YOU NEED A COOL BEDROOM — EVEN IN WINTER

BEING warm and snug sounds like an ideal recipe for sleep. But, in fact, our body’s core temperature needs to fall for us to drop off soundly.

A bedroom temperature of around 18.3c is ideal for most people. This surprises many, as it sounds a little too cold for comfort.

Most of us set bedroom temperatures higher, at around 22c.

This likely contributes to lower quantity or quality of sleep than you could otherwise enjoy. Sleep clinicians treating insomnia patients often advise them to drop their thermostat by 3c to 5c.

This need for body temperature to fall in order to sleep is why a hot bath before bedtime can help.

Most people think a hot soak works by making us toasty to the core. Instead, it invites blood to the surface of your skin. Those

dilated blood vessels quickly help radiate out inner heat, and then your core body temper-ature plumets.

Consequently, you fall asleep more quickly your core is colder.

Indeed, hot baths before bed can induce 10 to 156 per cent more deep sleep in healthy adults, according to research in the journal Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology.