Could I Suffocate In My Closed Closet?

Secret rooms, and whether we actually need that much air

Somehow, the one I built doesn’t seem as elegant. Photo by on

I’m ruining the “secret” portion by telling the internet, but I built a secret room in my house. A bookcase is actually a hidden door; it swings out to reveal a walk-in closet behind.

But the closet doesn’t have a lot of ventilation. If I were to stay in my secret room for too long, could I suffocate?

How long do you have to stay in a room before the oxygen levels drop too far? Is it even possible to run out of air in a room?

First off, take a deep breath and breathe easy; we don’t use as much oxygen, as quickly, as we think. And most locations are not as airtight as they seem.

How much oxygen is too little?

Air is a ; it’s about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and 0.1% everything else (including carbon dioxide). There’s also dissolved water, but that’s not actually its own gas so we won’t count it.

OSHA recommends a in the air to be 19.5%. With lower oxygen levels, we breathe faster, our heart beats faster, and we can experience a wide range of unpleasant symptoms, like rapid exhaustion and faulty judgement.