Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the thermophysiological effects on subjects lying on Jet Air Mattresses on summer days and sleeping on the mattresses at night. The Jet Air Mattress is used to prevent the occurrence of bedsores. Six female students volunteered as subjects for day experiments and five for night experiments. The daytime experiment involved subjects lying awake on their backs for approximately 2 h in the afternoon. The nighttime experiment encompassed 8 h of sleep. The results are as follows : 1) For the bed and clothing microclimate, the increase of absolute humidity on the back and hip was restrained with the Jet Air Mattress during both day and night experiments. 2) During the day, rectal temperatures were higher with the Jet Air Mattress than without. On the other hand, at night, rectal temperatures were lower with the Jet Air Mattress than without. 3) During both day and night experiments, hip and back skin temperatures were lower with the Jet Air Mattress. 4) The correlation coefficient between bedclimate temperature and room temperature was highly significant during night sleep (r= 0.738).
