Do you actively ensure that your bedroom is a particular temperature or do you not give it a second thought?
I was really interested to read an article in The Daily Mail reporting results of a survey carried out by the hotel chain, Travelodge. They reported that “Almost 90% of the participants had trouble sleeping due to the temperature of their bedroom”.
Do you experience issues sleeping due to your bedroom temperature? Do you sleep with your window open or closed, with a light duvet or lots of blankets? We’re all different when it comes to what temperature we find comfortable at night but did you realise just how important a factor temperature is, in helping us to get a good night’s sleep and avoid being sleep deprived?
The process of sleep and solutions to aid sleep initiation
When we sleep, a reduction in core body temperature is a part of the sleep-initiation and sleep maintenance process. A room temperature that is too warm or too cool can prevent your core temperature from lowering to its ideal place for good sleep.
In an article on Mercola.com1 , Dr Mercola suggests that taking a hot bath 90-120 minutes before going to bed may help you sleep better. The reason for this is that after a hot bath, your body temperature will naturally begin to fall, which helps your body prepare itself for sleep. As explained, this drop in temperature is necessary to start the sleep process. He also notes the importance of the temperature of your extremities, our hands and feet need to be warm to induce sleep. Simple solutions if you suffer from cold feet at night are to wear warm socks and use a hot water bottle.
The National Sleep Foundation recommend that the temperature in a bedroom should be between 15 and 19 degrees centigrade at night2 but, this may not be the ideal temperature for you, so a bit of trial and error may be needed. Not only that but our body temperature fluctuates during the course of the night and many people share a bed with a partner who has significantly different temperature requirements at any one time.
If addressing all those issues sounds rather like a Rubik’s cube, take comfort in the knowledge that there are technologies incorporated into bedding to create the ideal sleeping environment for each individual: for example, the KenkoDream quilt incorporates ceramic-coated, reflective fibres to provide a natural way to absorb excess heat from the body or the environment and gently reflect it back as required, thereby maintaining a constant temperature which is neither too cold not too hot for each person using it. As an added bonus, this also provides negative ions, creating a feeling of deeper relaxation.
Share your experiences of the effect temperature has had on your sleep and let us know what you do prior to going to bed, to transform your room into a sleep sanctuary.
1. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/12/19/Do-Cold-Temperatures-Improve Sleep.aspx.
2. http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/six-tips-design-the-ideal-bedroom-sleep
