How Does Temperature Affect Your Sleep?

The temperature of the room we sleep in can have a huge impact on how well we sleep. Our human nature requires us to sleep in a particular surrounding to be able to get a sufficient night’s sleep, each night.

The ideal temperature for sleeping is between 16°C – 18°C or 60°F – 65°F, which allows your body to lose heat whilst you sleep and maintain the perfect temperature. 

This can be seen after sleeping during the summer months, where it is too hot making people struggle to get comfortable, struggling to fall and stay asleep. However, once you find that ideal bedroom temperature to sleep in, the quality of your sleep will improve drastically, helping you feel more awake and refreshed the following day.

By avoiding a bedroom that is too cold or too hot, you are limiting the chances of your sleep being disturbed, as well as the stage of sleep being affected. This is thanks to the research conducted and information available to people, showcasing the importance of sleep on the body. People, today, are making sleep a priority, limiting their chances of having anxiety, low energy, stress, unhealthy, and more.

So, in order to enjoy and improve the quality of your sleep, it is important to understand the role of the temperature during sleep, what the ideal temperature is and what products can help you sleep in different temperatures…

THE ROLE

Falling asleep, and staying asleep, can be difficult if the temperature is not perfect. For this reason, temperature plays a massive role in the process of falling asleep and staying asleep.

As the evening approaches, our body releases melatonin to help the body lose heat and when we decide to go to bed, our temperature of the body falls rapidly, compared to daytime. This temperature change speeds up the chances of you falling asleep quickly.

For this reason, having a cool bedroom can help you fall asleep faster. This is because you are using your environment to create a utopian temperature, creating the chance for a high-quality sleep to increase.

Our body temperature changes during the full 24-hours of the day and for this reason, the room temperature is just as important when staying asleep as it is falling asleep. The body temperature falls during the night, with the body being at its lowest temperature early morning. Before waking, our body temperature rises to help promote waking from our sleep.

WHAT IS THE IDEAL TEMPERATURE FOR SLEEPING?

After years of research, sciences have understood how sleeping in environments that are too cold or too hot can have an effect on our body, leading to a falling and staying asleep becoming difficult.

The results have shown that the recommended room temperature should be one where you are comfortable, advising that the room should be “cool”, dark and quiet. More specifically, the room temperature should be between 16°C – 18°C or 60°F – 65°F. The reason for this is because it allows you to lose the body heat throughout the duration of your sleep, helping you to achieve the high-quality and long sleep you desperately want.

If the room temperature is over these suggested temperatures, it can cause restlessness, whilst a room that is below these suggested temperatures will make it hard to fall asleep.

PRODUCTS TO HELP YOU SLEEP IN DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES

• Hot water bottle
• Weighted blanket
• Heated blanket
• A temperature regulating pillow
• Heated or artic duvet
• Satin sheets
• Silk pillowcase
• Cooling mattress pad cover

Sources:

https://amerisleep.com/blog/ask-science-is-cold-good-for-sleep/

https://sleepcouncil.org.uk/advice-support/sleep-advice/perfect-sleep-environment/

https://www.sleepscore.com/how-temperature-affects-sleep/

https://www.sleepstation.org.uk/articles/sleep-tips/sleep-and-temperature/