Picture this: a Japanese Tensui water filtration system in a house to ensure that the water used actually helps improve, instead of corrode our hair, nails, and skin texture.

There is also a shielded design for the electricity cables, as well as metal sheeting beneath the flooring, to reduce contact with electromagnetic fields emitted around the house, especially the bedroom.

A high-quality air filtration system also allows great air circulation within the living space, while a hydronic radiant heating system controls the temperature with immaculate precision.

Well, such a luxury property could be yours, if you have a few million US dollars lying around. Residence 950, a house located in San Francisco’s upmarket neighbourhood of Russian Hill, ticks all the boxes for people looking for something offering both emotional wellness and environmental sustainability.

It is a great time to be alive: while there is growing awareness of the importance of sleep and mental health, we are starting to get all kinds of infrastructure and support that will allow us to build the best foundations to improve our minds, bodies and souls.

A healthier environment

One innovative device, Olfinity, combines air quality assessment, air purification and controlled aromatherapy to tackle air pollution in the home – one of the major causes of problems affecting people’s health and well-being.

Olfinity is the “first ever patented intelligent indoor air system”, according to the makers.

It features real-time sensors that monitor air temperature and humidity and assess air quality, looking for volatile organic compounds (VOC) – found in many consumer products, such as paint, varnish and deodorisers, and also emitted by motor vehicles – which cause air pollution and smog. An air purifier cleans indoor pollution and also captures microscopic airborne particles.

The system, now available in Hong Kong – one of the world’s most polluted and high density cities in the world – attracted plenty of interest at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

“Indoor air pollution is a growing problem and increasingly homeowners, apartment dwellers and even corporations are conscious of the importance of maintaining a clean and healthy indoor air environment,” Nicolas Moulin, co-founder of Hong Kong-based Evergreen Land, who has launched Olfinity with his fellow French business partners, Olivier Partrat and Jean Christophe.

Partrat says: “According to the US Environment Protection Agency, people spend 90 per cent of their lives indoors, which is two to five times more polluted than outdoors.”

The four-part Olfinity also features an essential oil diffuser, that offers several different scents, depending on the time of the day, to help people to relax and feel rejuvenated; and a “gateway”, which acts like the control centre, which brings together all of these devices.

“Essential oil has a lot of benefits,” Partrat says. “But – and here’s the catch – the air quality has to be clean before you diffuse everything. If you diffuse steam, in the form of micro droplets, it increases humidity, which, especially in Asia, can encourage growth of mould.

“You don’t know the quantity of essential oil you’re breathing into your lungs. What goes into your lungs also includes the polluted particles in the air, stuck to the particles of oil.

“Essential oils are also a VOC, like glue, so the issue is [you have] essential oils diffused on top of high [concentration of] VOCs in your room, so you are only adding more pollution to the air you’re breathing in.

“But now, at home, you can control what you breathe in. Olfinity allows individuals, families and professionals to change the way they live and breathe in any indoor environment and also enjoy the benefits of safe essential oil diffusion, to make a decisive impact on health and well-being.”

Sleeping beauty

A good night’s sleep in hot, humid – and often noisy – Hong Kong is not always easy.

“One of the things about sleeping better is temperature regulation, so the stuff that we sleep in – and on – are really important,” says Kate Bridle, a sleep specialist at Balance Health, a clinic in Central, Hong Kong, which offers patients alternative treatments and therapies.

Bridle is an internationally certified sleep physiologist and sleep coach, who cut her teeth at London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’ National Health Service Hospital Trust, which runs one of Britain most prestigious sleep disorder clinics.

“There are lots of sleep improvement devices out there, but there is no real evidence that [they] work. [But] we know that regulating the temperature is definitely important for sleep.”

Scientific studies have shown that bedding using natural fibres such fine merino wool can help to lull people to sleep 25 per cent faster compared with bedding using synthetic or cotton products.

Bridle says: “A lot of the work I do with individuals is to help them get off medication to fall asleep naturally.

“After one or two weeks, you have to take more [sleeping pills] to get the same effects, and the pills are very addictive to start with.

They are also on sedatives, and being sedated is not the same as being asleep.

“When we sleep we have two important stages – the REM [rapid-eye-movement] sleep and deep, non-REM sleep. The deep non-REM sleep is primarily for detoxification and physical restoration and DNA repair, which helps us wake up looking fresh.

“The REM sleep is important for creativity, mental and emotional processing.”

Enter Indi McCullough, founder and CEO of Shleep, the bedding and sleepware brand.

McCullough says: “Falling asleep faster and remaining in a deep sleep longer allows us to recuperate better and feel more rejuvenated and productive the next day.

“So I delved deeper and found that Australian merino wool is called a ‘miracle fibre’ with a lot of attributes which are good for sleep.

“It’s an insulator against heat and cold; it reacts to the body temperature; and it absorbs 35 per cent of its own weight in water, so if you perspire you’re not going to feel like it’s wet, and you feel comfortable throughout the night.”

That means it will work for the humid summers in Hong Kong, too – which is a godsend, now that Shleep is available in the city at Lane Crawford.

Shleep, which positions itself as a wellness brand, is looking at venturing out to produce sleeping masks to block out sound and light for the best quality sleep possible.

McCullough says: “Everyone seems to be getting to understand that sleep is really important and now it’s about how you can give people what they need to help them sleep better. It’s still such an untapped market.”

Other ways of improving sleep, include cognitive behavioural therapy, which Bridle says is a “long-lasting treatment for insomnia”.

She says: “It’s often for people who have lost their confidence for sleep. They become very obsessive with their sleep rituals and overthink sleep and try too hard to sleep.

“It’s about getting to the bottom of their feelings about sleep and using psychological techniques to change them. It also affects your physiology and biology,” Bridle says.

“And of course, your diet and exercise, your lifestyle choices.”

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