Can’t seem to fall asleep at night during a heat wave? You are not alone. No matter how many blankets you kick off or how high you blast your fan, sometimes it’s seemingly impossible to cool down your body temperature to finally get yourself to sleep. Grab a cold glass of water and read over Payless Power’s 10 tips to help you stay cool at night and sleep soundly during those hot summer nights.
Sleep in Cotton
Cotton is your best friend when trying to keep cool throughout a night’s sleep. To keep your body temperature from rising too high, make sure that your pajamas [sic], undergarments and bed sheets are all cotton during the summer. This fabric is the perfect blend of a lightweight and sweat-wicking material to help you from being too hot while you try to fall asleep.
Avoid Tight Clothing
Wearing tight clothing to sleep decreases the amount of airflow your body receives throughout the night which can increase your body temperature. Additionally, the materials that make clothing tight to your body are not great for keeping you cool. Not only can tight clothes make you hot at night, they can also make you feel trapped and restricted, adding to your feelings of discomfort during sleep.
Use Fans
Remember, fans cool people, not air. Since they circulate the air in the room, they help give a cooler feel to the people who are in the room. However, they don’t actually decrease the temperature, and it’s important to turn fans off in rooms that are not currently occupied, or else you are wasting electricity. To optimize the benefits of using a fan in a hot room, position the fan near an open window to pull the hot air from inside the room and push it out of the home.
Hack Your Fan for Extra Cooling
Although fans don’t cool the air on their own, there are some simple, old-school tricks you can try to cool the air. Here’s one of our large favorite options: place an ice tray or a large bowl full of ice between you and your fan. The ice will emit cooler temperatures, and the fan will blow that cool, misty air onto you as you sleep to help you stay cool on a hot summer night.
Create A Cross Breeze
If opening a window in search of a cool breeze on a hot night isn’t cutting it – get the air flowing yourself! A simple way to create a cross breeze is to position a fan directly across from a window, which will help improve airflow in a room. You can also position multiple fans throughout your room to maximize the effects. If you have two windows in your room, consider opening both to create a natural, electricity-free cross breeze.
Take Cold Showers
The first few seconds of a cold shower can be tough, but choosing cold over hot water is a great way to keep yourself cool in the hot evenings. Not only can cold showers help you beat the heat and thus get to sleep faster, but research also shows that they are better for your skin and hair, and can improve your immune and circulatory systems in ways hot showers can’t.
Try A Cool Compress
If a cold shower is too much to bear, try using a cool compress instead when you are trying to get to sleep on a hot night. You can create one by wetting a washcloth and placing it in the freezer for a few hours. You can also fill a water bottle with ice and cold water and wrap it in a towel to ensure you and your bedding stay nice and dry. If you don’t have either of those two items, you can improvise by using frozen vegetables or a plastic bag full of ice instead.
Keep Your Bedroom Unplugged
Anything that uses electricity also produces heat. Plugged in electronics such as cell phones, tablets and televisions can unexpectedly warm up a room. This is especially true for lamps and overhead lights. For the coolest possible sleeping environment, unplug or power down electronics in your bedroom long before you go to sleep.
Invest in Cooling Technology
In recent years, different products have been developed to help keep you cool while you sleep. Items like a cooling pillow, mattress pad, or bed sheets can be a cost-effective way to cool off while you sleep. Pro tip: you can get a cooling pillow on Amazon for as low as $15.
Switch Up Your Sleeping Arrangements.
If you typically share a bed, consider sleeping by yourself on particularly warm nights because eliminating excess body heat is a great way to keep cool at night. Another thing to try is changing your sleeping position. Studies show that sleeping in a “spread eagle” position, where both your arms and legs are extended toward the four corners of your bed, is one of the best positions to sleep in to stay cool, and this position isn’t very accessible when you normally share a bed. Lastly, remember that heat rises, so if you can temporarily sleep on a lower level than where you currently sleep, it’s definitely worth it to take your bedding and pillow downstairs during a heat wave to stay cool!
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