Most everyone appreciates the comforts of a warm, cozy bed. But if you’re having trouble sleeping, one suggestion is to try throwing off some of those blankets and avoid sleeping in a way that leads to overheating.
“If you have difficulty sleeping, you should err on the side of keeping the room a little colder,” says Andrew Varga, MD, PhD, at the Mount Sinai Integrative Sleep Center. And don’t pile on the blankets. If you’re too warm in bed, that can make sleeping difficult.
In this Q&A, Dr. Varga provides more insight into what makes for a good night’s sleep.
Experts say your body temperature goes up and down throughout the day, and it tends to decline at night. As you begin to fall asleep, your body temperature can drop by as much as a degree or two. Then, as morning approaches, your temperature starts to rise a little. Keeping your room on the cool side promotes the deepest levels of sleep.
“Some people think that if it’s snowing out, I should pull out my thickest comforter,” explains Dr. Varga, a physician and neuroscientist. “They end up being even warmer than in summer. And that could be making it a little harder for your body to get its optimal night’s rest.” In fact, the importance of the proper temperature is one reason you may have seen advertisements for cooling mattress pads and even cooling mattresses.
What room temperature is best?
There is no specific temperature that’s perfect for everyone. If you have trouble sleeping, consider lowering the room temperature a bit to see how it affects you. Many people find temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees to be most suitable. You may need to play around a little to determine what temperature works best for you.
Should everyone sleep in a cool room?
Some people are lucky when it comes to getting a good night’s slumber. They sleep well in a room that’s 60 degrees and one that’s 70 degrees. They get quality sleep regardless of the sirens, honking horns, and car alarms that punctuate New York’s nights. They aren’t even bothered by streetlamps, neon signs, and other light pollution.
If you’re one of these fortunate folks, you don’t have to worry about ambient temperature. This advice is only relevant for people who think they sleep too much, find themselves craving a catnap during the day, can’t fall asleep at night, or do something weird while they snooze, such as snoring, talking, walking, or even sleep-fighting. Sleep fighting is when someone shouts, punches or kicks during sleep. If you get a good seven or eight hours’ rest a night and feel like you’re already sleeping well, you probably are.
Why is it so important to get a good night’s sleep?
The importance of sleep is increasingly recognized. But people still don’t treat sleep as something that’s as important as diet and exercise. The three of them fall into the same category. We all pay attention to what we put into our bodies and how much we move them. We need to put the same amount of thought into how well and how long we power down.
Poor sleep over time has been linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. It can also have an immediate impact on your life. If you don’t get a good night’s rest, you could feel tired, sluggish, and irritable, and you might find your reflexes are slower than usual. You might even mistakenly think you’re just fine. One of the symptoms of not getting enough sleep is the inability to recognize our own deficits.
What makes a good night’s sleep?
A good night’s sleep takes into account two things: quantity and quality. Quantity is easy. Almost everyone needs between seven and eight hours of sleep. A lot of people think they do just fine on, say, five hours a night. That’s true for some people, but the percentage of people who fit into that category is extremely small.
Sleep quality is more subjective. Some people worry if it takes more than a half-hour to fall asleep; others are concerned if they wake up more than once during the night; still others fret if they wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep. If you have any questions, don’t ignore it. You should probably have it checked out. You can make an appointment with a sleep specialist who will review your medical history, make a diagnosis, and prepare a treatment plan. A specialists may ask you to keep a sleep log for two weeks and bring it with you for your initial consultation. Sometimes the evaluation will include an oversight sleep study.