A Note from the CEO: What accumulates in your bedroom between midnight and 5 a.m.
I recently read a set of studies archived by the National Institute of Health's National Library of Medicine,1 and they terrified me for anyone who doesn't have a WellisAir in their bedroom.
Starting with the one from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Researchers put a mass spectrometer on a normal occupied home and sampled the bedroom air twice an hour while the couple inside slept. Two-thirds of the 239 compounds they tracked were higher in the bedroom overnight than anywhere else in the house. 94 of them were up by at least 30%. During the day, the same room showed no buildup at all.2 The reason was simple: with the door closed, the bedroom was getting about one-third of the fresh air the residential standard calls for.3
Where did it come from? Breath. Skin. Personal care products. The furnishings.4 A separate study in Environmental Science and Technology found that polyurethane mattresses release significantly more VOCs under sleeping conditions, with body heat as the main driver.5 You warm the mattress, and the mattress gives back.
This isn't one house. A 2021 systematic review of 22 field studies found bedroom VOC levels during sleep exceeded the applicable limit in three of the four studies that measured them, with formaldehyde peaks reaching eight times the WHO guideline.6 In the studies that tested it, improving bedroom air improved measured sleep.7
Here's the part that matters most. A separate study tracked 60 healthy adults, ages 19 to 30, on continuous ECG for eight-hour stretches while measuring the air around them. When total VOCs rose by just 22.8 parts per billion, nighttime RMSSD dropped about 3%.8 RMSSD is the HRV number your Oura, WHOOP, or Garmin hands you every morning.9 Those participants were awake and working, not sleeping. That raises the obvious question: if a few hours of ordinary indoor air can impact a healthy nervous system that much, what is your bedroom doing to your nervous system over eight hours with the door closed?
Now add mold. The part that matters isn't the spot on the wall. It's what mold puts into the air: VOCs, which is why a room smells musty before you ever see anything,10 along with mycotoxins from some molds, compounds the World Health Organization identifies as a health risk.11 Bathrooms, closets, HVAC lines, the wall behind your headboard. Your air distributes what mold releases whether you see it or not.
Although your HEPA filter does a good job of capturing particles, it is unable to change toxic molecules. VOCs, including the ones your mattress, your mold, and your own body release at night, pass right through a HEPA. The carbon layer in some HEPA units meant to catch them saturates in weeks and can release these toxins back into your air, as documented by the EPA, the American Lung Association, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.12
WellisAir solves this problem. We don't capture. We convert. WellisAir releases hydroxyls, nature's own cleaning molecules. A hydroxyl (OH) is water (H2O) missing one hydrogen atom (H). It takes that atom back from the nearest pollutant molecule, breaking the pollutant apart and returning to water. It's the same process nature uses to cleanse outdoor air every second of every day.13
In a controlled chamber study by UPC-CRESCA (report 20190930), WellisAir reduced VOCs by approximately 94% and formaldehyde by approximately 93% versus an untreated control in only 30 minutes.14 Also, it's ozone-free under California's strict CARB regulations (Executive Order G-20-280),15 and the hydroxyl generator technology inside is protected by U.S. Patent No. 11,191,862.16
You don't have to take my word for any of it. Put your own VOC monitor on the nightstand. Watch the WellisAir indicator turn red while it works, then shift to blue as the air clears.17 Then watch your own numbers for 30 days. In fact, take 90 days to assess. If your monitor doesn't show a significant drop in VOCs, send it back, no questions asked.18
WellisAir cannot make any health claim promises. However, I can promise that peer-reviewed science shows your bedroom fills with VOCs every night, links indoor VOCs to the exact health metrics you track on your smart devices, and WellisAir has independently verified data on reducing them.
You've optimized everything else in that room. The air is the last variable. Start with your bedroom.
CEO, WellisAir
PS: For the next 10 days, use code BLUE150 for $150 off a WellisAir unit. Blue is where every red light ends up.
1. Studies cited below are indexed in PubMed and archived in PubMed Central, both services of the National Library of Medicine. Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement by NLM or the National Institutes of Health.
2. Molinier B, Arata C, Katz EF, Lunderberg DM, Ofodile J, Singer BC, Nazaroff WW, Goldstein AH. Bedroom Concentrations and Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds during Sleep. Environ Sci Technol. 2024;58(18):7958-7967. doi:10.1021/acs.est.3c10841. Of 239 VOC signals, about 66% were higher in the bedroom than in the kitchen during 3-hour overnight peaks across 12 occupied nights; 94 compounds exceeded a 1.30 enhancement ratio; daytime (12:00 to 15:00) bedroom and kitchen levels clustered near 1:1.
3. Molinier et al. 2024, Table 1, footnote b: a bedroom air change rate of 0.5 per hour with two occupants equals about 2.6 L/s per person (about 5 cfm per person), one-third of the minimum in ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2016, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings. Median measured rate was 0.54 to 0.72 per hour. Finding describes the studied home.
4. Molinier et al. 2024. Isoprene and acetone (breath) correlated with CO2 at R=0.97 and 0.95; 6-MHO (skin oil oxidation), D5 siloxane (personal care products), and emissions from surfaces and materials in the bedroom are identified as contributors.
5. Oz K, Merav B, Sara S, Dubowski Y. Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Polyurethane Mattresses under Variable Environmental Conditions. Environ Sci Technol. 2019;53(15):9171-9180. doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b01557. Abstract: under sleeping conditions VOC emissions increased significantly; elevated heat was the major contributor.
6. Canha N, Teixeira C, Figueira M, Correia C. How Is Indoor Air Quality during Sleep? A Review of Field Studies. Atmosphere. 2021;12(1):110. doi:10.3390/atmos12010110. Four studies measured VOCs during sleep (mean 1.33 mg/m3, range 0.55 to 2.40); only one was below the 0.6 mg/m3 limit set by Portuguese Ordinance 353-A/2013. Formaldehyde maxima reached 6 and about 8 times the WHO guideline of 0.1 mg/m3.
7. Canha et al. 2021, Section 4.2, citing Strom-Tejsen P et al. Indoor Air. 2016;26:679-686 (Denmark: improved ventilation improved actigraphy-measured sleep and next-day performance) and Mishra AK et al. Indoor Air. 2018;28:339-351 (Netherlands: open-door conditions reduced awakenings and improved sleep efficiency). These studies measured CO2 and ventilation, not VOCs specifically.
8. Chuang K-J, Chuang H-C, Lin L-Y. Indoor Air Pollution, Nighttime Heart Rate Variability and Coffee Consumption among Convenient Store Workers. PLoS One. 2013;8(8):e63320. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063320. Table 3: among nighttime participants, a 22.8 ppb interquartile increase in total VOCs at the 4-hour moving average was associated with a 3.17% decrease in 5-minute r-MSSD (p<0.01). Participants were awake and working; the study did not measure sleep. Association, not causation.
9. Oura, WHOOP and Garmin report heart rate variability using the RMSSD method, per each manufacturer's published HRV documentation. Apple Watch reports HRV as SDNN, a related but different calculation; the same study found nighttime SDNN fell 2.86% per 22.8 ppb increase in total VOCs (Chuang et al. 2013, Table 3).
10. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. What are microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs)? EPA Indoor Air Quality. Mold and bacteria release mVOCs, the compounds responsible for musty odors.
11. World Health Organization. Mycotoxins fact sheet. Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxins produced by certain moulds (fungi) and can pose a serious health threat.
12. U.S. EPA, Guide to Air Cleaners in the Home; American Lung Association, Air Cleaners guidance; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory indoor air research on sorbent saturation. Activated carbon in consumer filters has limited capacity for gas-phase pollutants, saturates under real conditions, and can re-emit captured compounds.
13. Waring MS, Wells JR. Volatile organic compound conversion by ozone, hydroxyl radicals, and nitrate radicals in residential indoor air: Magnitudes and impacts of oxidant sources. Atmos Environ. 2015;106:382-391. The hydroxyl radical is the principal oxidant of the outdoor atmosphere and converts VOCs by hydrogen abstraction.
14. UPC-CRESCA (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Centre de Recerca en Seguretat i Control Alimentari) controlled chamber study, report 20190930: approximately 94% reduction in VOCs and approximately 93% reduction in formaldehyde versus untreated control at 30 minutes.
15. California Air Resources Board, Executive Order G-20-280 (November 12, 2020), certifying the WADU-02 under the ANSI/UL 867 ozone emission limit.
16. U.S. Patent No. 11,191,862 B2, granted December 7, 2021, Wellis Co. Ltd.
17. WellisAir product documentation: the indicator displays red while the unit is actively neutralizing VOCs and shifts to blue as levels fall.
18. [CONFIRM BEFORE PUBLICATION: 90-day return terms, conditions, and any restocking or shipping provisions. Insert link to the published guarantee policy.]
Important: The research and figures above are not medical claims. We want to be clear: in no way are we suggesting symptom removal, reversal, or reduction. WellisAir is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition. The studies cited above are independent, peer-reviewed research that did not test WellisAir products; they report statistical associations, not causation. Nothing in this letter is medical advice. WellisAir makes no claim that its products will change heart rate variability, sleep quality, or any other health metric. Consult a qualified healthcare professional with any health concern. Performance figures reflect controlled laboratory testing (UPC-CRESCA report 20190930) and may differ in real-world conditions. Any guarantee is subject to the terms published at [link].