Sleeping In The Summer: How To Do It?

Written By Alex Petrović

Certified Sleep Consultant

9 April 2024 6 min read

On a hot summer night, getting a good night’s sleep might prove difficult for a lot of people. Did you know that when temperature rises above 24°C and falls below 12°C during your sleep, it will wake you up? The exact perfect temperature for sleeping is, of course, individual. However, everyone agrees that a cooled room is better, especially when they’re sleeping in the summer.

Body temperature falls during the second stage of sleep and reach its lowest point about four hours after the onset of sleep. When this temperature is very high, it takes longer to fall asleep, and once sleep is achieved, it is broken up or fragmented and there is less dreaming. That’s why sleeping in the summer can be tricky. And, consequently, that’s why we are going to help you with tips for cooling your room and body before sleep.

What to do with the environment when sleeping in the summer?

Do whatever you can to prevent excessive heat build-up in your sleep environment. During the daytime use blinds to keep out sunlight and keep the windows closed if the temperature outside is much hotter than inside. At night time, if the temperature is less outside than inside, open your windows. When sleeping in the Summer, make sure you have nets on your windows to prevent insects from entering your room.

Remember that heat rises. So if you are living in a multiple story dwelling the lower you are the cooler it will be.

If there is absolutely nothing you can do to cool off your dwelling, consider asking friends or relations who have a cooler dwelling or who live in a cooler place, whether you can stay with them for a few nights. They will understand – bad sleeping in the Summer can really ruin a vacation.

If worse comes to worst, in some parts of the world people end up sleeping outdoors because it is simply not possible to cool off their dwellings at night. If you sleeping in the Summer outdoors, consider the need to protect yourself against mosquitoes and other insects.

Some communities may have cooling centers in schools or public places that are air-conditioned.

This is important! Some people will sleep in a motor vehicle and have the air conditioning running. This can be very dangerous if the vehicle is not moving, because there may be a build-up of carbon monoxide.

What can you do before going to bed?

Water is a great cooling agent. Showers and baths before bed may help. Strangely enough, some people like better taking hot showers and hot baths when the room temperature is very high. If you want to take things to the next level, try wrapping yourself up in a luxurious Panda bamboo bath rug. The problem of course with hot showers is that they increase the humidity, which could make things worse. Some people have found that being sprayed by a plant mister or gadget that creates a fine mist may help.

Preparing your bedroom for hot nights

Light bedclothes and light pajamas or no pajamas are certainly an important option. There are pajamas made from materials that wick away sweat which might be very helpful. Such nightclothes are available and helpful, for example, in women who are having hot flashes during sleep, who sweat a great deal. Some people find that a fan in the room may help. If you wake up and you are sweaty and your sheets and pillow cases are wet consider taking a brief shower and change the bed clothes.

It’s also very important to pick the right mattress and bed linens. Save the fancy satin, silk, or polyester sheets for cooler nights. Light-colored bed linens made of lightweight cotton are breathable and excellent for promoting ventilation and airflow in the bedroom. Some types of mattresses are better suited for sleeping hot than the others.

Best mattress types for cooling off

Different types of mattress offer different sleeping experience, especially during the summer. Each type of mattress offers something – you need to determine what you need for your optimal summer sleeping experience.

Coils and springs

Coils and springs are featured in the most traditional options on the market. Usually, each coil would be wrapped individually, or all of them would be put together. If you are a hot sleeper, we thoroughly recommend that you stick to the former construction type – the ones which are wrapped individually. In the majority of the situations, the coils will be found within the support layer of the cooling mattress, and there are various types of different foam situated on top. In any case, springs, as well as coils, are known to provide a serious degree of heat transfer which is something that you ought to look forward to.

Latex

If we put aside the fact that it’s incredibly durable, latex is known for not conducting heat. This means that you can usually expect for this particular material to feel exactly the same, regardless of the temperature of the room. Additionally, latex mattresses have holes as well as a range of different types of aeration, making them incredibly breathable. This would allow a cool airflow through the mattress, making it the overly preferred option when it comes to hot sleepers.

Bamboo

Bamboo is another material which gained quite a lot of popularity throughout the last few years. One of the main reasons for that is because it is incredibly breathable, gentle and it truly brings the sensation that you are sleeping on a cloud and this is something you might account for.

If we have to be deadly honest with you, out of all the materials that we’ve taken a look at, memory foam beds are the worst type to consider for a cooling mattress. They are viscoelastic – that’s why. This means that they are elastic (retain shape after pressure) and viscous (thick, high-density). While this provides a lot of responsiveness and it is great for addressing certain issues, if you are a hot sleeper, you wouldn’t really enjoy these.

Other ways to fight high temperature

• Put sheets in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes before bed. We recommend placing them in a plastic bag first (unless you’d like your sheets to smell like frozen food). Granted, this won’t keep you cool all night, but it will provide a good head start, which is sometimes all you need.
• You can buy a hot water bottle, and put it in the fridge or freezer, making a cold pack for your bed. You can use the same bottle in Winter too, just by replacing ice with hot water. Also, you can go Egyptian, and damp a sheet you’ll cover yourself in cold water.  There’s also an old school solution of putting the ice in front of the fan. The airflow from it creates cool, refreshing mist.
• There are various things you can do with ice packs to make yourselves cold. The most common use is to simply put these on the pulse areas. That includes wrists, neck, elbows, groin, ankles, and behind the knees.
• And always remember to rehydrate yourself. Tossing and turning and sweating at night can result in dehydration, so get some H20 in the tank beforehand. Pro tip; 0,2 dl, which is one tall glass, is enough, unless you prefer to run to the bathroom in 3 A.M.

Conclusion

Sleeping hot could be quite inconvenient, especially if you're someone who's sensitive to high temperature and can't fall asleep easily. Luckily, there are things you can do to ease up the heat. You could set up your bed environment, so it doesn't build heat that fast. Or, you can make yourself cooler using fans, ice packs or choosing the right material for your mattress and bed sheets.

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About the author

Alex Petrović

Sleep Consultant

A CPD certified Sleep Consultant with more than 2000 hours of research into all the different ways we can get a great night's sleep. As a former insomniac, I know how difficult life can be without a nightly recovery and I love that I get to share everything I've learned with you all. So hopefully we can all sleep soundly!