If you are having sleep problems, you aren’t alone. Around 30% of adults in the country struggle with getting to sleep – and that’s in normal conditions! The stress of everything happening in 2020 is causing even more problems with people trying to get to sleep. We need all the help we can get – and home temperatures can play a key part in that.
They can also cause problems: The wrong thermostat settings may be making it difficult for you to fall asleep and stay asleep, too. How do you know? Let’s take a look at how temperature factors into your sleep schedule.
Temperature Affects Comfort
This seems like an obvious fact, right? But the important point is that your comfort level changes when you fall asleep. Your metabolism slows down, and your body settles into a lower “comfort point” for temperatures.
This creates problems when people head to bed to get some sleep – especially people on tight schedules who may be wanting to get to sleep very fast. However, if the body wants lower temperatures to fall asleep, it may simply still be too warm in the home to encourage easy sleep, with the thermostat set too high or simply needing plenty of time to lower the temperature-time you may not have to get to sleep.
The result is a lot of tossing and turning, feeling too hot, turning the pillow over and over, and generally not feeling comfortable enough to fall asleep because the body can’t sink into a lower-temperature state like it wants to.
At other times, the opposite problem can occur. People trying to save money may set the thermostat very low or turn it off at night. But – especially in the colder months – this can make a home so cold that it’s not comfortable to fall asleep.
The solution many people try for this is piling on blankets, but this creates an additional problem – it makes a lot of localized heat and makes it harder for the body to dissipate its own heat as people fall asleep. In these cases, it’s better to remove some of the blankets your body can get rid of excess heat and turn the thermostat up to make sleeping conditions easier.
Aiming for the Right Temperature
If both too-high and too-low temperature can make sleeping difficult, what temperate should you aim for when it’s time to roll into bed? Everyone is a little different but start by setting temperatures between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit. You can bump this up a bit if you find yourself feeling too cold to fall asleep, but this is the range that works best with most people who are trying to fall asleep as soon as they can.
If you have any additional issues falling asleep, it may be a good idea to consult a doctor and see what other things you can change to help you fall asleep sooner!
Interested in learning more about how your home’s heating and cooling systems and how they affect your everyday life? Check out the rest of our blogs for more information, insights into how HVAC systems work, and signs that something may be wrong.