I have long read about the relationship between the temperature in ones sleep environment (ambient temperature, as well as temperature of clothes, bedding, etc.) and the quality of sleep, but...
I have long read about the relationship between the temperature in ones sleep environment (ambient temperature, as well as temperature of clothes, bedding, etc.) and the quality of sleep, but never knew many "whys" behind it.
This paper is from 2012, so nothing new, but I found it really interesting in explaining some of biology behind this. The section "Sleep and thermoregulation" goes into depth about the physiology behind thermoregulation as it relates to different sleep cycles. It further goes on to explain (at least as I understood it) how changes in skin temperature and ambient temperature can impact our ability to stay asleep, or become more wakeful.
As a personal anecdote, after hearing how important ambient temp was for good sleep, I started experimenting with this. My sleep did noticeably improve when I began paying attention to my room's temperature, keeping it much cooler, and keeping this temperature consistent as possible throughout the night.
not sure if this is of interest to anyone else, but thought I would post.
Finally - are papers OK to post like this on Tildes? Or is there a different ~ category for those? TIA
That's damn interesting and has my anecodotal support as well. We've just come out of a heatwave in the UK and I used my air con overnight to keep cool after a crap nights sleep with the heat....
Increases in wakefulness are greater in cold Ta than in heat , suggesting that the impact of cold exposure is greater than that of heat exposure. Ta higher or lower than the thermal neutral temperature (29°C) have been shown to increase wakefulness and decrease REM and SWS in semi-nude subjects [40]. However, these results are based on semi-nude subjects and exclude the effects of bed covers and clothing. In real-life situations where bed covers and clothing are used, sleep is actually disturbed during heat exposure rather than cold exposure in the young [41], as well as in the elderly [19]. The increased wakefulness and decreased SWS and REM are stereotypical effects that are observed in heat exposure [42]. These effects on sleep stages are concentrated in the initial segment rather than the later segment of sleep. One possible explanation for this is that sleep disruption in the initial sleep segment leads to an increased demand, which may overcome the thermal stress in the later segment of sleep [42,43].
That's damn interesting and has my anecodotal support as well.
We've just come out of a heatwave in the UK and I used my air con overnight to keep cool after a crap nights sleep with the heat.
Three days of "ice box bedroom" and I slept like a log every night because it's wonderfully cold.
I love that there's actually a reason behind this scientifically!
I'm sorry to hear about the heat wave. That kind of stuff can be so brutal, not just for sleep but quality of life throughout the day, and dangerous too if you get caught off guard with it. I'm so...
I'm sorry to hear about the heat wave. That kind of stuff can be so brutal, not just for sleep but quality of life throughout the day, and dangerous too if you get caught off guard with it. I'm so glad for you that it's over.
Yes, I love learning the science behind some of this sleep stuff. All these little bits of information, when taken together and given proper attention, can have such a massive impact on improving sleep quality. And when just one piece gets off, it can have such a disruption (as you are talking about with the heat disrupting your sleep). Knowing the reason why can be very empowering (for me at least), because it gives me something actionable to do to improve the situation. I hope it is similarly empowering for others.
They're generally "okay", our homes are just designed for the cold... so they retain so much damn heat! It's more "uncomfortable", but as climate change really kicks in we're likely to start...
I'm sorry to hear about the heat wave. That kind of stuff can be so brutal, not just for sleep but quality of life throughout the day, and dangerous too if you get caught off guard with it. I'm so glad for you that it's over.
They're generally "okay", our homes are just designed for the cold... so they retain so much damn heat!
It's more "uncomfortable", but as climate change really kicks in we're likely to start seeing worse and worse heatwaves.
Yes, I love learning the science behind some of this sleep stuff. All these little bits of information, when taken together and given proper attention, can have such a massive impact on improving sleep quality. And when just one piece gets off, it can have such a disruption (as you are talking about with the heat disrupting your sleep). Knowing the reason why can be very empowering (for me at least), because it gives me something actionable to do to improve the situation. I hope it is similarly empowering for others.
Aye, that's how I feel about a lot of things. When folks bang on about matresses, they never talk about thermal regulation for example!
I've noticed that too! It was the second most important thing we looked for when we were mattress shopping last year. The first was support for our backs.
I've noticed that too! It was the second most important thing we looked for when we were mattress shopping last year. The first was support for our backs.
It might be worth it to take some minor preparations in anticipation of future years. In the place I used to live, we had typically mild summers. Heat waves, if they happened, sucked but were...
It's more "uncomfortable", but as climate change really kicks in we're likely to start seeing worse and worse heatwaves.
It might be worth it to take some minor preparations in anticipation of future years. In the place I used to live, we had typically mild summers. Heat waves, if they happened, sucked but were livable. Then, there were a few summers in a row that were just blazing hot. I had no system of air conditioning in my home or anything (most of us didn't, as it had been unnecessary before that), and the conditions became absolutely miserable, to the point I was genuinely worried about heat exhaustion during one of the heat waves.
At that point, I had to do a lot of scrambling to try and get things safe and livable, as were a lot of people in my area (and a lot of stores jumped on this and raised prices). In the following years, I spent a lot of time understanding ways to make my living space cooler and tolerable. I mention all this because there was a surprising amount to learn and do (lots of random stuff like figuring out ways to rig my windows for window ACs, ways to insulate windows and doors, making some custom inserts to reflect the light and cool things down a little, understanding the temperature tolerance of different foods and medications, etc.) and had I prepared for it when things were still tolerable, and I had the time to work on it little by little, I would have saved myself a ton of misery and stress.
By the way - this is not meant to be "doom and gloom", to paint some picture that in a couple years the world will be in some intolearable heat waves. I am not even claiming that our heat waves were due to global warming (I assume it was, but I don't know enough about global warning to say that definitively.) it's just that even a few degrees can make a massive difference, and there's just this point at which things are no longer tolerable, and you don't want to be scrambling to figure it out once you're at that point. Hard lesson learned for me.
Oh don't worry, I'm a bit of a prepper myself so I think a few years ahead of most folks. Thus why I didn't run out of masks in 2020! We've got air con in our home, we're looking at battery and...
Oh don't worry, I'm a bit of a prepper myself so I think a few years ahead of most folks. Thus why I didn't run out of masks in 2020!
We've got air con in our home, we're looking at battery and solar systems to compensate and keep the various parts of home running whatever the weather.
The frustration is the temprature variations we get in the UK. -15 isn't unheard of recently, then 35-40 also isn't. So actually protecting from those variations is the biggest issue almost everything in the country struggles with. Let alone Dry > Wet > Dry > Wet > Dry...
Relatively modern, 1960's place in London. It's insulated well, but it definitely needs work. This place doesn't have dedicated Air Con and much of that infrastructure simply doesn't exist in the...
Relatively modern, 1960's place in London.
It's insulated well, but it definitely needs work. This place doesn't have dedicated Air Con and much of that infrastructure simply doesn't exist in the UK right now. It's getting A LOT better and there's investment for Heat Pumps, A/C and Solar onto a lot of residential places now.
There was a real push in the early 2010's with that to happen quickly. But our government decided to cut huge subsidies and crash the entire market... so that was fun. So we're playing catchup.
Oh that's great to hear. Yes, I have the same struggles here with the huge variations. As hot as it is in the summer, it's equally as cold in the winter. With no central heating, I spend most...
Oh that's great to hear. Yes, I have the same struggles here with the huge variations. As hot as it is in the summer, it's equally as cold in the winter. With no central heating, I spend most winters wearing coats and winter gear inside my home lol. At least I sleep better at night. We do not have variations of dry and wet however. That's an added difficulty I can't comprehend, and I assume it causes its own host of problems.
I'm a very hot sleeper, even though I'm cold throughout the day. It was around 72F in our apartment last night, and it was too warm for me to fall asleep. I had to turn the AC on to get it to 68F...
I'm a very hot sleeper, even though I'm cold throughout the day. It was around 72F in our apartment last night, and it was too warm for me to fall asleep. I had to turn the AC on to get it to 68F before my body was comfortable enough to fall asleep.
I've been tracking my sleep for a few years now, and I definitely get better sleep in the winter when it's naturally cooler. So, add my anecdata to the pile as well!
Anecdata... my god, what a term. Not sure on the F to C transition, but anything above 16-17c and I am FAR too warm in general. My wife jokes about me wearing shorts in winter, but I am always...
Anecdata... my god, what a term.
Not sure on the F to C transition, but anything above 16-17c and I am FAR too warm in general. My wife jokes about me wearing shorts in winter, but I am always warm to the touch.
16C damn. By the way, 68F (Habituallytired's preference) is 20C. And 16C (yours) is around 60F. I'm gonna be honest, I think I actually prefer things around the 16c range as well. In the winter...
16C damn. By the way, 68F (Habituallytired's preference) is 20C. And 16C (yours) is around 60F.
I'm gonna be honest, I think I actually prefer things around the 16c range as well. In the winter time that's around the temp in my house, and it's when I get the best sleep. In the summer I struggle to get any room below 21C or so at night, even with the window AC, and the impact is noticeable.
I'm very curious if there's an optimal temperature for sleep that is the same for everyone (even if they have different preferences for what feels good), or if it really does vary that much between person and person. I mention this because I actually hate the 16C temperature in the home, but even though I'm uncomfortable with it, I sleep much better that way.
Also enjoying the anecdata term haha never heard that before.
It's such a great term. I think it's dependent. I have the window open a crack in winter to let the really cold air in and it's unbelievably amazing to sleep in.
It's such a great term.
I think it's dependent. I have the window open a crack in winter to let the really cold air in and it's unbelievably amazing to sleep in.
I really struggle with overheating during sleep. For whatever reason, I tend to be way too cold all day long, but as soon as I lose consciousness, my body cooks like an oven. If you are like me,...
I really struggle with overheating during sleep. For whatever reason, I tend to be way too cold all day long, but as soon as I lose consciousness, my body cooks like an oven. If you are like me, these are my recommendations:
Try not to go to bed cold, because then you are inclined to bundle up too much and have a bad night's sleep. Instead, do something to warm up directly before bed (like have a hot shower) so that crawling into a cool bed feels pleasant.
Steer clear of memory foam. It feels cool and soothing to start with, but don't fall for the illusion. (On the other hand, cooling gel really does work in my experience and can offset the heat-trapping characteristics of foam.)
Avoid polyester textiles and batting in your sheets, blankets, mattress toppers, etc. Plant fibers (cotton, hemp, bamboo, linen) dissipate heat and moisture more effectively. Another good option is wool, but only if you can get it in a very light, summer weight form, which is hard to find in my experience.
Instead of one thick comforter/duvet, use several layers of thinner blankets. This makes it easier to regulate your temperature if you wake up too hot or too cold. I particularly recommend loosely woven blankets (such as waffle blankets, crochet blankets, or other simple woven blankets with gaps between the threads) because they are cozy without being stifling.
Avoid very high thread counts in your sheets, especially in your flat sheet. These are made of extremely fine fibers that are woven closely together, which trap heat. Make sure you can easily make out the individual threads in the sheet.
If you can't keep your body cool, at least strive to keep your head cool:
Avoid lots of pillows or exceedingly thick and squishy pillows that block air flow. I like to use a contoured pillow with a tightly fitting pillow case so that there is minimal material around my head.
Strategically open doors and windows to get a good cross breeze in the room.
My personal favorite is to use a tall floor fan or a wall-mounted fan to blow away heat rising from my head (i.e., pointing at the space above my head, not directly pointing at my head where it is apt to dry out my skin and tickle me with my own hair).
If you sleep cuddled with a partner, strive to be the big spoon, not the little spoon, especially if you are physically smaller than your partner (i.e., if they envelop of a large share of your surface area when they spoon you). Better still, of course, is to move apart and leave a gap between you before you fall unconscious (save cuddling for before you sleep and after you wake up).
Thanks so much for sharing all of this! Off topic but I truly love this sort of stuff - the knowledge a person gains as a result of trying solve a problem that causes issues in their day to day...
Thanks so much for sharing all of this! Off topic but I truly love this sort of stuff - the knowledge a person gains as a result of trying solve a problem that causes issues in their day to day life. It's so valuable, because what you condensed here into one comment, I imagine probably took you many months to figure out (lots of trial and error, figuring out what was causing certain issues, random internet searching maybe). I find this stuff so valuable, because you just saved people all that time.
I will have to look into the material of my bed sheets - I had never thought about what type of material might dissipate heat and moisture more easily. I also tend to get hot sometimes at night, though sometimes I'm not even certain why. It does interfere with my sleep when it happens; would never have thought to consider a lot of this stuff.
I want to throw one thing out there (though please take it with a grain of salt, as I have never researched this), but I have read that certain metabolic processes can have an impact on core body temperature. So for example eating certain foods can have an affect of making you feel hot. Does anyone know more about this? Is it a myth? I'm uncertain. I can't even recall where I heard this, so this could be complete BS. If there's truth to this, it might be worth looking into as something extra. I will have to see if I can find any papers that elaborate on this (or conversely, a source that explains that it is bullshit.)
In my research into speep hygiene, this includes not showering, bathing or exercising to keep your internal temperature down before bed** as well, just to add in. I wonder what the effects of...
In my research into speep hygiene, this includes not showering, bathing or exercising to keep your internal temperature down before bed** as well, just to add in.
I wonder what the effects of global warming on our society and culture will be (noting one of the previous posters) when we're all even more sleep deprived.
I have long read about the relationship between the temperature in ones sleep environment (ambient temperature, as well as temperature of clothes, bedding, etc.) and the quality of sleep, but never knew many "whys" behind it.
This paper is from 2012, so nothing new, but I found it really interesting in explaining some of biology behind this. The section "Sleep and thermoregulation" goes into depth about the physiology behind thermoregulation as it relates to different sleep cycles. It further goes on to explain (at least as I understood it) how changes in skin temperature and ambient temperature can impact our ability to stay asleep, or become more wakeful.
As a personal anecdote, after hearing how important ambient temp was for good sleep, I started experimenting with this. My sleep did noticeably improve when I began paying attention to my room's temperature, keeping it much cooler, and keeping this temperature consistent as possible throughout the night.
not sure if this is of interest to anyone else, but thought I would post.
Finally - are papers OK to post like this on Tildes? Or is there a different ~ category for those? TIA
That's damn interesting and has my anecodotal support as well.
We've just come out of a heatwave in the UK and I used my air con overnight to keep cool after a crap nights sleep with the heat.
Three days of "ice box bedroom" and I slept like a log every night because it's wonderfully cold.
I love that there's actually a reason behind this scientifically!
I'm sorry to hear about the heat wave. That kind of stuff can be so brutal, not just for sleep but quality of life throughout the day, and dangerous too if you get caught off guard with it. I'm so glad for you that it's over.
Yes, I love learning the science behind some of this sleep stuff. All these little bits of information, when taken together and given proper attention, can have such a massive impact on improving sleep quality. And when just one piece gets off, it can have such a disruption (as you are talking about with the heat disrupting your sleep). Knowing the reason why can be very empowering (for me at least), because it gives me something actionable to do to improve the situation. I hope it is similarly empowering for others.
They're generally "okay", our homes are just designed for the cold... so they retain so much damn heat!
It's more "uncomfortable", but as climate change really kicks in we're likely to start seeing worse and worse heatwaves.
Aye, that's how I feel about a lot of things. When folks bang on about matresses, they never talk about thermal regulation for example!
I've noticed that too! It was the second most important thing we looked for when we were mattress shopping last year. The first was support for our backs.
It might be worth it to take some minor preparations in anticipation of future years. In the place I used to live, we had typically mild summers. Heat waves, if they happened, sucked but were livable. Then, there were a few summers in a row that were just blazing hot. I had no system of air conditioning in my home or anything (most of us didn't, as it had been unnecessary before that), and the conditions became absolutely miserable, to the point I was genuinely worried about heat exhaustion during one of the heat waves.
At that point, I had to do a lot of scrambling to try and get things safe and livable, as were a lot of people in my area (and a lot of stores jumped on this and raised prices). In the following years, I spent a lot of time understanding ways to make my living space cooler and tolerable. I mention all this because there was a surprising amount to learn and do (lots of random stuff like figuring out ways to rig my windows for window ACs, ways to insulate windows and doors, making some custom inserts to reflect the light and cool things down a little, understanding the temperature tolerance of different foods and medications, etc.) and had I prepared for it when things were still tolerable, and I had the time to work on it little by little, I would have saved myself a ton of misery and stress.
By the way - this is not meant to be "doom and gloom", to paint some picture that in a couple years the world will be in some intolearable heat waves. I am not even claiming that our heat waves were due to global warming (I assume it was, but I don't know enough about global warning to say that definitively.) it's just that even a few degrees can make a massive difference, and there's just this point at which things are no longer tolerable, and you don't want to be scrambling to figure it out once you're at that point. Hard lesson learned for me.
Oh don't worry, I'm a bit of a prepper myself so I think a few years ahead of most folks. Thus why I didn't run out of masks in 2020!
We've got air con in our home, we're looking at battery and solar systems to compensate and keep the various parts of home running whatever the weather.
The frustration is the temprature variations we get in the UK. -15 isn't unheard of recently, then 35-40 also isn't. So actually protecting from those variations is the biggest issue almost everything in the country struggles with. Let alone Dry > Wet > Dry > Wet > Dry...
Relatively modern, 1960's place in London.
It's insulated well, but it definitely needs work. This place doesn't have dedicated Air Con and much of that infrastructure simply doesn't exist in the UK right now. It's getting A LOT better and there's investment for Heat Pumps, A/C and Solar onto a lot of residential places now.
There was a real push in the early 2010's with that to happen quickly. But our government decided to cut huge subsidies and crash the entire market... so that was fun. So we're playing catchup.
Oh that's great to hear. Yes, I have the same struggles here with the huge variations. As hot as it is in the summer, it's equally as cold in the winter. With no central heating, I spend most winters wearing coats and winter gear inside my home lol. At least I sleep better at night. We do not have variations of dry and wet however. That's an added difficulty I can't comprehend, and I assume it causes its own host of problems.
I'm a very hot sleeper, even though I'm cold throughout the day. It was around 72F in our apartment last night, and it was too warm for me to fall asleep. I had to turn the AC on to get it to 68F before my body was comfortable enough to fall asleep.
I've been tracking my sleep for a few years now, and I definitely get better sleep in the winter when it's naturally cooler. So, add my anecdata to the pile as well!
Anecdata... my god, what a term.
Not sure on the F to C transition, but anything above 16-17c and I am FAR too warm in general. My wife jokes about me wearing shorts in winter, but I am always warm to the touch.
Summer is hell for me.
I'm glad you and @kuzbr like the phrase! It's one I picked up in undergrad because I ruined our mammalian dive reflex data 😂
16C damn. By the way, 68F (Habituallytired's preference) is 20C. And 16C (yours) is around 60F.
I'm gonna be honest, I think I actually prefer things around the 16c range as well. In the winter time that's around the temp in my house, and it's when I get the best sleep. In the summer I struggle to get any room below 21C or so at night, even with the window AC, and the impact is noticeable.
I'm very curious if there's an optimal temperature for sleep that is the same for everyone (even if they have different preferences for what feels good), or if it really does vary that much between person and person. I mention this because I actually hate the 16C temperature in the home, but even though I'm uncomfortable with it, I sleep much better that way.
Also enjoying the anecdata term haha never heard that before.
It's such a great term.
I think it's dependent. I have the window open a crack in winter to let the really cold air in and it's unbelievably amazing to sleep in.
I really struggle with overheating during sleep. For whatever reason, I tend to be way too cold all day long, but as soon as I lose consciousness, my body cooks like an oven. If you are like me, these are my recommendations:
Thanks so much for sharing all of this! Off topic but I truly love this sort of stuff - the knowledge a person gains as a result of trying solve a problem that causes issues in their day to day life. It's so valuable, because what you condensed here into one comment, I imagine probably took you many months to figure out (lots of trial and error, figuring out what was causing certain issues, random internet searching maybe). I find this stuff so valuable, because you just saved people all that time.
I will have to look into the material of my bed sheets - I had never thought about what type of material might dissipate heat and moisture more easily. I also tend to get hot sometimes at night, though sometimes I'm not even certain why. It does interfere with my sleep when it happens; would never have thought to consider a lot of this stuff.
I want to throw one thing out there (though please take it with a grain of salt, as I have never researched this), but I have read that certain metabolic processes can have an impact on core body temperature. So for example eating certain foods can have an affect of making you feel hot. Does anyone know more about this? Is it a myth? I'm uncertain. I can't even recall where I heard this, so this could be complete BS. If there's truth to this, it might be worth looking into as something extra. I will have to see if I can find any papers that elaborate on this (or conversely, a source that explains that it is bullshit.)
In my research into speep hygiene, this includes not showering, bathing or exercising to keep your internal temperature down before bed** as well, just to add in.
I wonder what the effects of global warming on our society and culture will be (noting one of the previous posters) when we're all even more sleep deprived.
Edit: **for 30-60 minutes before bed