It is hard to sleep on a blistering hot summer night. You keep tossing, turning, and flipping your pillow for the umpteenth time a night. Sleepless nights stress you out and you keep sweating. But how can you make it through the summer heat without losing sleep and cranking your air conditioner?
We are sharing with you some useful tips to go through this summer by Dr. Jocelyn Cheng, who is a neurologist at NYU Langone Health and specializes in sleep medicine. She explains why it is important to stay rested in summer. We are sharing her recommendations and low-tech solutions to get a proper sleep in summers.
Why is it hard to sleep during summer nights?
Our body has a mechanism which is called circadian rhythm. This mechanism keeps in check the biological rhythms that keeps us going throughout the course of the day. Circadian rhythms allow any normal human to stay awake during the daytime hours and during the evening. Another portion that it controls is body temperature during metabolism. So as we go to sleep in the night, there is a relative decrease in our body temperature. When you are overheated, it interferes with your circadian process, making it difficult to sleep.
What can we do to sleep peacefully in summers while cutting down on our AC use?
One way to sleep peacefully is to sleep on lower floors during summers. Our houses usually have bedrooms upstairs while some of them have a basement. It is significantly cooler and easier to sleep in the basement during the hot season. That is one easy way to sleep.
Having a home with ventilation also helps. Fans use less energy and if you have windows at home then cross-pressure can create some sort of cool breeze through the areas in which you sleep. Keeping hydrated is another important thing as we sweat a lot during this season, and this can also interfere with our ability to cool off.
Some people use damp bedsheets or damp clothes to cover their face and head to try to cool off. It would be better if you use hybrid mattress to sleep. They give you comfort and the peace ‘feel’ that the rest of the methods may not.
What kind of habits should be avoided?
Wearing light clothes is better than wearing pajamas. Sleep on cloud mattress as they have the tendency to cushion your body and absorb heat. Having a breathable stuff to sleep on is better as it can keep your nights cool.
What can we do to improve our sleep schedule?
We all usually stay up late at night, especially on the weekends and don’t go to sleep until later. We do this two days a week while we follow a regular work schedule during the week. This habit alone can disturb your whole body clock. It is pertinent to maintain a routine sleep schedule. We know it is difficult but that’s important because it takes a lot of self-discipline.
About Author:
Shruti Gupta is a writer, digital marketer and outreaching expert. She writes about technology, startups & other niches. She has contributed to a number of famous websites like Thenextweb deccanchronicle and Crazyegg. Stay tuned with her at:@shruti_gupta01 or via skype : shrutigupta2811