The Importance of Staying Cool When You Sleep

This time of year it can be tempting to keep your home a little warmer to save money on the electric bill, but it’s important to continue keeping cool when you’re asleep! It’s usually recommended by sleep specialists that your bedroom temperature stay in the range of 60 to 67 degrees at night.

Your body naturally decreases your internal temperature when you’re asleep, so introducing it to a cool environment may actually signal sleepiness, making falling asleep easier. On the contrary, our bodies don’t like to be warm at night. If the temperature in your space isn’t cool enough, you may find yourself waking up more often, disrupting your sleep cycle and leaving you tired the next day!

Your metabolism is increased by sleeping in cooler temperatures. Studies show that when we sleep cold, our bodies increase good brown fat that helps us create energy and burn traditional white fat. An increase in brown fat lowers your chances of developing obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Many people take Melatonin as a supplement to help them fall asleep easier, but you may not know that sleeping in a cool room actually causes your body to produce more melatonin naturally. Reducing your blue light levels (i.e. phones and tablets) for an hour prior to bed will also allow for more melatonin production. Melatonin has been linked to healthy brain function and the body’s ability to fight off some cancers, heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

To keep a long story short, we should all be sleeping in a cool room for our sleep hygiene and overall health. Keep your environment between 60 and 67 degrees and you’ll be on your way to better health, just by sleeping!