How to Regulate Body Temperature While Sleeping

Your body temperature fluctuates throughout the day, and your sleep quality is affected by how your body regulates its temperature during the sleep period.

Here are some tips about how you can help your body to regulate body’s temperature as you sleep.

Never Blackout

It may be tempting but don’t sleep with blackout blinds or heavy curtains. A sheer blind is ideal. The reason being is that the sun is the most important thing to tell your body it is time to get up. The natural light hitting your eyelids will help you wake up more relaxed and feel less groggy for the day to come.

Exercising before Sleep:

Don’t exercise in the evening or late at night. Exercising causes a rise in your body’s temperature. This is counterintuitive to a lowering of the body temperature in which will delay your body from properly regulating its temperature.

Caffeine:

Most people have the rule to refrain from caffeine intake after a certain hour. Any caffeine after 5 pm could hinder your body’s ability to rest properly. When you avoid caffeine, it will be easier for your body to follow a natural circadian rhythm. Caffeine is a chemical or a drug that jumps starts your metabolism and gives you a push out of a groggy morning. Ideally, you should try to train your body and brain to wake up without caffeine.

Diet:

It is not beneficial to your sleep if you consume a meal a few hours before going to sleep.  Enjoying a spicy meal also has been shown to impact your sleep negatively. This has been noted to cause you to toss and turn and also increases your body temperature throughout the night. Food is also a factor that your body uses to regulate the timing of your circadian rhythm. Eating three small to medium sized meals a day is ideal. It has also been shown to be beneficial in increasing your metabolism and the quality of your sleep by light a snack a few times a day in between smaller meals.

Stay Hydrated:

This has always been easier said than done. There has also been a lot of controversy over the years in what it takes to keep your body hydrated. Studies have shown for a while that it is best to drink 4 – 8 glasses of water a day. Recent studies are showing while that is true, it is best done in small sips throughout the day. If you drink water too quickly, your body will excrete this liquid faster than your cells can absorb. One last thing to note with hydration as it is not wise to drink anything an hour before lying down to sleep. Liquids on average take around 45 minutes to travel through the body. Drinking too much fluid too close to your time of rest will have you getting up throughout the night.

Mattress Tips for Hot Sleepers

• Avoid memory foam or other foam type mattresses. Foam is a non-breathable material that doesn’t give any space between your skin and the bed. Also, a foam type mattress usually allows your body to sink into the material, enclosing you in the warm un-breathable material.
• Lose the flannel sheets, especially in the warm seasons. Finding a sheet made of a light material will significantly improve your body’s regulate temperature naturally. A bamboo sheet set would be a great choice.

Some great mattresses for those hot sleepers.

1. DreamCloud – Great Value
2. The Original Purple
3. Essentia Mattresses
4. Saatva – Classic Innerspring Feel
5. Alexander Signature Hybrid – A balance Mattress

Best bed sheets to cool while you sleep.

1. Purple Sheets – Bamboo
2. Casper Sheets – Smoothest Feel
3. Saatva Lofton Sheets – Cool Sateen Sheets
4. Brooklinen Sheets – Crisp Clean and Cool
5. Lime and Leaf Sheets – Cozy Cool Sheets