Improve Your Sleep by Adjusting The Temperature

Improve Your Sleep by Adjusting The Temperature

When we sleep, and sleep well, we feel better physically and mentally, and perform better during the day. There are many things that affect your sleep. Genetics, lifestyle, mindset, nutrition, and physical activity all have an impact to your sleep. We need a full systems-based approach for optimal health. But let’s take a look at how temperature affects our sleep.

Just as the dropping of the sun’s light tells our brain to release melatonin, the associative drop in night-time temperature helps our body to shed heat. Scientists can prove humans fall asleep faster and sleep better in cooler environments.

A National Sleep Foundation poll found that cool room temperature was one of the most important factors in getting a good night’s sleep, with as many as four out of five respondents saying this was important to them.

The best bedroom temperature for sleep is approximately 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 degrees Celsius). This may vary by a few degrees from person to person, but most doctors recommend keeping the thermostat set between 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 19.4 degrees Celsius) for the most comfortable sleep.

So how do you control that temperature?

As an optimization expert I utilize many sleep hacks for quality sleep. Since that temperature drop is such a crucial aspect of the deep sleep stage, finding ways to activate that “sleep switch” can help increase your levels of deep sleep. 
 
Obviously, using products like our chiliPad, OOLER sleep systems or chiliBLANKET can help you kickstart that temperature drop once you’re already under the covers. Causing a significant change in your body temperature—even if it’s only .1 degrees—goes a long way toward ensuring you’re sleeping deeper for longer. The ”sleep switch” occurs four hours before the coldest valley of body temperature, when you sleep drive is at its highest. If you use one of our products to warm you up, ideally you’d want to drop it after about 20 minutes to prime yourself to get better deep sleep.  
 
If you don’t own any sleep tech, there are other ways to create the temperature drop (though they won’t be as precise). Before bed you can take a hot shower and then cool off, or you can even go for a walk in the evening. Ultimately, most homes are set at constant temperatures, so you have to take some action to create that temperature drop. The bottom line? If you’re waking up during the night it’s probably because you’re too hot.

The benefits of deep sleep include:

  •     Cell regeneration
  •     Increased blood flow to muscles
  •     A stronger immune system
  •     Energy renewal
  •     Development, growth, and repair of tissues and bones 

It’s worth it, get your zzz’s.

Terry Clark FEDERAL AGENT TO EPIGENETIC PERFORMANCE COACHING: Terry’s route to epigenetic performance & lifestyle coaching emerged from a lifetime of reaching for his own biological optimization. As a lifelong athlete he was tickled to refer to himself as a “professional athlete” because, as a Federal Agent for 24 years, he got four hours per week to work out. An insatiable curiosity and a passion for the hard sciences built a basis of knowledge that is very valuable in identifying patterns and trends and the significant anomaly in client’s challenges in achieving their own best life. 

Terry understands first-hand how a stressful and taxing career can challenge your body and mind’s ability to perform at its highest level. Identifying the links between a client’s current lifestyle and impediments to optimization is just a first step in the epigenetic coaching model. Terry works with clients worldwide and resides in Maryland with his wife and son. He enjoys nature, CrossFit, rucking and studying all things related to performance, analytics and biohacking.