HOT SUMMER NIGHT SOS
When the heat is on, avoid tossing all night with these slumber-friendly tips.
You’ve pulled off the sheets, revved up the fan and given your face another water spritz, but still you’re too hot and bothered to catch quality zzzzzs.
“At night the hormone melatonin drops your body temperature to help you fall sleep,” explains Siobhan Banks, sleep expert and co-director of the Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre at the University of South Australia. “This is why hot nights can make it harder to nod off and stay asleep.”
But there’s no need to lie there sweltering
– you can make simple changes to ensure you have the sort of sleep we all dream of.
Keep your cool
According to the Sleep Health Foundation, good air circulation is the key to a cooler and better night’s sleep. So don’t just plonk your fan in one spot all night. Before you head for bed, move your fan to different positions an arms length from your window, facing out to help blow hot air from your room. Or place several fans in different directions to create a cross breeze. The whirring of a fan at night can also act as white noise to counter external sounds that may disturb you.
In readiness for a hot night, close curtains and windows during the day to shield your room from
peak daytime heat and sun. Re-open them in the afternoon or when you arrive home from work, then use fans to help circulate the air.
Is your bedroom like a sauna? Consider sleeping in another room for a couple of nights. If you have a hideaway bed in your loungeroom open it up and out – the lounge is usually larger than your bedroom, with better air circulation so heat does not remain trapped.
Rooms with tiles, such as a family room, are often the coolest spot in the house. Even outside on a back patio or verandah could work. Suspend a mosquito net over a day bed and enjoy cool al fresco sleeping. Wear a silky sleep mask to block the morning light.
It’s easier said than done with longer days, but turn off all those extra lights. Electronic equipment and light globes all generate a little heat that can ramp up a room’s temperature. So switch off anything you’re not using and at night, flick on lamps lit by low wattage globes.
Pillow talk
You spend a third of your life in bed resting on a pillow, so make sure it’s not slam-dunking your health. Allergy sufferers need to beware: researchers at the University of Manchester have found there are several thousand spores of fungus per gram of used pillow – more than a million spores per pillow! These can worsen or trigger allergic responses such as sneezing, nasal congestion and skin rashes.
But even for the rest of us, most experts recommend changing your pillow every 12 months and protecting it from absorbing perspiration with a moisture-wicking pillow cover.
How you sleep can actually impact your choice of pillow. Are you a stacker? You might need to try to find one pillow that will give you the comfort you want. “Too many pillows can create excessive neck flexion, which strains your neck and upper back instead of allowing them to relax,” says Anna-Louise Bouvier, creator of Physiocise and spokesperson for the Australian Physiotherapy Association. If you sleep mostly on your back, Bouvier suggests you choose a low pillow that has ergonomic support around the neck and base of the head. “Or choose a softer pillow that you can mould in around your shoulders,” she suggests. If you’re a side sleeper? “Some people prefer a more dense foam pillow or ‘memory foam’, which moulds to the contours of your head and neck or two softer, flatter pillows to keep your neck in a neutral position,” Bouvier explains. And if the tummy is your preference? Well, that’s a no-no. “This should be avoided as it puts enormous strain on your neck joints,” says Bouvier.
Your mattress is another story altogether. They can last up to 10 years, but turning the mattress every so often (about four times a year is recommended) will help keep it going for longer.
Lie in a well-made bed
We all look forward to falling into bed after a long day, but often end up tossing and turning especially on hot summer nights. Clean, crisp sheets are a dream but as they are the closest thing to your body all night long, you need to make sure you pick the right ones for you.
Natural fabrics such as cotton, linen and bamboo have better breathability and moisturewicking abilities than synthetic fibres like polyester. But are 1,000+ Egyptian cotton sheets the best choice? “When you sleep between sheets with a high thread count the tight weave can actually trap the heat in the fabric so that it raises your body temperature,” explains Dr Lorenzo Turicchia, sleep scientist with Bedgear, which produces lightweight moisture-wicking and aerating sheets and blankets. “This can trigger or worsen hot flushes for women going through perimenopause or menopause and cause discomfort as hot sheets stick to your body.” The antidote? Set aside high thread count sheets for winter and during summer go for a thread count of between 400 and 800.
Also consider colour. Avoid red sheets – this is not only a stimulating and warming colour, it is one of the colours that bed bugs favour (the other is black), according to US studies. Instead, go for blue – UK research shows this calming shade in the bedroom helps promote better sleep quality.
And don’t forget what you wear to bed – cotton jammies may not sound very romantic but the material is breathable and allows for air circulation. If you experience night sweats, moisture-wicking bamboo fabric is a comfy and eco-friendly choice. Au naturel is an option of course – just make sure you have layers of light blankets at the ready for when it gets chilly.
Avoid late-night snacks
“Food has a thermic effect, which means your body burns energy during digestion,” says dietitian Brooke Longfield. “This slightly raises your metabolic rate which can leaving you feeling hot after a big meal.” The upshot? Choose lighter meals like salads and avoid latenight snacks like toast. Peckish after dinner? Longfield suggests an orange or slice of watermelon which both have a high-water content. “Remember to also stay hydrated by drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day, which also helps lower your body temperature,” she adds.