How to Sleep in Summer

Tuesday 29th May 2012

After a false start earlier in the year, it looks like summer might have finally arrived here in the UK with a sustained week or so of high temperatures. While many of us have been craving the sunshine and warmth, it is a fact that the arrival of summer can often spell the beginnings of sleep disturbances and night-time discomfort.

However, the change in season needn’t mean that your sleep suffers, and with some easily implemented changes you’ll find that you can continue sleeping just as soundly as before.

The first change to combat, of course, is the rise in temperature. The body needs to descend to a particularly cool state in order to naturally fall asleep, and body temperature actually continues to fall during the various phases of sleep. So, a warmed-up room rarely leads to good sleep, and the sometimes excessive evening heat of summer can be outright uncomfortable.

Here are some of the most effective ways to lower the temperature when you’re looking to get to sleep;

• Take a slightly cool bath or shower in the hour before heading off to bed. This will help to regulate your body temperature down to a cooler level and set you up for sleep.
• Cut out the heat source to the room – sunshine through a window for hours on end will dramatically raise the temperature of a bedroom, and this will be retained right into the night, making it difficult to sleep. Try closing the bedroom blinds or curtains from the early afternoon, shutting out the powerful sunlight. Also opening a window and door will encourage airflow in and out of the room.
• Change your duvet – you should have definitely changed from the winter heavyweight duvet by now, but you may even find that a mid-range tog rated duvet might be too warm for the hottest nights of the summer. If you’re really suffering, go for a 3.0 tog rated duvet.

The other significant attribute of summer that can dramatically impact on sleep quality is light, with sunshine appearing earlier in the morning and lasting later into the evening. Light is one of the most powerful environmental factors that determines our sleep cycle, so it’s vitally important to adapt to the change in light that summer brings.

• Don’t change your usual sleeping and waking times – the body takes time to adapt to any shift in sleep schedule, and in the meantime you might suffer from the effects of sleep deprivation. By maintaining your regular sleep pattern you’re ensuring that you continue to get sufficient levels of rest and rejuvenation.
• Cut out light – by using heavy lined curtains or blackout blinds you can control the level of light that enters your bedroom, meaning that you’re not being kept awake in the evening when the daylight is still out, or being woken earlier than usual with a summer sunrise.

Tags: sleep summer memory foam mattress

Category: Sleep Research

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