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Original poster

If your bedrooms are on the ground or first floor...

67 replies

CottagePieLaLaLa · 26/07/2023 14:25

Do you sleep with the windows open when it's very hot at night? I'm not talking about the transom windows, but the actual, full-size windows. We have been doing so (first floor) because when it gets too hot it's that, or no sleep. But we were talking to friends who said it's quite a risk because anyone could climb in.

Our thinking is that if someone wanted to come in they would either try the front or back door, or a room where they can see there is nobody sleeping... Is that not the case?

Do you all sleep with the windows shut even when it's very hot if you don't have transom windows? Even if your bedrooms are on the ground or first floor?

OP posts:
shivawn · 26/07/2023 16:19

First floor and there's a main road behind our garden so we never open the windows at night or we'd be woken up by sirens etc. We use a fan if it's hot.

Niftyswiftie · 26/07/2023 16:20

We live in a bungalow and our windows are open 24/7.

Emmaemmeline · 26/07/2023 16:20

We live in a bungalow , so bedroom on ground floor and window not open at night , just locked ajar
When we lived in a normal house , then yes , the window would have been wide open , but we do live out in the sticks
More worried about an animal coming in than a burglar….. 😂

Finnegans · 26/07/2023 16:24

First floor bedrooms, and all bedroom windows are open.

WaitingForSunnyDays · 26/07/2023 16:27

Bungalow, and I couldn't sleep with the window wide open. Our garden is very accessible. We have it locked in the open position which generally gets enough air in. I have looked at getting the kind of window locks where you can have it a bit wider, but the don't seem to exist for our windows.

Coronationstation · 26/07/2023 16:30

First floor bedrooms and they're pretty much always open overnight apart from in the depths of winter. Mine are the sort where the whole window opens outwards (hinged in the middle). I wouldn't sleep with windows like this open on the ground floor though.

LittleLegsKeepGoing · 26/07/2023 16:36

We're on the ground floor and my husband won't allow the windows to be open at night, not because of crime risk - but because of bugs! So I think he'd insist on windows being closed unless we were above the altitude bugs fly off to google that now, and no a bug screen is not sufficient for him

I'd love to sleep with fresh air in my bedroom - even in the winter.

AsterixAndPersimmon · 26/07/2023 16:43

Yep windows on the 1st floor wide open.

Id leave then open if they were facing our garden and we were on the ground floor (Done that in a bungalow).

toochesterdraws · 26/07/2023 16:44

Bedrooms on 1st floor and yes, we sleep with the windows open.

The two occasions when people I know have been burgled were at night when they were asleep. One jemmied their patio door open and got into the house that way, the other picked the lock on the front door. Neither chose an open window.

Brk · 26/07/2023 16:45

I don’t leave them unsecure at night, no. Too much burglary around.

I do occasionally leave them in the locked slightly open position (about 1cm open) but the birdnoise wakes me, I’d rather be hot.

Nagado · 26/07/2023 16:45

We’re in a first floor flat and we have everything shut and locked except our bedroom window. It’s above a porch so really easy to climb up to and it opens right out, so very easy for someone to get through. I’m working on the basis that few burglars would target our area as we’re all potless. If they did, they would hear DH snoring and assume that we’re guarded by a large grizzly bear and decide it’s more trouble than it’s worth. The alternative is that we get no sleep at all and make ourselves feel very ill.

My mum lives in a bungalow and has everything closed after her neighbour woke up at 3am to see an arm coming through the narrow top window, reaching down to the handle of the larger window. She has two fans and those ice pack sheet things you lay on in the summer.

User16496743 · 26/07/2023 16:46

It's not something I have done so far this year because it hasn't been very hot but if it was I would on the first floor

ManchesterLu · 26/07/2023 16:47

We do - but we have motion alerts at the front where our bedroom is, so unless they somehow climbed over the roof from the back (basically, it's not going to happen) we'd get an alert to say there was someone outside, way before they got near the open window.

MsFogi · 26/07/2023 16:49

Hell will freeze over before we sleep with any windows (however small or big) open on the ground or first floors in our house. In a previous life I had to read a lot of files relating to crimes and so many were of women/children being assaulted by bastards that managed to climb through windows (some of them much smaller than I would ever have imagined it possible to climb through) so I have been paranoid ever since and it has been a frequent bone of contention between DH and me, but I will not budge knowing how many weirdos there are that can get through small windows/climb to first floor windows.

MsFogi · 26/07/2023 16:50

I don't care about burglary so much but I couldn't live with myself if someone got to my dcs during the night just because of an open window.

lashy · 26/07/2023 17:00

I have the windows on 'vent' on the first floor and my own bedroom on the second floor can open a little wider (still on a latch)... however; many years ago, at 3am after a night clubbing with friends, a little tipsy, I got home and discovered I'd lost my key. I could've knocked someone up, but didn't want to wake anyone, so let myself in the back garden, having spotted an open window (slim top section of window) and decided to give it a go. Took off my high heels, climbed onto the conservatory roof (immediately outside my parents window), leaned across to the relevant window - a first floor window with no building/extension directly below it), grabbed the edge of the open frame and hauled myself across, reached in and quietly drew back the blinds with one hand whilst hanging on for dear life with the other (a room which had my much younger brother and his friend fast asleep in the bunk beds), climbed up and slithered through the window and down onto floor (a slot 35cm in height). Trickiest part was squeezing my chest through the gap. Remember the 'hankie tops' c.2001? That ended up around my waist but luckily my bra stayed put.
I closed the blinds, went and brought my shoes in and went to bed, chuckling to myself that no one in the house were any the wiser.
I was so lucky to have not fallen. A very silly thing to do, in hindsight. All because I didn't want to disturb anyone sleeping Confused. Perhaps an opportunist burglar, who may have experience in that area, might give it a go too? It wasn't difficult.

gavisconismyfriend · 26/07/2023 17:09

Ground floor and windows stay firmly shut - no real worries about intruders, except those of the insect variety who I have no desire to share my bedroom with! A fan helps keep the room cool when necessary.

UrsulaIsMyQueen · 26/07/2023 17:12

Ours are first floor and yes, we have windows open. Didn’t occur to me that someone might try and climb in through my bedroom window. I’d hear them as soon as they put a ladder up against the wall anyway, as I sleep with one ear open for children!

Archeron · 26/07/2023 17:14

My windows only have top lights that open. They’re too small for anyone to get in. The main window doesn’t open. If it did I wouldn’t open it at night, especially not in a kids room.

whirlyhead · 26/07/2023 17:18

I know someone whose 4th floor flat was burgled by several extremely athletic burgers who managed to climb the drainpipe and get in via an open window. And the block of flats had a concierge too!

they know how it happened as it was all caught on CCTV. Very enterprising burglars!

mindutopia · 26/07/2023 17:23

I mean, we literally sleep with the doors unlocked. 😂We live in the ass end of nowhere and honestly, I can't remember a time when I've regularly locked the doors since I moved away from city life. Only when we go out for the day or sometimes at night if dh is away. So not too concerned about the windows. All the things of value are largely outside and in outbuildings, not in the house, and we don't really have house break-ins around here. It's all land rovers and tractors and tools.

Alighttouchonthetiller · 26/07/2023 17:39

mindutopia · 26/07/2023 17:23

I mean, we literally sleep with the doors unlocked. 😂We live in the ass end of nowhere and honestly, I can't remember a time when I've regularly locked the doors since I moved away from city life. Only when we go out for the day or sometimes at night if dh is away. So not too concerned about the windows. All the things of value are largely outside and in outbuildings, not in the house, and we don't really have house break-ins around here. It's all land rovers and tractors and tools.

Similar here. Folk aren't shinnying up drainpipes to steal a handful of my Accessorize jewellery, a few old Barbour jackets and the key to my old banger, they are making off with expensive farm equipment, horse lorries and livestock. I do close downstairs windows at night and flick the bolts on the back door but always sleep with the upstairs windows wide open. Love lying in bed, breathing the night smells and listening to all the wildlife.

khakitrousers · 26/07/2023 17:44

First floor sash windows open all summer - I don't worry about it at all.

We previously lived in a ground floor flat and I HATED having the bedroom window open overnight (it was at the front) but DH insisted. We had a very noisy metal laundry basket directly beneath it though, so any burglar would have tripped over that first. Plus we were slightly raised from the ground (cellar underneath) so not completely on the ground floor.

CC4712 · 26/07/2023 17:56

I too had to google what an earth a tronsom window was! We've just renovated and replaced 38 windows- but I'd still never heard the term!

Bedrooms on the 1st floor (1 up from ground). We have a fan on us at night. Last week I left a bathroom window open slightly, but was awoken to the dog chasing a pigeon around- feathers and bird poo everywhere!

I have the bedroom window open a few cm's, but have a bug screen across it. UK bats are tiny and can fly into bedrooms. They can also carry lyssavirus (related to rabies) and its amazing how many people awake to one flying around in their bedroom, so I'm not risking having to have the post-exposure vaccines.

MintJulia · 26/07/2023 17:59

Windows open here, but there is a large rickety conservatory below so anyone trying to climb in would break bones trying.

I'm not worried.