How The Heat Affects Your Night Sleep
Whether you’re facing high temperatures, or your home is naturally hot at night, you may find it difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Some people aim to find the best cooling mattress to improve their sleep, but without understanding how heat can impact our sleep, it can be difficult to find the right solution. Here, we’re taking a closer look at how heat can impact our sleep.
Body Temperature Regulation
The body’s temperature will drop at night to help us to fall asleep. At night, the hormone melatonin secretes from the pineal gland and widens the blood vessels which are located in our hands and feet to help the body to regulate its temperature. According to studies, the ambient temperature for humans is between 15-19 degrees Celsius. If the temperature in the room doesn’t fall to around this temperature after a hot day, then it can make the body temperature regulation process harder, which can therefore impact our sleep.
The Sleep Cycles
During sleep, we experience four different cycles – awake, light, deep and REM (rapid eye movement). Deep sleep in particular is the part of the sleep cycle where we experience the most rest. This is the area that is, unfortunately, most impacted by temperature according to scientists. This can ultimately leave us feeling less rested if we’re experiencing less deep sleep and therefore our mental and physical health can be severely impacted. Studies suggest that the higher the room temperature, the shorter the REM sleep too.
How To Improve Sleep In High Temperatures
Improving your sleep can be as simple as making some changes to your sleeping environment. For example, if you can choose a cooler part of the house to sleep in, such as where the sun doesn’t come in first thing in the morning, or if there’s a basement area that is darker or cooler. You can also make adjustments to your bedding – remove any winter bedding that may be thicker and heavier, and choose some lightweight materials instead. You may need to play around with the types of materials that work best for you. Some may sleep with just a light sheet or blanket. If you can use fans or air conditioning that can also help to better regulate the temperature in the room to improve your night’s sleep.
Prepare For The Future
If you are finding that hot summers and hot homes are becoming a more frequent problem, and you are losing sleep as a result, you may need to find a more permanent solution. Keeping your home cooler by drawing the curtains throughout the day and keeping the windows closed to stop the heat from entering could be useful. You could invest in an air-conditioning system that can help to better regulate the temperatures and this should be regularly serviced to ensure it is working as efficiently as possible.
As you can see, there are a number of ways that the heat can impact your sleep. Ensuring that your body temperatures are appropriately maintained can help you to enjoy more deep sleep leaving you feel more rested and improve your mood and mental health.
