Sleep deprivation doesn’t just take a toll on your emotional health; it impacts all areas of your wellbeing. Your wellness can be affected by poor concentration, anxiety, depression, irritability, difficulty communicating with others, fatigue, increased risk of diabetes and cancer and even poor heart health due to increased risk of getting calcium deposits in the arteries. In the summer, getting your recommended seven to nine hours a night can be challenging, especially with the warm evenings and longer daylight hours, so how can you get a good night’s sleep during warm nights?
Firstly, keep your windows open during the evenings, and make sure your bedroom curtains are drawn during the day. This will help to reduce heat in your room if you’re there in the day, but, more importantly, it will cool the room when you’re trying to get to sleep. Also, instead of using your duvet or a blanket, just use thin cotton sheets. Synthetic bed sheets are better avoided, however, as these will only add to the warmth. In a similar vein, you may be tempted to sleep wearing as little as possible – or nothing at all, but wearing light cotton nightwear is a far cooler option. This is because light cotton nightwear will help absorb excess perspiration.
There are things you can do during the day to help you sleep better. Make sure you are being healthy and active by incorporating a few changes into your daily routine. Go for a fifteen-minute walk or try to take the stairs instead of the lift. It’s a small thing, but even a little bit of exercise can ensure that you’re fully rested later on. If the heat’s still getting to you in the evening, take a bath with cold or room temperature water just before you go to bed and drink some cold water. Plus, you may want to avoid heavy meals, caffeine and alcohol after 6pm. These things cause dehydration and make your digestive system overactive, which, in turn, makes you feel hot. Finally, try having a tray of ice and water below a table fan. This way, the fan will pick up cool air from the ice tray and reduce the temperature in the room.
