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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To sleep with the windows open?

119 replies

SunSunGoAwayButNotCompletelyPlease · 18/06/2023 00:15

All the bedrooms are on the first floor and it's gets really hot and stuffy if we don't open the windows wide. It always makes me a bit uncomfortable though.

What do other people do?

OP posts:
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JaceLancs · 20/06/2023 18:51

Open all year round - as wide as possible in summer - I do have insect netting though which also stopped the cats leaping in!

ithinkifeelaliveagain · 20/06/2023 18:47

I don’t think I could sleep in a downstairs room because I have to have the window open but I’m also scared of people climbing in. In theory the dogs would bark, but in the past someone came into our house at night and the dogs didn’t even wake up despite them behaving like guarding the house from every human that so much as walks past the garden is their main life goal the rest of the time!

SchoolShenanigans · 20/06/2023 17:53

We use a fan, I hate the idea of mosquitoes under the sheets!

Sunnysal · 20/06/2023 17:47

I live in NE Spain and its usual to have bars and net on windows. Our windows are always open unless the air con is on!

ghostyslovesheets · 20/06/2023 17:44

Nugg · 18/06/2023 01:01

Same. Can't bear it closed.

Yes - same here - I hate being stuffy - even in January

Tereseta · 20/06/2023 17:42

ForensicFlossy · 18/06/2023 00:17

I have the bedroom window open 24/7 365 days a year!

This ⏫️
We have them all open rain wind and shine.

Lamelie · 20/06/2023 17:38

ForensicFlossy · 18/06/2023 00:17

I have the bedroom window open 24/7 365 days a year!

Me too. And anyone who doesn’t is a skank Wink

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 20/06/2023 17:36

Why are you uncomfortable? Afraid of burglars, or insects?

Personally I can’t imagine sleeping with windows closed, especially in summer.

Mars27 · 20/06/2023 17:26

You stayed in a 5* hotel; even if the hotel didn't "give" you water I'm sure you could have afforded to buy a bottle of water.

Unless your hotel was the middle of the Sahara desert that that makes no sense.

mogtheexcellent · 20/06/2023 15:08

we have a small window open all year round. Currently the two big ones are open too. theres a latch to keep them open about 3 or 4 inches.

Never felt so ill as the time we stayed in a supposedly 5* hotel and our ground floor room only had patio doors so we had to sleep with them shut. And they wouldnt give us water to drink Angry. I spenbd hours on rightmove wondering why there are only juliet balcony doors on some bedrooms and trying to work out how they could change to normal windows.

bonfirebash · 20/06/2023 15:00

I didn't get bitten but that might have been because my reaction was to open all the doors, run outside and contemplate moving house

Mars27 · 20/06/2023 12:56

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn

"Bat Bite Reporting Hotline", I'm dead 😂😂😂

(Not that I'm doubting the PP, mind you)

GeraltsBathtub · 20/06/2023 09:09

I like to sleep with the windows open but in reality my neighbourhood is too noisy for it

jc12689 · 20/06/2023 09:06

I used to work in this area, and it was amazing how many people in the UK wake to find a bat flying around their bedroom and try to shoo it out and get bitten, or wake when they are bitten at night whilst sleeping.

well if you work in that area you're bound to come across people who have encountered bats, but I'm 50 years old and sleep with the window open and have never woken up and found a bat in the room. Pretty sure I've never been bitten by one either. It's definitely not a reason to keep the windows closed.

On the ground floor I'd be cautious of it but not upstairs.

BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn · 20/06/2023 08:58

And in answer to the original.question, I only close my bedroom window at night if the temperature drops below -10°C or winds go above 70mph. And then sleep badly because it's stuffy.

BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn · 20/06/2023 08:54

I used to work in this area, and it was amazing how many people in the UK wake to find a bat flying around their bedroom and try to shoo it out and get bitten, or wake when they are bitten at night whilst sleeping!

Where did you work, the Bat Bite Reporting Hotline? I don't know anyone who's been bitten by a bat, and I know loads of people who live rurally with every window and door permanently open. I do know someone who was bitten by a badger, but it didn't get in through a window.

Even I've never been bitten by a bat, and absolutely everything bites me. Ticks, leeches, insects (not just the usual suspects, I've been bitten by ladybirds), fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals of all shapes and sizes have had a go. A tiny lizard once clamped its jaws onto the end of my little toe and sat there for about 10 minutes trying to work out how to swallow the rest of me. The largest thing that's bitten me with intent - drawing considerable amounts of blood - was a Shire horse, but I've also had an elephant stuff my hand in its mouth (that more of a suck than a bite). I have been playfully chewed by lions and violently snapped at by toads, but I have never been been so much as nibbled by a bat.

ThursdayFreedom · 20/06/2023 08:40

SunSunGoAwayButNotCompletelyPlease · 19/06/2023 23:52

Ladder?

I do mean first floor but it wouldn't be that hard to get in. If it was the kind of window that opens from bottom to top (I think they might be called ventilators??) or if it was too small for a human to enter I wouldn't be bothered but with this one it would be quite easy to prise fully open and to then get in.

@SunSunGoAwayButNotCompletelyPlease

if a burglar wants to carry a ladder around with him, then good luck to him. If he came here, he wouldn't need to 'prise' anything open, the windows are wide open. A burglar is MUCH more likely to prise or break a downstairs door/window open before they start climbing a ladder to enter a bedroom window.

besides if they did they wake me the minute the put the ladder against the wall, if not before.

IF by some chance they did get in, they'd only have themselves to blame for the lifetime therapy they'd need. Middle aged, overweight, person/people starfishing (or worse). 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I think you need to really think about the reality of a burglar with a ladder entering your first floor bedroom window & weigh that up against getting some air in the bedroom.

ThirtyThrillionThreeTrees · 20/06/2023 00:56

I do it all the time. I reckons the heat will kill me before any burglar will.

UnctuousUnicorns · 20/06/2023 00:45

I sleep with the window open near enough 365 days of the year, unless there's a howling gale with dashing rain. 🤷‍♀️

Mars27 · 20/06/2023 00:38

I bought nets and strong Velcro from Amazon and voilà, I can keep my windows open all summer long and no mosquitoes, flies, moths or other God forsaken creature invading my home

AnyFucker · 20/06/2023 00:03

I have our bedroom and upstairs landing windows open. They are on the 1st floor though with smallish top openings. A burglar could theoretically get in but would make a shitload of noise.
The back bedroom window which overlooks the flat roof ground floor extension is kept closed and locked though.

NoSquirrels · 19/06/2023 23:55

SunSunGoAwayButNotCompletelyPlease · 19/06/2023 23:52

Ladder?

I do mean first floor but it wouldn't be that hard to get in. If it was the kind of window that opens from bottom to top (I think they might be called ventilators??) or if it was too small for a human to enter I wouldn't be bothered but with this one it would be quite easy to prise fully open and to then get in.

Opportunistic burglars don’t carry ladders. And if they did, it wouldn’t be very stealthy.

You really don’t need to worry about it.

SunSunGoAwayButNotCompletelyPlease · 19/06/2023 23:52

ThursdayFreedom · 18/06/2023 08:03

@SunSunGoAwayButNotCompletelyPlease

Do you mean Ground Floor, not first floor?

if you do mean first floor how do you think people are going to get in?

Ladder?

I do mean first floor but it wouldn't be that hard to get in. If it was the kind of window that opens from bottom to top (I think they might be called ventilators??) or if it was too small for a human to enter I wouldn't be bothered but with this one it would be quite easy to prise fully open and to then get in.

OP posts:
Thereoughttobeclowns · 18/06/2023 17:39

I once woke up to 3 fruit bats in my bedroom. But that was in Thailand.

In England, I am not worried about bats, spiders, burglars or homicidal maniacs with a ladder. I will risk all that for fresh and clean air all year round and never having a stuffy bedroom.

We have a holiday home in a country with a tropical climate. We have AC, but it just isn't the same as sleeping with proper, fresh air.

Fairislefandango · 18/06/2023 17:37

Closed, don’t listen to them they’re just following the crowd in true MN fashion.

There isn't just one crowd. There is a massive 'scared of germs/strangers/dirt/insects/extremely unlikely dangers' crowd on MN which the 'windows closed' posters could equally be accused of following. Having your bedroom window open is a perfectly normal and healthy thing to do.

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