An interesting factoid: I used to be fine with stuffy environments. Then I started taking a stimulant medication for ADHD. Now I get headaches whenever I'm in a room with no air circulation (cars with the windows and vents shut are especially bad.) It seems turning my brain on fully requires more oxygen!
It's surprising, though—almost nobody I've ever asked to open a window or somesuch can tell, even when it's pointed out to them, how stuffy the room they're in is. (I don't even know if I myself used to be able to tell; it's a hard thing to remember.) Air quality might be a thing like odor, where you can become inured after spending hours in a room but then it's obvious if you spend some time outdoors and then come back. And yet, bad air seems to "hit me" when I enter a room, in a way it doesn't to most.
Some people, interestingly, get very defensive about the (bad) air quality of a room—even if the weather is perfect outside, and even if they have no allergies or anything similar, they just hate the idea of having a window open. (But, even more interestingly, this seems to be a habitual tic, rather than a physiological desire. One of my friends—who previously kept a horribly stuffy room, and would always ask that I close my own windows because of how "drafty" my apartment is—now keeps his own windows permanently open, after spending just a few weeks at my place.)
It's surprising, though—almost nobody I've ever asked to open a window or somesuch can tell, even when it's pointed out to them, how stuffy the room they're in is. (I don't even know if I myself used to be able to tell; it's a hard thing to remember.) Air quality might be a thing like odor, where you can become inured after spending hours in a room but then it's obvious if you spend some time outdoors and then come back. And yet, bad air seems to "hit me" when I enter a room, in a way it doesn't to most.
Some people, interestingly, get very defensive about the (bad) air quality of a room—even if the weather is perfect outside, and even if they have no allergies or anything similar, they just hate the idea of having a window open. (But, even more interestingly, this seems to be a habitual tic, rather than a physiological desire. One of my friends—who previously kept a horribly stuffy room, and would always ask that I close my own windows because of how "drafty" my apartment is—now keeps his own windows permanently open, after spending just a few weeks at my place.)