When the nights are short and extremely warm during the summer months, many people suffer from sleep disturbances. This is not only annoying, but can also rob you of the energy you need for the day.
Here you will find the best tips for getting a restful sleep despite the heat!
Table of contents
1. The ideal temperature to sleep
Summer nights are said to be too warm , also called tropical nights, when the temperature rises above 20 degrees .
On nights like these, it's important to cool down your sleeping environment , and especially yourself! The optimal temperature for restful sleep is 15-19°C .
Sounds pretty cold to you, and you heat your room to a comfortable 22 degrees Celsius even in winter? Then, like many others, you're not doing your sleep any favors.
If you sleep too warm, you drain your body of energy, as it's busy cooling itself down. Shortly before you fall asleep, numerous processes take place in your body.
Your brain waves change, your heart rate and breathing slow, and your body temperature drops. During REM sleep (REM = rapid eye movement), which is especially important for information processing and stress management, your body loses the ability to sweat .
Because you no longer sweat, your body can no longer cool itself. If your room is too warm, your body heats up, and you wake up during this crucial phase of sleep, REM sleep.
Once awake, many people find it extremely difficult to fall back asleep, and they feel exhausted the next morning. But there are a few simple but effective tips to prevent this.
Take-home message #1: When temperatures rise above 20 degrees Celsius at night, we call them tropical nights. These make it difficult to fall asleep because they exceed the optimal temperature for restful sleep, which is 15-19 degrees Celsius.
BRAINEFFECT HACK : Melatonin is our body's natural sleep hormone. It makes you feel tired in the evening and is even involved in regulating your body temperature while you sleep. You can get melatonin from us in the practical SLEEP capsules and in our handy SLEEP SPRAY .
2. Other factors that make it hard to sleep in summer
Even if you don't normally have trouble falling asleep, almost everyone struggles to fall asleep or stay asleep on hot summer nights .
But it's not just the heat that can cause you to get too little sleep. There are other factors that negatively impact your sleep on warm nights.
Maybe it's the sounds of the night, like the revelers you hear through your open window, which you only expected to cool you down a bit.
Or the light keeps you from sleeping, because darkness is short in the summer months. Did you know that light delays the production of the sleep hormone melatonin , which is produced by serotonin ?
The darker it is, the more melatonin is produced, without which you can't fall asleep. In the summer, you already have trouble falling asleep early, because the light delays your body's melatonin production.
On the shortest night of the summer, the summer solstice on June 21st, it's dark for just 6 hours. That's quite a short time, and can cause you to be woken up too early by bright light or unable to fall asleep in the evening because it's still light for so long.
The long, warm evenings invite you to eat dinner late or to postpone your workout significantly until it has cooled down a bit.
Those who don't exercise often reach for a cold beer to cool off. Sure, that makes total sense, but it can also make you sleep worse .
Exercising in the evening is also detrimental to falling asleep due to the resulting cortisol production . But more on that later.
If it's too warm, those otherwise beautiful summer nights can become quite a torture. Here's an overview of the reasons for sleep problems in summer: Short nights inhibit melatonin production. Exercising in the evening increases cortisol release. Eating late leads to insulin release. Heat makes it difficult for the body to regulate its temperature at night.
Take-home message #2: Besides the heat, other factors influence your sleep in summer. The nights are shorter and brighter, which encourages late meals and evening exercise. This causes your melatonin and cortisol levels to fluctuate—a definite killer for restful sleep!
BRAINEFFECT HACK : Supply your body with melatonin from our SLEEP capsules or our SLEEP SPRAY .
3. Sleep better in the heat - These tips have proven successful
Tip 1: Take a warm shower
Taking a warm shower? It's already so warm. Still, it's the best way to cool your body down. While cold water is pleasant during a shower, it also causes blood vessels to constrict, making it harder for the body to transport heat away.
A warm shower, on the other hand, causes blood vessels to dilate , the pores in your skin to open, and excess heat to dissipate from your body . Therefore, a warm shower before bed can work wonders.
Tip 2: Light food
Especially in summer, dinnertime gets pushed back further. This is disastrous, because you shouldn't eat anything about three hours before bedtime , or rather, you should only eat light meals that aren't too rich and don't sit heavily on your stomach.
Eating large amounts of food late in the evening stimulates insulin production. Because your body is still too busy digesting, it consumes a lot of energy. However, your body can use this energy to cool down, especially in hot weather. So, in the evenings in summer, less is more!
Tip 3: Keep out the heat
During the day, you should keep the heat out, at least in your bedroom. This means ventilating at night and early in the morning and then closing the windows.
If you have curtains or blinds , draw them as well . Only in the evening, when it cools down a bit, will the air help bring your bedroom to a comfortable temperature.
When it's really dry and hot, a wet cloth in front of an open window can also help. This cloth not only improves the indoor climate but also protects against annoying mosquitoes.
Tip 4: Recharge electrolytes
It's not so noticeable, especially at night, but your body also loses fluid while you sleep, namely through sweating.
Did you know that your body sweats out up to half a liter of fluid at night? Therefore, it's advisable to drink a glass of fruit juice or mineral water before bed .
This way, your body is supplied with sufficient fluids and electrolytes during the night and you don't risk waking up because you're too thirsty.
Tip 5: No alcohol
Especially on balmy summer evenings, you tend to want to treat yourself to a cold beer. The drink initially feels like a pleasant cooling sensation, but as soon as you lie down in bed, you'll feel the downside.
Although alcohol helps you fall asleep faster, it also reduces the quality of your sleep and causes you to wake up more often .
In hot weather, alcohol in the evening is doubly bad because it dehydrates the body, which already loses more fluid through sweating. So, alcohol fuels dehydration , and you wake up even thirstier.
Tip 6: Light fabrics
Another important factor is the choice of fabric, both for sleepwear and the blanket. Many people prefer to avoid fabric in hot weather and sleep without a blanket or sleepwear.
However, this is not recommended, as you'll sweat during the night and expose yourself to colds from the draft. Therefore, choose lightweight cotton fabrics that absorb sweat and protect you from drafts.
Tip 7: No technology in the bedroom
Generally speaking, there should be no electronic devices in your bedroom. Many devices, such as smartphones and laptops, have a stimulating effect due to the blue light they emit, and they also make your bedroom warm.
Even laptops that you want to charge overnight produce heat , which in turn unnecessarily warms up your surroundings .
Tip 8: Avoid late exercise
Exercise is also more pleasant in the evenings in summer. However, this brings with it two problems when it comes to your sleep.
A study from the State University of New York has now found that exercise increases cortisol levels [1]. Cortisol is your body's natural stress hormone, which makes you alert and active .
Not exactly what you want before falling asleep, is it? Also, the late activity stimulates your circulation, makes you sweat, and warms up.
This heats up your body unnecessarily . Therefore, in hot weather, you should avoid exercising about three hours before bedtime to keep your body cool.
Tip 9: Darken the room
In summer, the sun wakes you up extremely early. The first rays of sunlight reach your bedroom as early as 5 a.m. This will be too early for most people, and they haven't yet gotten enough sleep to be rested and full of energy for the day.
In summer, you should get into the habit of keeping your blinds or curtains closed . The motto here is: the darker, the better . Because light activates cortisol , the hormone that eventually wakes you up. Alternatively , a sleep mask can help.
The most important thing is that your eyes are in complete darkness. They are, in a sense, the gateway for the sun's rays and thus also for the production of sleep and wake hormones. So the darker it is, the longer you can sleep, even if the night is short!
Tip 10: Support melatonin production
Have you tried all the tips, but still can't seem to get to sleep? BRAINEFFECT SLEEP and SLEEP SPRAY can help you fall asleep faster.
SLEEP contains melatonin, your natural sleep hormone, which your body may simply be producing too little of during the short summer nights. It also contains numerous other natural plant substances, such as passionflower and lemon balm.
4. Conclusion
Many people sleep significantly worse in the summer. This is primarily due to the significantly higher ambient temperature. But the long days and short nights can also disrupt your hormone balance and thus impair your sleep quality.
5. Sources
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4270305/
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