Too Hot to Sleep? Lots of Cooling Tips Here

Quality sleep, a key overall health factor, is easier when you’re cool. Learn many low and high-tech tips for keeping cool when the weather turns hot.

Getting enough sleep is always hard for the nearly 41 million US adults who struggle with chronic insomnia.

But sleeping well during the hottest months provides an additional challenge.

Let’s look at the steps you can take when you find it too hot to sleep.

Why It’s Harder to Sleep in the Summer

Even if you normally sleep fairly well, you may find you have a harder time getting to sleep, and staying asleep, in the summer.

Your ears may be assaulted with summer sounds of dogs barking, teens hanging out, cars speeding, crickets chirping, or frogs croaking.

Sleep is most often disrupted by artificial light, but depending on your latitude, natural light could be a problem too.

It may stay light past your bedtime or get light hours before you want to get up.

Whether it’s having dinner with friends, hanging out at the pool, or exercising in the evening, these activities can stimulate you enough to make it hard to sleep.

Eating later at night can disturb sleep by causing acid reflux.

Beverages like sangria, mojitos, and cold beer epitomize summertime.

But while drinking alcohol may help you fall asleep, it also contributes to nocturnal waking and low-quality sleep. (1)

And since alcohol causes your blood vessels to dilate, it actually makes you feel hotter!

But mostly, summer is hot, making it harder to sleep.

The Ideal Temperature for Sleep

The ideal sleeping temperature is said to be between 60° and 67°F (15.5 and 19.4°C). (2)

Here’s why you sleep better when it’s cool.

Right before you fall asleep, many changes take place in your body.

Your brainwave patterns change, your heart and breathing rates slow, and your body temperature starts to drop.

This temperature change can help you fall and stay asleep. (3)

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Also, you spend approximately 20-25% of the time you sleep in the “rapid eye movement” stage.

During this part of the sleep cycle, you temporarily lose your ability to sweat and shiver, leaving your body unable to adjust your inner temperature to the surrounding air temperature. (4)

So when the room temperature is too warm, your body starts to heat up which can wake you and make it hard to get back to sleep.

And air conditioning is not always a big help.

You may wake feeling alternately too hot and then too cool as the AC cycles on and off.

Cool-Down Tips When It’s Too Hot to Sleep

I live in the desert southwest where we experience 100+°F (38+°C) temperatures all summer long, so I’ve learned a few things about sleeping in the heat!

There are three main concepts to remember to sleep better when it’s hot.

You want to keep your bedroom cool, keep your bed cool, and keep yourself cool.

You’ll sleep best if you use a few pointers from each of these areas.

Keeping Your Bedroom Cool

For many of us, attaining the ideal bedroom temperature of 60°-67°F (15.5-19.4°C) is unrealistic.

If you don’t have air conditioning, it’s not even possible.

But even if you do, keeping the temperature set this low would be prohibitively expensive.

This first set of tips is for those with central AC.

The rest of the tips in this article can be helpful for everyone.

Learn more —
Mental Effects of Chronic Insomnia (& How to Stop It)

If You Have Central Air Conditioning, Optimize It

Get your central AC serviced now, before the next heat wave.

Change your air filter regularly.

According to my HVAC contractor, surprisingly few people actually do this.

A dirty filter will significantly decrease air flow and AC efficiency.

Adjust your vents to optimize air flow.

Don’t assume they are in the right position.

Your vents may be perfectly adjusted for winter, but not so great for summer.

Keep your bedroom vents fully open and close vents in rooms you rarely use.

Block Out the Sun

People in hot climates have done this for centuries.

Close windows and window treatments during the day to block the sun and keep your bedroom cool.

If the sun hits your bedroom directly, invest in thermal window treatments — blinds, shades, or curtains.

Then open up in the evening as the temperature drops.

Avoid Heat-Generating Electronics

Minimize heat generating electronics in the bedroom.

Computers, televisions, laptops, and even light bulbs all add heat to make your bedroom hotter.

Switch from traditional incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or light emitting diode bulbs (LEDs).

A whopping 90% of incandescent bulb energy is given off as heat. (5)

Learn more —
5-HTP Benefits for Anxiety, Depression, Sleep

Dehumidify

There really is something to the old adage that “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.”

Putting a dehumidifier in the bedroom can make you feel much more comfortable at the same temperature.

You can see on this chart below that an 80°F bedroom can feel like 91°F or 73°F depending on the humidity!

Get a Portable Air Conditioner

At one time, the best alternative to cool a bedroom was with a window air conditioner.

But these have some disadvantages.

They can be difficult to install, don’t work in every kind of window, should be removed when summer is over, plus you lose the use of one window.

They can be noisy and an eyesore both inside and out.

That’s why some homeowner associations prohibit them.

Portable air conditioners, on the other hand, are a snap to set up and easily moved from room to room.

Your neighbors won’t complain and your HOA won’t know about it. 😉

Move Down or Out

There’s no rule that says you have to sleep in your bedroom.

Heat rises, so upstairs bedrooms are the hottest rooms in the house.

Temporarily move to the ground floor or better yet the basement, if you have one.

Sleeping on the floor can even be a few degrees cooler than sleeping on your bed.

You may even want to sleep outside.

Houses built before air conditioning in hot climates in the US often had an outside room for relaxing and sleeping — e.g., a Florida room or an Arizona room.

Sleep in a Hammock

If it’s not too buggy outside, consider backyard camping or sleeping in a hammock.

There’s a growing number of proponents of hammock sleeping and you can even set one up indoors.

Research has proven what moms everywhere already know — that gentle rocking induces sleep.

The swaying of a hammock can help adults fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply, too, by synchronizing brain waves. (6)

If your lifestyle allows it, supplement your night’s sleep with an afternoon nap.

The great idea of taking an afternoon siesta was born in hot climates for a reason.

Learn more —
Neurofeedback: Train Your Brain Waves to Treat Anxiety, ADHD & More

How to Keep Your Bed Cool

Now that you’ve done what you can to keep your bedroom cool, it’s time to move to the next level — keeping your bed cool.

Here’s a handful of low-tech ways to make your bed feel cooler.

Do you remember waterbeds?

One of their drawbacks is that they pull heat away from you and need to be heated when it’s cool outside.

But this makes them perfect for summertime temperatures.

Bed fans are an interesting way to cool your bed.

These units sit on the floor and blow a stream of air directly at the foot of your bed.

Kick pets out of the bed — they generate a lot of heat.

They’ll be happier too, especially if you provide a cooler place for them to sleep like their own cooling dog bed.

If you wake in the middle of the night and it feels like someone microwaved your mattress, get out of bed.

Getting your hot body out of bed for a few minutes is sometimes the only way to give your bed a chance to cool down.

You can splash cold water on your face or stick your head in the fridge for a few minutes while waiting.

Cooling Pillows

The typical pillow absorbs the heat from your head and radiates it back to you.

If you haven’t shopped for pillows lately, you may be surprised at the number of cooling pillow options.

There are natural cooling pillows such as those made with dried buckwheat hulls or bamboo.

Buckwheat pillows don’t heat up like standard pillows, but if you aren’t used to them you may find them a little too hard and crunchy to be comfortable.

Some bamboo pillows are bamboo all the way through, while others have a bamboo cover.

There are numerous cooling pillows that contain cooling gel.

Some you literally have to fill with water like a mini-waterbed, while others have a gel layer embedded in memory foam.

Cooling Sheets

It used to be that cotton was king for sheets that help keep you cool.

But now there are cooling sheets including those made from CoolMax, a fiber scientifically designed to pull moisture away from you and evaporate it quickly to cool you down.

Sheets made of bamboo can be cooler as well.

Cooling Mattress Toppers

There’s a wide range of cooling mattress toppers to choose from — copper-infused, gel-infused memory foam, ventilated memory foam, CoolMax, bamboo, and even wool.

The idea of sleeping on top of wool sounds hot but, in fact, wool has impressive temperature-regulating properties.

It can help you feel warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

A study done at the University of Sydney found that wool helps regulate sleep temperature and that sleeping on wool leads to better sleep. (7)

A top-of-the-line option is the ChiliPad Cube Cooling and Warming Mattress Pad which circulates cooled or heated water to keep you comfortable all year.

This dual-zone pad lets you and your partner each choose your sleep temperature anywhere from a nippy 55°F to a toasty 110°F.

Two Questionable Ways to Cool Your Bed

One of the worst ideas to keep cool that I’ve read about is to put your sheets in the freezer.

You’d better be quick because by the time you’ve made your bed, the sheets will no longer be cool and you’ll be hotter.

The other bad idea is the “Egyptian method” of wrapping yourself in a wet sheet to stay cool.

This sounds like an ideal way to grow mold on your mattress, especially if you live in a humid climate.

Ways to Keep Yourself Cool

There’s sometimes only so much you can do to keep your external environment cool.

Here’s how to keep yourself cool with some tips that go right to the source!

Avoid strenuous exercise in the evening as it will elevate your core body temperature. (8)

Digestion can raise your temperature by as much as 2°F, so have a light dinner and eat earlier rather than closer to bedtime. (9)

Use a ceiling fan if you have one.

The air movement won’t cool your room but will make you feel up to 5°F cooler.

If you get hot but your sleep partner doesn’t, put a small portable fan on your nightstand.

I have an old-fashioned hand fan that I use in a pinch to cool down silently.

Wear breathable lightweight sleepwear, or nothing at all!

Use Water Wisely to Keep Yourself Cool

When you want to stay cool, water is your best friend.

Stay hydrated.

If you don’t have enough fluids to perspire, your core temperature will rise.

Keep an insulated glass of ice cold water by your bed.

Sip as needed to cool down and stay hydrated.

Take a tepid shower or bath.

Taking a truly cold shower can have a rebound effect as your body’s thermostat revs up to counteract the cold.

Place ice packs, frozen water bottles, or a pan of ice in front of a fan so you’ll be refreshed with a cool, rather than hot, breeze.

This is how people used to cool down before air conditioning went electric.

Keep a damp washcloth by your bed to dampen your wrists, face, or neck as needed.

Even better, use cooling towels — towels specifically made to keep you cool.

These are generally made of hyper-evaporative material that retains a lot of water while remaining dry to the touch.

They will help you stay cool for several hours.

This low-tech cooling solution has a lot of great uses beyond the bedroom too.

Use it while exercising or for relief from hot flashes.

Applying a cooling towel to your neck works amazingly well.

Keep a spray bottle of water with a few drops of peppermint essential oil at your bedside.

Spritz all over as needed to cool yourself down.

This is especially refreshing on hot feet.

Go to bed with slightly damp hair.

The continual evaporation will keep your head cool.

Why Your Brain Needs Sleep

You may be wondering “Why is there an article on sleeping in the heat on a brain fitness blog?”.

It’s because getting enough high-quality sleep is critical for brain health and function.

One night of poor sleep can affect your memory, concentration, coordination, mood, judgment, and ability to handle stress the following day.

According to Dr. Alexandros Vgontzas, director of the Penn State Hershey Sleep Research and Treatment Center, losing one night of sleep can affect your mental performance as much as being legally drunk! (10)

It’s during sleep that your brain repairs itself, washes away metabolic debris, creates new brains cells, and consolidates memories. (11, 12, 13, 14)

Chronic insomnia is linked to a long list of diseases, including mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. (15)

Inadequate sleep even disrupts your genes — just a single week of insufficient sleep can alter the activity of over 700 genes! (16)

Too Hot to Sleep: The Bottom Line

Sleeping in the heat can be challenging.

Fortunately, there’s an abundance of mostly low-tech ways to stay cool.

These range from old standbys like fans, natural fibers, and cold water to “new and improved” man-made materials like hyper-evaporative fibers and cooling gels.

What have you found that works well to help you sleep when it’s hot?

Please add them in the comments below!