With the Summer heat upon us, everyone is looking for effective ways to stay cool and comfortable when they sleep. We spend a third of our lives sleeping to recuperate from the wear and tear of the body and mind that we endure every day. So, how can you stay cool sleeping during the year’s hottest months?
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1. Change your Sheets Regularly
Along with being just some good general life advice, sleeping with clean sheets—changed at least once a week—helps keep moisture to a minimum. Plus, you'll avoid buildup of debris such as dead skin and dust mites. These kinds of buildups won’t let your sheets and blankets breathe and allow air in to keep you cool.
Also, clean other bedding regularly such as pillowcases and blankets, and be sure to replace pillows after a year and a half if you can.
2. Take a Shower Before you Go to Bed
Taking a shower will remove excess moisture from sweat, which can make you feel hot and sticky on a warm summer night. In addition, a warm shower will relax your muscles and make you feel calmer and more comfortable before you go to bed.
3. Wear Freshly Laundered Clothing at Night
In the same way clean sheets help, wear freshly cleaned clothes to bed. The cotton fibers in your clothes are not very dense and allow air to circulate, using clean, cotton pajamas will make you feel cooler, and it helps reduce the possibility of sleeping in clothes filled with sweat and debris that attract moisture and trap heat.
4. Keep the Windows Open
If your home is built to allow a cross-breeze try opening a window—even if it’s just a crack—to get air flowing through your bedroom. This also works with doors which will help your A/C unit to circulate through the entire house and effectively cool it.
5. Sleep With Fans On
If you live somewhere like Florida where it’s still 80 degrees and humid at night, you won’t want to keep those windows open. So, you need to find in-home solutions. Other than keeping your door open and allowing A/C circulation, use your ceiling fan or consider investing in a few box fans.
These can help introduce a cross-breeze in your room and spread cool air through the room. If that doesn’t solve the problem, consider an under-sheet fan that keeps your actual bed cooler.
6. Try a Cold Compress
Dampen a clean, folded cloth, and keep it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Wrap a towel around it, and apply it to your forehead while you rest. Just be sure that no part of the compress touches your skin directly in order to avoid hurting your skin.
7. Sleep With Your Bedroom ‘Unplugged’
Remember that your digital devices—phones, tablets, laptops, etc.—generate heat when they are plugged in. The more electrical devices you have plugged in overnight, the more heat you will generate.
So, unplug all electrical devices in your bedroom before you turn in to make sure that your sleeping environment remains as cool as possible.
8. Use Cooling Pillows and Blankets
Cooling pillows and blankets for hot sleepers—those who maintain a higher body temperature when they are resting than others—can definitely make you feel cooler as you sleep.
Good Housekeeping recommends that, when purchasing cooling pillows and blankets, look for products made from fabrics with actual cooling technologies such as Outlast or 37.5.
9. Buy a Cooling Mattress Pad
You can also invest in cooling mattress pads. Their fabrics and construction are designed to employ a variety of heat regulation techniques that will lower the temperature of the bed.
10. Invest in a Cooling Mattress
Lastly, cooling mattresses are specifically constructed to absorb extra heat from a sleeper whose body temperature does not decrease sufficiently at night. The highest quality of cooling mattresses regulate the temperature of the bed in a variety of ways, and are designed to keep you from sinking deep into layers that trap in the heat and keep your body temperature up.
Land of Sleep offers you the best mattresses equipped with cooling technologies that can provide you with a relaxing, cool night's sleep.
For more information on getting the right mattress for you or for your family members, check out our website and be sure to visit our Florida stores in the Venice, Sarasota, Bradenton, and North Port areas to come try one out for yourself.
