Sleep and the City

As someone who has suffered from insomnia for many years, the environment for good sleep is something that I have been obsessing over for a while. There has been an increasing awareness in society on the health implications of sleep deprivation and a movement towards prioritising good sleep habits to promote a raft of mental, emotional and physical benefits. In a world where lifestyles are fast paced, people are becoming increasingly deliberate in the setup of their sleep environment - for example, the blackout of external lights, muting of external noise, introducing sleep-inducing smells, and reduced screen time. The interior design of a home or hotel room conducive for sleep plays a particularly pivotal role in vibrant cities such as London. And it is this exact topic that was discussed at the Global Design Forum as part of the London Design Festival 2024. 

The topic “The Healthy City: Sleep and the City”, hosted by Chris Sanderson , Co-Founder of The Future Laboratory, was discussed amongst the panelists Jacu Strauss, Creative Director of Lore Group, Katherine Templar Lewis, Co-Founder of Kinda Studios, Michael Edwards, Director at Arup, and Shumi Bose, Architect, Curator & Lecturer at University of the Arts, London.

The discussion kicked off with the question: How does design impact sleep? Jacu introduced the bed as being the focal point, with comfort being the emphasis. From a hotel design perspective, Jacu expressed the preference to return to basics for good sleep rather than just designing for style, though he highlights the challenge of ‘no one size fits all’ for hotel room design given the wide range of clients a hotel serves.

Within the context of the city, the panelist addressed a range of environmental challenges to good quality sleep, including:

• Higher external light and noise pollution;

• Fast paced stressors of the city spilling into the resting space;

• Different sleeping times for people in the city creating a 24/7 overstimulation in the surrounding environment;

• Social jet lag, where our busy social lives are conflicting with our biological nature to rest;

• The constant exposure to subsonic waves in cities, causing poorer conditions for sleep;

• With people spending 90% of their time indoors, we are attaining insufficient amounts of sun exposure to allow for optimal regulation of our circadian rhythm; and

• Climate change and overheated buildings affecting sleep patterns.

“[We need to be] designing for sleep hygiene.”

- Katherine Templar Lewis

Designing for hotel bedrooms specifically, was identified with its own separate set of challenges, including:

• Creating comfort for clients with jet lag without taking away too much of the buzz of the city that visitors wish to be a part of;

• Catering for different individuals with a wide variation of sleep patterns and comfort needs, as hotel designers find themselves searching for that ‘sweet spot’ that will satisfy their target market of clients; and

• The hotel ultimately being a business, and therefore ‘sleep’ is not the sole element to be considered in the design of a guest room.

Michael delved into the topic of the inequality of sleep and highlighted how socio-economic stressors have forced built environments to have increasingly smaller living spaces. Katherine pointed to the correlation between poverty and lower quality of sleep, and questioned how new housing should be designed to support these stressors.

Michael also addressed the overheating of homes from climate change, and how this needs to be resolved, not by installation of air conditioning units, but rather via the ongoing government debate of quantity versus quality of. new housing. The global warming impact on older structures was also considered by Jacu, commenting on the idea of retrofitting a centuries old building in a manner that feels natural; he noted the cultural considerations of the users of the space, as some individuals would prefer to have access to an open window for the outside breeze as opposed to an artificial wind source (i.e. air conditioning).

The panel of speakers then delved into the history of human sleep:

• People have historically slept in groups as private rooms were reserved for the wealthy;

• Biphasic sleep, to sleep in two segments in a day, is our biological sleep pattern which was a normal and done in previous centuries;

• Modern labour demands of working a 9-5 day, have forced people to connect and compress their sleep cycles into a single block of sleep to meet the necessity to be productive the next day;

• People now worry about ‘sleep’ due to the impact on the next day caused by socio-politcal environment that requires profits and productivity; and

• We are the only species that deliberately delay sleep unless in danger.

“We have historically not seen sleep as an entirely

private activity” ; “Rest is resistance.”

- Shumi Bose

The panel explored possible ideas and solutions to support sleep quality and to stretch our night time economy, Shumi spoke about the existence of VR sleep rooms, which allow people who are in need of support to virtually sleep together in a sleep conducive space (e.g. a darken room with soft music and sounds of rain playing). This concept is already being experienced in real world application such as sleep on the aeroplane and the Korean culture of group napping in bathhouses.

Michael, on the other hand, addressed the struggles of the shift worker who sleeps during the day, and suggested the exploration of UK building regulations to allow for solutions such as external window shutters as seen across Continental Europe. Interestingly, whilst there is a general theme at various stage talks discussing the need for workplace design to attract employees back to the office, Michael also advocated for continued work flexibility to allow people to take back control on their biphasic sleep patterns.

Jacu also addressed flexible working impacting on hotel design, as the historical design restriction of having a bed and a desk no longer applies. Instead, people now work when and how they wish, and therefore hotel bedroom designs are more fluid, with the sofa and laptop side table being examples of multifunctional pieces for both work and relaxation.

The floor was opened up to the audience, with some suggesting ideas of bringing ‘slow hospitality’ into hotels, designing hotels for wellbeing and not for style, introducing circadian lighting systems into the bedroom, and recognising ‘sick building syndrome’ and designing from there. On closing of the stage talk, it was obvious discussions were far from over, as the topic of ‘sleep’ holds many pathways. However, the design of a bedroom remains an important starting point, as it fundamentally sets the scene for the remainder of one’s night (or day) sleep.