Human Thermal Comfort Design of Bedding Micro Climate for Sleep Health

LI Jiangyong; PENG Ziting; LIANG Wen; HUANG Shaowei; HU Xiaolu; CAO Wan; GAN Yu

doi:10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.04.022

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Packaging Engineering ›› 2026, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (4) : 255-268. DOI: 10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.04.022

Industrial Design

Human Thermal Comfort Design of Bedding Micro Climate for Sleep Health

LI Jiangyong^a, PENG Ziting^b, LIANG Wen^a, HUANG Shaowei^a, HU Xiaolu^b, CAO Wan^b, GAN Yu^a,*

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Abstract

To address the lack of accurate temperature design standard in the local heating scheme of intelligent mattress and other products, the work aims to explore the thermal comfort temperature range of human body in the bedding micro climate to improve the sleep health level. In this experiment, 20 healthy adults (half male and half female) were subjected to multi gradient local heating on the back and feet in a 12 ℃ artificial climate chamber. The subjective thermal response (TSV, TCV, TAV) and objective physiological parameters (LF/HF in MST, HRV) were simultaneously collected, and systematically quantified by statistical analysis and regression fitting. The results showed that local heating significantly improved the overall thermal sensation, and was positively correlated with the heating temperature. The effect of back heating to improve thermal comfort was better than that of feet. There was a significant difference in heat demand between men and women, and women were more sensitive to temperature. The study quantified that the comfort zone of the back of all subjects was 37.4~39.5 ℃ (neutral 38.8 ℃), and the comfort zone of the feet was 38.7~40.9 ℃ (neutral 40.5 ℃). The temperature of male backs was 37.1~40.2 ℃ (neutral 38.8 ℃) and that of feet was 37.5~40.6 ℃ (neutral 39.7 ℃). The temperature of female backs was 37.5~39.9 ℃ (neutral 38.9 ℃) and that of the feet was 39.5~42.1 ℃ (neutral 41.0 ℃), and the analysis of physiological parameters further verified the validity of this interval. Local heating in the bedding micro climate can effectively improve thermal comfort, with significant gender differences observed. Back heating outperforms foot heating in both comfort and energy efficiency. Through the integration of subjective and objective data, this study identifies comfortable temperature ranges tailored to different genders, providing a scientific basis for the zonal temperature control design of smart sleep products.

Key words

HTC / human thermal comfort / sleep health / bedding micro climate / local heating

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LI Jiangyong, PENG Ziting, LIANG Wen, HUANG Shaowei, HU Xiaolu, CAO Wan, GAN Yu. Human Thermal Comfort Design of Bedding Micro Climate for Sleep Health[J]. Packaging Engineering. 2026, 47(4): 255-268 https://doi.org/10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.04.022

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