately any of the air the purifier cleans, will save energy and resources for your lungs to clean the air!

2. Reduces dust in air
A good purifier will grab dust from the air of your bedroom before it gets the chance to settle which means the air quality in the room will be greatly improved. Dust is not only difficult for lungs to process and filter, but also can cause sneezing and congestion.

3. White noise – comforting and relaxing
Several air purifiers feature a white or pink noise function which means the purifier creates a soothing noise when operating in sleep mode. Lots of people find this feature to be a great way to drift off to sleep and notice that is leads to deeper more restorative sleep.
White or pink noise can also be a good option to cancel out noise pollution, as the feature can be used to override jarring noises. By replacing unwanted sounds with settling and soothing background sound.

4. Night light
Some purifiers feature a night light feature, which provides a soft and pleasant ambient light. This light may even pulse or change color. Depending on your preference this can be a good way to relax and slow your brain down. Night lights features on purifiers can be particularly useful for helping to kids who are afraid of the dark, get to sleep.

There are a number of compelling reasons to use an air purifier in a bedroom, including the following points:

1. Helps to create a sleep zone
Using a purifier helps to create a sleep zone which promotes high quality air and great quality sleep. The brain loves routines, and by creating a sleep zone with a set routine of steps to take before sleeping, you may be surprised by how much more restorative and beneficial sleep actually is.

2. White noise may improve sleep quality
Some air purifiers use white or pink noise when running in sleep mode. This feature can greatly improve the quality and depth of sleep you get at night. If you get more deep sleep, you are more likely to wake up feeling revived and ready to tackle the day ahead.
Even if a purifier doesn’t produce white or pink noise, the fan sound (when the purifier is running at low speeds) can be more than enough to make you sleep well.

3. Feel more rested when waking up the next day
When air quality of a bedroom is improved, you will sleep more deeply, and your body and mind will get more recovery time. When this happens, you will wake up feeling more rested and have more energy and concentration for the day ahead.

4. Reduces pollutants in the air for sleepy time
Using a purifier to remove pollutants from the air will mean you lungs have to work less during the night. This means your body can instead focus its energy on recovering and resting. Also, less pollutants in the air will lower the chances of waking up due to coughing and restlessness during the night.

5. May help improve skin condition
In some cases, using an air purifier at night has helped to improve skin conditions as the purifier will remove germs from the air of a bedroom which may be causing skin issues.

6. Improves mood and concentration levels
Since using an air purifier, lots of people find that they have better concentration during the day and an improved mood. This makes sense as the brain and body will get more recovery time and you will have greater reserves of energy for the day ahead due to the improved quality of sleep you get each night thanks to a purifier.
After using a purifier at night for a few weeks it is very common to notice improved health, mood and increased concentration throughout the day.

When selecting or buying an air purifier for the bedroom, you will need to think about the following:

Size of your bedroom – power capabilities
Make sure to choose a purifier with a power output which is suitable for the size of your bedroom. Where possible opt for a purifier which is capable of handling a room larger in capacity than your bedroom, this means you can use it for other rooms in your home too.

Noise levels – quiet or white noise
Make sure you select a purifier which is quiet when running at various fan speeds and has a dedicated sleep or night mode. If desirable, look for a purifier which has a white noise or pink noise feature. As this can greatly improve the quality of sleep, you will experience at night.

Sleep mode features
Find a purifier which has a specific night or sleep mode and relevant sleep features like white noise creation, night light, dimmed controls when being used at night or auto light level detection.
If one of the key reasons for buying a purifier is to use it at night, then make sure it is specifically tailored to this use and up to the job!

Night light
Not all purifiers feature lights or night lights, so if this is a feature you are looking for make sure the purifiers you are researching have this feature.
Some purifiers designed for kids and babies even have light shows or changing night light colours which can be very relaxing when trying to get to sleep.

White / pink noise – sound generator
If you think ambient background noise will help you sleep, then look out for a purifier which has a white or pink noise function. This tends to trigger when purifiers are set to night or sleep mode.
Even if a purifier doesn’t have a specific noise creating feature, the low fan speed setting can provide a soothing sound at night.

Portability
This may not be a factor for everyone but once you buy a purifier for use in the bedroom, you may love it so much that you want to use it in other areas of the home. So make sure you choose a purifier which is portable – if this is a desired need.

One question which comes up frequently in customer comments, is whether an air purifier can be used overnight. This can present a number of concerns including thoughts about safety, running costs and energy consumption levels.

If you want to leave an air purifier running overnight there are a number of steps, you can take which will give you peace of mind.

Trip switch – surge protector breaker
Using a surge protector on power outlets will provide confidence that there if an electrical failure does happen, the air purifier unit will be switched off automatically.

Using as a night light
If you want to have a purifier running overnight in kids bedroom or babies nursery, then you should opt for a purifier which has a night light function as this can help children feel safe, relaxed and soothe them to sleep.

Run on low setting – less noise
If opting to leave a purifier running overnight, make sure it on a low setting to keep noise levels from the fan to a minimum.

Consider power usage
Most purifiers will give an idea of their energy consumption levels. So this information should be compared when buying or selecting a purifier. To make sure the unit uses low amounts of energy when running.

Many purifier brands also showcase if their products are Energy Star Certified which is a good indicator that costs to run the purifier unit will be low.

Most purifiers are incredibly energy efficient. Often using less power than a light bulb! The average wattage we have found is around 60w which is incredibly low and affordable even if the purifier is used a lot!

The placement of an air purifier can make a big impact on its level of effectiveness.

Ideally a purifier should be placed well away from any walls to allow for sufficient ventilation and above the floor level to enable the purifier to capture dust in the air not just ground level.

Often it makes sense to place a purifier in the bedroom on a bedside table as this will mean the purifier is off the ground and has enough clearance from walls.

Two other considerations in terms of placement, which are more about user friendliness than effectiveness, is to be careful with cables to avoid trips or knocking the purifier over and to not place the unit at eye level as this can be incredibly annoying at night due to bright lights potentially keeping you awake.

As part of the research for this content, we reviewed over 3,000 customer reviews across 5 top selling air purifier products.

Sleep related terms were frequently mentioned and are a key reason for buying an air purifier.

The table below shows how frequently each listed keyword was mentioned in reviews from customers and what percentage of reviews for the top 5 products contained the keyword.

Product reviews from customers often talk about air purifiers help them to sleep better, enjoying using the night light feature, how quiet the purifiers are and running overnight in the bedroom.

The fact that terms like quiet, sleep and bedroom are mentioned so frequently in customer reviews (above 15% of all reviews) is a very reassuring indicator that lots of people find air purifiers help them sleep better.