How to get to sleep when it's hot
This post was inspired by another trip to the ITV This Morning studio, via Skype, this week. Holly and Phil were asking about sleep in the warm weather.. sadly, this jinxed the sunshine, and it's been raining ever since, but at least you'll know for next time..
We rely on a daily fall in our core body temperature as a cue for sleep. If the bedroom is too warm, we not only struggle to fall into deep sleep, but we’re more likely to wake up during the night. So what can you do to minimise sleep disruption when things hot up?
1. Block out the heat during the day
Keep the curtains drawn and the window closed during the heat of the day, to prevent sunlight warming everything up. (If you didn’t close your curtains when you left your bedroom, feel free to go and do that now.)
2. Allow air to circulate at night
Keep the window open if you can. Ear plugs may help to drown out any outside noise. A fan can also help, both to keep the air moving and for white noise, to drown out outside noise (or snoring). If the air temperature is very high, keeping ice cubes or an ice pack in front of the fan could help increase the cooling effect.
3. Take a warm bath or shower at least an hour before bed
It sounds unlikely, but the pro-sleep ‘Warm Bath Effect’ is an actual scientific thing. A warm bath can help you relax, and it may be that increased circulation to the extremities actually helps to cool the core (internal) body temperature.
4. Ditch the duvet
Swap a high tog duvet for a low tog summer duvet, or just take out the quilt and use the cover. Using a cover can have a calming effect, but you may find yourself more comfortable with no covers at all. As for pyjamas, the jury's out. Some say that cotton/breathable pyjamas are better than sleeping in your birthday suit since they can wick the sweat away. It may be a case of experimenting to see which you prefer.
5. Stay hydrated
In warm weather, drink more water throughout the day. Dehydration can interfere with restful sleep. Research also suggests that lack of sleep reduces vasopressin, a hormone which controls fluid balance, so you’re actually more likely to be dehydrated if you slept badly last night. Avoid drinking too much water in the hour before bed though, since this could make for multiple bathroom breaks.
6. Be tactical about co-sleeping.. time for a sleep holiday?
Two warm bodies will conserve heat more than one. If you usually share the bed with a partner, child or favourite pet, it could be time for an honest conversation. If you both get more sleep, it will almost certainly be a good thing for your relationship, furry, or otherwise.
7. Buffering the mattress
Some mattresses retain more heat than others - for example, memory foam tends to hug the body contours and absorb heat. A mattress topper or pad made out of breathable fibres could help buffer that effect. If you need to replace your mattress, you could also try one designed to regulate body temperature.
8. Keep it dark
In addition to temperature, light has a strong influence on our body clocks. Long evenings and early dawns in the summer send an alerting signal to the brain, and make it harder to sleep. Black out blinds or an eye mask may help you to sleep more easily. If you get up to go to the bathroom at night, stick to a dim night light, or use your phone.
9. Warm air rises
It sounds obvious, but if you’re lucky enough to have a choice over which floor to sleep on, the lower one is likely to be cooler in the summer. If you live in an attic room, it may be that lockdown restrictions are easing just in time for you to phone a friend for a visit..
10. Try and enjoy the ride
Sleepless nights are no fun, but on the plus side, a steamy night will probably be followed by a perfect day for enjoying the sunshine (and that ice-cream). In the UK, you can be pretty confident the hot weather is a short term phenomenon. From a mindset perspective, if you can just accept a temporary blip in your sleep, rather than letting frustration take hold, it’s much more likely that sleep will catch up with you.
Don't forget, if you can't sleep, don't make it a battle. Get out of bed, and read a book until your eyes feel sleepy tired. Only then get back into bed. Your sleep the next night will be deeper to compensate, and you're more likely to maintain a positive sleep-bed connection.
Swapped the high tog duvet for just the cover and started putting an ice pack in front of the fan, which actually made the bedroom bearable. Then tried the "Warm Bath Effect" — a warm shower an hour before bed. I even compared a few of the best AI tools to see if any tracked room temp against sleep stages, but the manual fixes worked. Still waking at 3am.
Memory foam's heat-hugging is the snag in my rented top-floor room: one tiny window, no cross-breeze, and pollen counts that make an open window miserable. Ear plugs don't help when the air itself is still. I'd log which tweaks—ice pack before the fan, cover-only, blackout mask—actually shift my wake-ups, using a sleep and temperature log template before assuming the Warm Bath Effect will rescue me.
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These tips are super helpful for hot summer nights! I especially like the ice cube fan trick and the warm bath idea. Also, I've been chatting with ai characters to relax before bed. Can't wait to try them out.
The tip about putting ice cubes in front of a fan stood out—I tried it last week and was surprised how much it cooled the room. The co-sleeping point also hit home; my dog radiates heat like a tiny radiator, so he’s been banished to his own bed for now. I’ve learned that sticking to simple cooling routines and wind-down habits matters more than chasing gadgets. Still, a lukewarm shower an hour before bed remains my go-to.