The Windowless Bedroom Debate Heats Up

Updated March 8, 2024

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As a nationwide housing shortage continues to drive rental prices sky high, a debate about allowing more windowless bedrooms – one possible solution to adding more inventory – is heating up.

Proponents view unused office space as an untapped resource. Those opposed question the potential negative health effects on people, particularly regarding fresh air, natural light, and sleep.

Bedrooms without windows already exist. Sometimes these are unorthodox, potentially illegal arrangements that leverage attics, basements, or storage rooms like a pantry or walk-in closet for a sleep space. In population-dense environments like New York City, it is also common to create bedrooms out of larger spaces like living rooms, using temporary walls that cut off access to the windows, even though these violate building codes. But some building codes do allow window-free housing, such as at some state university dorms.

The debate over these rooms kicked into high gear last year when New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams called for new rules to allow for windowless bedrooms, which could help repurpose the city’s vacant office space and promote housing affordability. Philadelphia and Washington D.C., which do not specifically ban windowless bedrooms, have seen more empty offices successfully converted to housing than New York.

But it’s not just a big-city issue. Austin, Texas, passed a resolution last year to ban new housing with such bedrooms. The University of California Santa Barbara abandoned plans to build a dorm funded by a wealthy donor that would have featured windowless rooms.

In the late 1800s, industrialization and rapid immigration saw overcrowded tenement housing in many American cities, where small rooms were so poorly ventilated, hot, and stifling that sleep was nearly impossible. Progressive-era activists helped push cities like New York to adopt building codes that banned bedrooms without windows.

According to Architectural Digest, Mayor Adams argued in favor of overturning the ban, telling a crowd, “You know, when you sleep, it should be dark.” But does the mayor’s view of windowless bedrooms tell the full story?

Good ventilation is important no matter where you sleep, and recent research has shown that better air quality and sleep quality go hand in hand. Trusted Source Science Direct The leading platform of peer-reviewed literature that helps you move your research forward. View Source But even when a bedroom has a window, people still tend to sleep with it closed. So, good ventilation is important regardless of whether or not a window is present. A bedroom may also benefit from an air filtration system that removes indoor air pollutants and particulate matter.

And while Mayor Adams is right that darkness is good for sleep, a natural, gradual increase in light helps tell the body’s clock when it is time to wake up. Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source Those who sleep in bedrooms with no access to natural light might want to consider a circadian rhythm light. These lights operate on a timer and naturally increase light in the room based on when it is daylight outside or when you set your alarm.

While bedrooms without views may be a way to help solve the housing crunch, concerns about sleeping in them can’t go out the window. Ensuring they have plenty of fresh air and the right daytime lighting could help all rest easier.

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Written By

Michael Hines, Contributing Writer

Michael Hines is a freelance researcher and writer based in Brooklyn, New York. For 20 years, he has written on various health and consumer topics, including healthcare employment, telemedicine, obesity, immunotherapy, genomics, and sleep products. He also writes on topics such as technology and AI, public policy, finance and investing, and sustainability practices.

Learn more about our Editorial Team

References
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