How to Keep Cool at Night Whilst Sleeping
We’ve all been in a position where sleeping under a duvet is often too hot and sometimes unbearable. Keeping cool while sleeping at night can benefit your help and the longevity of your duvet and mattress, leading to the perfect night’s sleep. In today’s article, we look at why you might burn up when sleeping and the best ways to stay cool at night. Let’s jump straight into it.
Why do people burn up during sleep?
There are many reasons why some people burn up or feel hot when sleeping, which include your environment, health, and sleeping equipment such as your mattress, duvet, or pillow. Most of the time, people who sleep hot occasionally could be in a warm environment. This includes hot weather, a hot bedroom, or even a lack of airflow in a room. In some rarer cases, conditions such as anxiety, viral infections such as colds, menopause and even after taking some medications – can all lead to a hot night’s sleep. However, you may have heard of the term “Night Sweats”. As you can probably guess, night sweats is a term used by people who sweat whilst sleeping, which occurs explicitly whilst you’re in bed.
Best Ways to Keep Cool at Night
As you may realize, there are some straightforward ways to aid in having a cool night’s sleep that you can control before, during, and during sleep. As we’ve mentioned, some of these may be changes you can make or ways to prevent or reduce the impact of the heat that’s out of your control. Let’s take a look at some of these in more detail.
Ensure your Room is Cool
The most obvious way to sleep cool is to cool down your room. In most cases, people who sweat at night or feel hot whilst sleeping have a warm room or an equally warm climate that makes the air around you hot. The best way to counter this may be an air conditioner or simply opening the window and blowing a fan towards your bed. This is the easiest way to help when you’re feeling a little flushed.
Use a Cooling (Breathable) Mattress, Topper
If you’ve got a great mattress serving you well and don’t want to replace it with a cooling mattress, then a breathable (cooling) mattress topper can help with having a cool, peaceful night’s sleep. You can find some of the best mattress toppers from Silentnight, which we’ve reviewed! These mattress toppers are inexpensive and provide a more comfortable, cooler experience when sleeping – which could be invaluable if you love sleeping.
Top-up on Water to Keep Hydrated
We all know that after a workout or on a hot day, Icey cold water can be a fantastic way to cool your body. Similarly, if you’re trying to sleep and the heat is bothering you, having a cold glass of water beside your bed can help you deal with the heat and keep you hydrated for a long night’s sleep.
Use a Cooling Mattress or Light Duvet
The most important part of your sleep setup – your mattress, could be the culprit of your hot sleep. Although buying a mattress or duvet for a few nights’ sleep might be quite an investment, if you’re consistently dealing with the heat when sleeping, buying one of these could be the easy way to solve your heat problems. We’ve written another guide based on the best cooling mattress you can buy – so why not look and see what you fancy?
Strip off! (Or sleep-light)
If you haven’t already, sleeping with nothing or little on can be a massive help when trying to cool off when sleeping. Although it may feel unnatural, it can often be a quick way to cool off. This tip isn’t only for you either – but also for your duvet. In harsh heat conditions such as hot weather, taking your duvet out from the duvet sheets and simply sleeping with the sheets without the thick duvet will provide a cooler experience. Consider sleeping with the duvet covering your lower or upper half if it feels more comfortable.
Reduce common Sweat Triggers
Medical studies in the food and health industry have linked many substances to sweating, some more than others. Spicy foods such as curries and food containing a lot of chillies, alcoholic beverages, warm drinks, and even caffeinated drinks can all increase your body temperature and your sweating. Avoiding these a couple of hours before you go to bed, or avoiding them altogether, will not only improve the quality of your sleep but will, in turn, stop you from sweating or overheating when in bed.
Use a Cooling Pillow
Several scientific studies have suggested that the heat you feel when sleeping starts from the head, and cooling your head whilst sleeping can positively impact your overall body temperature and sleep quality. If you have difficulty sleeping due to neck issues or having a hot head (physically hot), changing your pillow to a more comfortable, forgiving, and cooling pillow could solve all your problems. We’ve got a guide on some of the best cooling gel pillows that won’t only provide you with a cool, comfortable experience but will help you have a perfect night’s sleep.
When you rest at night, you want a peaceful and long sleep to prepare you for the next day, but it can be challenging and often frustrating when the heat strikes. We hope some of the tips in this article can help you achieve perfect, heat-balanced sleep every night. Check out our other blog articles to learn how to improve your sleep and some of the best mattresses you can buy to make sleep much more enjoyable.