The development of an objective method for evaluating transient sleeping environments

Poor sleep is the key sleep attribute that affects the overall recuperative quality of the sleep state [1]. A common approach in human sleep testing is to use subjects in an environmental chamber [2-4]. One of the significant limitations of this testing is its subjectivity and the small number of subjects [5]. The use of thermal manikins to measure thermal and vapour resistance is a standard method adopted for assessment of sleeping bags and has also been used to measure these attributes of a range of bedding systems, as well as different sleepwear [6].