Excerpted from Sleep Your Way to Success by Khurshed Batliwala and Dinesh Ghodke

A must-have equipment in your bedroom is an air-purifier, especially if you live in a city. There are all sorts of pollutants and allergens in the air. These unseen particles can over time cause a lot of breathing issues, among other health problems. While you sleep, your immune system is up in arms against them, fighting to keep you healthy. With an air purifier doing a lot of the dirty work, your immune system gets a much-needed break to restore and rejuvenate itself as well during the night. Over a few weeks of usage, you will find yourself sleeping better and becoming healthier, and not falling sick as often, as your immune system regains its potency.

Here are a few factors to consider before buying an air purifier:

– How much does it cost? Can you afford it? I have experimented with quite a few purifiers and the ones that I finally settled on were called the IQ Air Health Pro 250 and the Air Doctor 3000. They costs a bomb, but it is totally worth it. The amount of time and money saved by not being sick because of allergen and pollen is worth the more than Rs 80k – 1 lakh+ price tag on it, depending on the models you choose. I have heard of people being completely free from chronic breathing problems like asthma or allergic sneezing fits when they regularly sleep with an air purifier in their room.

– What are the running costs? Air purifier filters need to be replaced once in a year or two depending on your usage. Are those filters easily available? How expensive are they?

– How much noise does it make while running? If it makes too much noise, it may be difficult for some people to sleep. The IQ Air on low speeds hardly makes any noise and the continuous white noise it does generate helps me sleep better.

– Does it have any LED lights? Can those be switched off or somehow muted? Even my super expensive air purifier didn’t have any way to turn off the lights while it was on. I simply put 3-4 playing cards on the light panel and those tiny lights don’t disturb the darkness in my bedroom at night.

Does it have indicators to show that it is time to replace any of the filters? It is far better that the machine itself indicates time for replacement rather than you play some sort of a guessing game.

Does it in any way emit Ozone? Stay far away from these machines – ozone is a known lung irritant. Even if it says on the label that the ozone emission is well below the guidelines set out by the government.

Does it have something called true HEPA (Hight Efficiency Particulate Air) Filter technology? This is critical to have in an air purifier because this type of an air filter can theoretically remove at least 99.97% of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria, and any airborne particles of a size of 0.3 microns or more.

Check the CADR number on the machine. What is the CADR number? CADR means Clean Air Delivery Rate and the higher the number the better the purifier. You will need higher CADR ratings for bigger rooms.

Does the purifier have a big activated carbon filter? These absorb odour causing molecules and cleanse the air of noxious smells that might come from various sources. Note that smaller carbon filters may not be able to do much, check with the manufacturer about the efficiency of the carbon filter in case you are thinking of buying a filter that has one.

Don’t buy the filters with the UV lights – to be effective, the UV light has to work on the air for a few minutes to a few hours, instead of the few seconds that air will typically travel through it. Mostly UV light filters are a gimmick.

Does your purifier have an energy star logo? Typically, an air purifier is mostly always on. A higher energy star rating means less electricity consumption.

Does it have a good quality washable pre-filter? Better for the environment, cheaper on the pocket.

Is it portable? Can it be rolled from room to room on wheels? Then you don’t need to buy 4 purifiers for all 4 rooms of your home. Just 1 or 2 would be enough.

Do your research before you get an air purifier. But list one as a priority on your shopping list. Definitely don’t buy one of those cheap ones on the market. Anything costing less than Rs 75k is worthless and a complete waste of money. A really good air purifier can make a tremendous difference to the quality of your life by enhancing your health and allowing you to rest deeper during sleep.

Notes

For the IQ Air, you can call +9198737 44440 and give the code “great sleep” for a discounted price.

For the Air Doctor, you can call +9198360 28287 and give the code “great sleep” for a discounted price. Note that as of this writing, this purifier may not be immediately available. There might be a wait period.

If you do buy any of these purifiers, please note that I might get a small commission – and you will get a discount.

You can buy our book Sleep Your Way to Success from amazon

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