Wrist to Rest: A pilot study to characterize sleep habits and bedroom environments using scalable watch-based microsurveys

Abstract: Rising temperatures from climate change and urban development can disrupt sleep and discourage outdoor activities, especially in already hot and humid places. The high prevalence of sleep deprivation in Singapore, linked to health and economic consequences, emphasizes the importance of addressing sleep quality in working-age adults. This paper outlines the methodology and preliminary results of the field-based portion of a study on understanding and mitigating the impacts of urban heat on sleep and physical activity. The study uses an open-source data collection framework to acquire data from participants and their bedrooms using a smartwatch application and environmental sensors. Most of the participants (70%) did not report a preference to change the thermal environment of the bedroom, while 29% preferred a cooler environment. The most frequently reported reasons for sleep disruptions were bathroom visits (34%) and being too hot (21%). These preliminary insights highlight the value of combining subjective and sensor-based data and set the stage for a broader data collection across 150 participants, which will enable deeper analyses of how bedroom environments and cooling behaviors impact sleep in tropical urban contexts.

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