Maybe it’s the middle of summer and your AC went out, or maybe you just run warm in general. Regardless, you’re trying to sleep and you’re overwhelmingly hot. In an effort to not wake up in a puddle of your own sweat, try these tips to try and stay cool at night even when it seems impossible. 

Strip Your Bed 

This is not to suggest that you sleep on your bare mattress, but limiting the amount of layers you sleep with can help minimize the amount of heat that gets trapped in your bed as you sleep. Sleeping with as little as a flat sheet can help keep you cool even when the temperature gauge continues to rise.

However, if you’re someone that needs the extra weight to fall asleep, trying the Nodpod BODY could be an excellent move to feel the weighted sensation of a pile of blankets but without the heat of a full-sized weighted blanket. The Nodpod BODY can also be stored in the freezer for an even greater cooling effect to lower body temperature during the worst heat waves.

Keep it Dark

Although it may be a natural inclination to open the blinds and windows and let the air circulate on a hot day, drawing the shades and minimizing the entry of light can help in keeping the temperature of your environment to a minimum. As an added bonus, keeping your bedroom dark in the hours leading up to bedtime can aid in the production of melatonin making you more likely to feel sleepy when it’s time to call it a night.

Keep Your Distance

Another natural instinct for many upon getting in bed with their partner is to move closer to another another and snuggle up for the night. While this works great on cold winter nights, it only tends to hurt sleep quality in the hot summer months. Being too close to one another effectively holds onto your shared heat for much longer than you would alone making it all the more difficult to cool down and regulate your own body temperature. 

The same goes for your fuzzy friend at home, too. The ambient heat from your pet(s) can also make it more difficult to maintain a lower overall body temperature and can leave you feeling all the more overheated.

Embrace the Heat

Despite what that may suggest, no, we’re not saying you should simply wallow in heat-induced misery. Instead, consider taking a hot bath or shower before going to bed. Once you get out of the shower or bath your body will work to adapt to the cooler ambient temperature and lower its own temperature as a result. Try not to take one immediately before bed as the cooling effects are more pronounced when given more time. 

Ice Cold

If nothing else seems to be doing the trick, try using a reusable ice pack. Wrapping a reusable ice pack in a thin tea towel and placing it in problem areas such as behind your neck or under your back can help instantly cool the body when nothing else seems to cool you down. While you could use actual ice, a reusable frozen pack is advisable as there is less of a chance of water leaking onto your bed in the middle of the night. When nothing else seems to cool you down well enough, this trick could even leave you feeling downright cold even in the most intense heat waves. 

Key Takeaways

Sleep is already something a lot of people struggle with and topping that with soaring temperatures is a sure way to make sleep even more elusive. Whether you overheat in general or are in an unusually warm environment, ways to cool down at night could be the difference between resting peacefully and waking up in a puddle.While it may not always be possible to lower the thermostat to a comfortable temperature for sleep, at least there exists methods such as maintaining an optimal sleeping environment such as a dark bedroom or taking a hot shower to ultimately lower your body temperature to help combat the sense of overheating at bedtime.