Is Bedroom on Top of Garage Bad Feng Shui?

Some of the most common feng shui-related questions I’ve heard pertain to the placement of bedrooms in the house. The one that I’d like to answer in this post is this: 

Is it true that a bedroom has bad feng shui if it is on top of a garage?

I’ve seen answers and arguments from both sides, each with a different set of explanations. Listed here are the varying explanations from feng shui experts around the web, paraphrased by me:

“The garage has unsettling and stagnant energy, which is the opposite kind of energy of what the bedroom needs.” –Rodika Tchi, “Feng Shui Tips for A Bedroom Over the Garage“

“Garage has a surfeit of Yin energy, which could lead to insomnia or worse, moody behavior and social isolation.” –Ann Bingley Gallops, “Feng Shui SOS: My Bedroom is On Top of My Garage!” 

“The idea that the unstable, negative energy [from the garage] that promotes sleeplessness and/or negative experience is untrue. It’s possible that the issue of having bedroom over a garage was inferred from an early feng shui principle stating that it was unwise to build a home hanging over a moving stream or a river. However, this does not apply to cars pulling in and out of a garage a few minutes each day.” –Cathleen McCandless, “Feng Shui that Makes Sense“

 

It’s definitely a question worth asking given the significance of bedroom placement when harmonizing energies inside one’s home. But if you were to ask me whether a bedroom has bad feng shui if it’s on top of a garage, my answer would be that it really depends. Let’s take a look at why bedrooms matter so much in feng shui and what elements in a garage might affect your sleep, health, and overall wellbeing. 

The Importance of Bedrooms in Feng Shui

In a previous article, I’ve written at length at how bedrooms play a large role in your rest and relaxation. Bedrooms comprise some of the most important parts of the house. They are where the house’s inhabitants go when they need to recharge for the day, and they are also where people do a lot of very personal activities like reading, studying, listening to music, and chatting with friends online or over the phone. 

In other words, your bedroom is one of the places where you can feel like you are closest to your true self. Disruptions to your rest and self-recollection can take a huge toll on you both physically and emotionally. They can take away from a good night’s sleep and leave you feeling listless, unwell, and ill at ease. In turn, this kind of snowball effect can decrease your overall energy levels for the day, make it harder for you to interact with people in the way you’d like to, and leave a negative impact on your decision-making. 

Another thing that many practitioners of feng shui observe about the bedroom is that it is a space where one spends a lot of time in a passive, unconscious state. Some believe that you are most vulnerable to energies when you are asleep. If that’s the case, then it makes sense for you to want to encounter healing and restorative energy as opposed to negative and draining energy. 

What Factors Affect the Feng Shui of a Bedroom on Top of a Garage?

Back to the question of whether it’s bad feng shui for a bedroom in your house to be immediately above your garage. I believe that it is only bad feng shui when some type of Qi or energy from the garage is affecting your sleep or comfort in the bedroom. 

I’ve listed the four biggest factors here so you can decide for yourself whether a bedroom on top of a garage will yield bad feng shui.

Car Exhaust

The first issue pertains to car exhaust, or the gas that’s emitted from a car as a result of fuel combustion. If you can smell the car exhaust from your bedroom above the garage, then yes, the feng shui is very bad.

In feng shui, car exhaust is a form of negative energy. The main emission involved in car exhaust is carbon monoxide, which can give us light-headedness, confusion, headaches, and flu-like effects when we breathe it in. Large exposures to carbon monoxide can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning, a condition that may induce serious symptoms like vomiting and chest pain. Though some of us are able to smell exhaust fumes from automobiles, others are more vulnerable to carbon monoxide poisoning because carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless, and tasteless gas. 

It’s quite a bad sign for both your health and your feng shui if you can smell car exhaust in your bedroom, because that means that you are also smelling carbon monoxide. The smell could have traveled to your bedroom through your ventilation system, cracks in the walls and flooring, or your bedroom window.

The poisonous gas will give you health problems, and it will also impact your mood, emotions, and rate of recovery from fatigue because you are unable to fully rest and relax in your bedroom. In my opinion this is a very important factor to take note of, especially when it comes to the bedrooms of children or the elderly. You must safeguard the overall health and wellbeing of these occupants in your house and relocate their bedrooms elsewhere in the house if any of you can smell car exhaust. 

Garage Door Movements

The second factor that I want to bring attention to is garage door movements. The garage is an area of the house that oversees a lot of kinetic activity, and it’s also one of the noisiest. It must be noted that the opening and closing of garage doors creates noise and vibrations. Both are sources of negative Qi that can disrupt your sleep or irritate you while you’re trying to relax.

The effect of garage door movements on the feng shui of your bedroom really depends on your circumstance. If you’re the only person living in the house, then it’s less likely that your garage door movements will cause you huge issues. However, if you live with other family members who like to get midnight snacks, or if you live in a condo where your bedroom is on top of your neighbor’s garage, then this may be a problem for your feng shui.

The rationale is actually pretty simple. Whenever you are exposed to noise—whether you’re asleep or not—you may experience an increase in your blood pressure and heart rate. If you’re exposed to noise while asleep, the amount of quality sleep you get will decrease, and your finger pulse amplitude and body movements will increase. This, in turn, will decrease the restful quality of your sleep even if you do get to catch a full eight hours of sleep every night.

Insects and Spiders

Put simply, the home’s garage is not a very clean place at all. It’s the kind of environment that’s ideal for insects and spiders to thrive. That may make it an unpleasant place for the house’s human occupants, and that’s why I consider it an important determinant of bad feng shui. 

If your bedroom is right above the garage, don’t be surprised if you often find insects crawling on your floor or spiders spinning webs in the corners of your walls or on your furniture. Both insects and arachnids are crafty types. It’s quite easy for them to navigate through the interiors of your garage wall, and it will be just as easy for them to visit your bedroom using any cracks they can find.

These creepy crawlies can be an additional nuisance to you in your home. But in truth, they can do more than gross you out. Research that was done by the University of Manchester in 2012 revealed that seeing an itch stimulus, such as ants, can cause actual itching and discomfort. To be honest, is that the kind of feeling you want to haunt you in your bedroom when you’re trying to sleep?

In the hierarchy of things, having insects in your bedroom is more of a subtle effect of being close to the garage. It may not be as dangerous or detrimental to your health and wellbeing as breathing in carbon monoxide. Still, it may take away a lot of the comfort that you feel in your bedroom. For that reason alone, I think the proximity of your bedroom to insects and spiders may be bad feng shui.

Warmer Temperature

The fourth factor that I want to discuss is the effect of the garage’s temperature on your bedroom’s feng shui.  If you regularly park your car in the garage, you may notice that the garage ends up being much warmer than the other rooms in your house. 

This is the result of the heat being emitted from your car’s engine. As your engine cools down, it releases heat. This heat is then absorbed by the walls. Because heat moves up due to the laws of physics, the heat will travel to the garage’s ceiling and build up there. This translates to warmer temperatures in the room that’s directly above the garage.

How much this will affect you also depends on factors like the weather. The buildup of heat may not necessarily feel like a bad thing during the winter time. However, it can be quite uncomfortable during the summertime, when the heat is already bad enough to deal with. You may find yourself turning up your air conditioning at full blast, only to realize that your bedroom is the only room in the house that is still warm. It will definitely be hard for you to relax if you find yourself sweating constantly and feeling suffocated by the incessant heat. 

Moreover, the warm temperature will affect how you sleep. When you go to sleep, your brain is trying to achieve a lower body temperature for you to feel more comfortable. If it’s too hot, you are likely to wake up more often in the middle of the night. The optimal temperature that will help you get quality rest is a temperature between 65 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Are the heat levels in your garage proving to be quite the obstruction to staying cool and well-rested while you’re in your bedroom? If so, then it is definitely bad feng shui for your bedroom to be directly above the garage.

Conclusion

All in all, your bedroom should be your top comfort zone within your home. You should be able to retire to your bedroom with the knowledge that you can get quality sleep and relaxation time when you’re there. But if your bedroom is on top of a garage, you may be exposed to problems like the smell of car exhaust, the noise of garage door movements, the sight of insects and spiders, and discomfort from warmer temperatures. Many suburban homes, like those in Florida, have this kind of setup and need to be remedied.

On the other hand, if you have none of these problems and you feel that your bedroom is a comfortable and relaxing place as is, then it is safe to say that the garage does not affect your bedroom feng shui. In this regard, I judge this situation just like I judge any other situation—I pay attention to personal circumstance. 

In my blog post where I detailed 33 of the best feng shui tips for bedrooms, I acknowledged that it would be impossible for any person to apply all 33 tips in their own bedroom. I know that sleeping habits, sleeping environments, and home layouts differ from person to person. My approach is to impart useful knowledge that will help clarify the individual situation to readers and help them harness good feng shui for themselves. If you need expert advice, our website includes a handy search function that can direct you to feng shui practitioners.

Is your own personal bedroom located on top of a garage? Are there any special nuisances that are making your bedroom less comfortable that it should be? Be sure to let me know in the comments so that we can get a conversation going!