How To Sleep In The Heat
Getting a good night's sleep when its hot
We wouldn’t be British if we didn’t moan about the temperature when it gets above 20 degrees, and even though the rest of the world laughs at us, we probably shouldn’t feel so bad about it. When those temperatures soar, they do and it's not just the heat, there are horrible, muggy conditions it's horrible and muggy too. This leaves us stressed and miserable at night because our homes don't tend to be built with air-con, unlike most Mediterranean countries where everything and the toilet seat comes with air-con as standard (ok maybe not the toilet seat, but the bathroom probably has AC) due to the prolonged summer months, most rooms have a built-in air conditioning unit – even the bathroom.
Furthermore, we get muggy horrible humidity. Which in a way, is worse than a dry 38 degrees. It's muggy, it makes you feel heavy and drowsy, and walking more than a few meters gets you drenched in sweat.
This leads to one of the most British problems of all time, hot weather sleeping. The summer sees Google searches for how to cool down fast in bed and how to sleep in hot weather rise exponentially, as Brits struggle to contend with the thick, warm air.
We’ve prepared some tips for sleeping in hot weather in the hope to provide a much-needed reprieve from sleepless nights. Find out how to sleep better in summer below.
Tips to sleep better in summer ...
- Keep to your usual routine
- Try not to nap in the day
- Keep the light out with blackout blinds
- No caffeine before bed!
- Try not to stress
- Avoid screens emitting blue light an hour before bedtime (sorry no phones or tablets!)
Perhaps one of the best sleeping in hot weather hacks we can provide is to not stray too far from the usual good practices of a healthy sleep routine. This means keeping to your usual routine as much as possible – if you usually go to bed at 10pm, then continue to attempt that no matter how hot it might be.
Another way to beat hot weather sleeping issues is by not napping in the daytime. Taking a nap might seem like a good idea when you’re struggling with the heat, but this can upset your sleeping pattern and make it harder to fall asleep at night.
Before and during bedtime, it’s wise to keep any light out with blackout blinds and avoid caffeine and screens that emit blue light for at least an hour before you try to sleep. And if you are struggling with hot weather sleeping, then try not to stress – this can often make it harder.
Some Cool tips
Keep the sun out
Keeping the sun out of the bedroom and upstairs during the day by keeping blinds and curtains shut helps to keep bedrooms at a lower temperature by reducing the amount of sunlight directly warming up the room. . This reduces the light that warms up the rooms.
Air circulation
Around one or two hours before you’re planning to head to bed, open the windows fully in your bedroom. Better still, open all upstairs windows and get a full circulation going. Once the sun has gone down, open up the blinds so that the circulation can improve.
If you can bear the noise of a fan, you can also include a fan to help circulate the air. Some people like to pop a tray of ice in front of the fan so that the air blowing out is nice and cool – it’s key to make sure the tray is suitable and that you won’t get water spillage when the ice melts.
Aside from this, it may be worthwhile to leave the bedroom door open at night to keep any air flowing around the upper level of your home. Hopefully, depending on just how hot it is, this will remove the need for you to know how to cool down in bed – as your room should already be relatively cool!
Natural Fabrics
If you’ve tried the above but still find yourself wondering how to sleep in hot weather, then investing in some natural fabrics could be the way forward.
Consider purchasing some cotton or natural fibre bedding. Both linen and cotton will let your skin breathe, and keep you much cooler than many polyester sheets. The thinner, the better!
It’s also worth doing the same thing with your nightwear. If you don’t want to sleep completely naked, get some cotton or high percentage cotton blend underwear or pyjamas to help your skin breathe while you’re trying to sleep. Polyester can trap heat and has water-resistant properties, which will trap sweat against your skin and make you feel clammy. Not nice.
Switching to a lightweight summer tog duvet, or a natural fibre lightweight blanket is also worthwhile. In the Mediterranean, locals use cotton sheets during the summer as one of their sleeping in-hot weather hacks.
Try a Sleep Aid
If you’re able to sleep, but the sleep you’re getting isn’t great, knowing how to sleep better in summer is key. You can utilize a number of sleep aids and more in an attempt to cool down, or simply get a better and longer night of sleep.
Cooling sprays are a great option for how to cool down fast in bed. Sometimes, there’s nothing more refreshing than giving your face a little spritz to hydrate your skin and lower how hot you’re feeling while you’re readying yourself for bed.
Sleep aids can also be important. A lavender pillow spray or sleep spray mist can provide a cooling experience and have a relaxing smell to help you doze off quicker. There are also natural options including sprays, roll-ons, and gummy sweets to help calm you before you rest – and they’re available from a number of high street stores.
Water Hacks
Place a cup or a bottle of cold water on your bedside to sip at in the night if you need it. This saves you from getting up and disturbing your body further.
Cold water can be a helpful way of cooling down. Running cold water across the wrists, as they’re part of the body where the skin is thinnest, can help to quicken cooling. Cold water – running cold water over the wrists rather than other parts of the body can help quicken cooling. This is because this is the part of the body where the skin is thinnest.
A spray bottle of water to spray on you if you wake up in the night to cool you down. The effect of water evaporating off the body naturally helps bring the body temperature down. You can get small cheap spray bottles from places like B&M bargains, Superdrug, and Amazon. Search for travel bottles or hairdressing spray bottles.
Things to know about hot weather sleeping ...
Hopefully the above helped you know how to sleep better in summer – but there are still some important things to know. For example, Did you know the optimal temperature for sleep is around 18 degrees?
Also, Body temperature naturally drops during the night – which is why we often wake up feeling cold.
And finally, There is some evidence to suggest sleeping lower to the ground helps with temperature as heat rises, it is likely to be cooler closer to the floor than higher up. Check out our Amersham platform bed for a modern alternative and hot weather sleeping dream.