How to Get Better Sleep If You Run Hot at Night
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Trying to sleep when it is sweltering out—your perspiration pooling in your pj’s, if you can even stand to put them on—isn’t exactly a pleasant experience. For a lot of us, that happens only once in a while (say, during a massive heat wave), but for others, it’s a nightly occurrence. A 2023 Gallup poll found that roughly 14% of adults regularly “run hot” when trying to get shut-eye, with women twice as likely as men to do so.
This is all bad news for your nightly snooze, as you might imagine. High temps can make it harder to fall and stay asleep, as well as up your heart rate, which can make you feel more wired and less relaxed.
Summer weather aside, there are a number of reasons why you might feel like you are burning up under the sheets—so it’s worth chatting with a doc to see if there are underlying issues to treat first, including hormonal changes from menopause, side effects from certain medications (like antidepressants, which can wreak havoc on your core temp), or hyperthyroidism. Regardless of what’s causing issues, you can tweak your space and bedtime routine to make things a lot chillier (and comfier) before you rest. Here’s how.
1. Hold off on nightcaps and big, greasy meals right before bed.
A glass of wine as you wind down might make you feel a little drowsy and, yes, help you initially nod off—but there’s a big chance you’ll sweat it out later in bed. “Alcohol is a sedative, so it helps you fall asleep. But once it wears off, you can have rebound wakefulness and poor sleep. In other words, the second half of the night you will have worse sleep,” James Rowley, MD, critical care and pulmonology specialist and former president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, tells SELF. Basically, if you booze up right before bed, your body starts to really break it down a few hours after you doze off, which makes your blood vessels dilate and screws with your ability to regulate your temp. Alcohol can also increase your risk for sleep apnea, a disorder that frequently causes night sweats, Dr. Rowley says.
He recommends sticking to no more than one drink per day, as any more can decrease sleep quality considerably. A good rule of thumb, per Dr. Rowley? Stop sipping at least four hours before bed so that your body has enough time to process the drinks.
It’s also important to watch what you’re eating in the hours leading up to bedtime. Spicy, sugary, or high-fat foods can cause indigestion, which can make you run hot at night. Try to eat your last meal at least three hours before shut-eye to allow your stomach to settle.
2. Prep for rest with a bath or shower instead of a workout.
Food and drinks aside, how you spend your time leading up to sleep can make a big difference in your snooze comfort later on, Angela Holliday-Bell, MD, a board-certified physician and sleep specialist, tells SELF: “Taking a warm bath or shower can help, as they cause a decrease in central body temperature which facilitates the transition to sleep.” That’s because warm water causes blood to flow a bit better to your extremities, bringing down your core temp and making you slightly drowsy as a result.
You might also want to rethink heading out for a jog under the stars or signing up for the last spin class of the evening, Dr. Rowley suggests. That’s because exercise also ups your temperature, and while it drops *eventually,* it’s not the same as a bath—research has suggested it takes 30 to 90 minutes to totally cool down after working out. That said, don’t skip out on exercise entirely. As SELF has previously reported, consistent movement is crucial for healthy snoozing, with some calming forms of it (say, yoga or tai chi) being particularly beneficial.
Bottom line: To keep sweating to a minimum, get your body into as calm of a state as possible prior to bed. Here are 11 soothing pre-sleep habits for a restful night to try, including meditation, journaling, and other rituals.
3. Cool down your bedroom as best you can.
It’s probably not a shock that a sticky, stuffy room makes falling asleep challenging, but there’s a biological reason you’re all sweaty: Your body temperature is supposed to fall between one and two degrees during the night to help you doze off, but if your environment is too hot, it won’t drop as it should. This can delay falling asleep, says Dr. Holliday-Bell.
To start, keep your blinds and curtains closed during the day so the room isn’t boiling to begin with. If your home or apartment is especially exposed, consider setting up some insulated cellular shades, which can block up to 40% of solar heat. (These Amazon shades, for example, have tons of great reviews.)
If you can change the thermostat, do it—ideally to something between 60 and 67 degrees, which is usually an optimal temp for peaceful snoozing. If that’s not possible, plug in a fan to help move stagnant, stuffy air around and make things a little cooler. (Not to mention, some fans have a gentle whirring sound that can help lull you off.)
4. Carefully curate your bedding.
What you sleep on can make a major difference in your body temp, Dr. Holliday-Bell says. If you can’t afford a brand-new mattress (which, totally understandable), a cooling pad or topper made from gel beads or water tubes for extra air circulation can be a quick fix. She recommends the Niagara cooling mattress topper from Amazon. In terms of bedding, your best bet is to layer sheets and a comforter (so you can easily remove ’em) made from a breathable, natural fabric like 100% cotton. Microfiber and polyester materials can trap heat and make the bed feel boggy.
You can also try a cooling pillow with lots of little holes for ventilation, like Blu Sleep’s Calm memory foam pillow. A pillow protector with a sweat-wicking outer layer, like the Marlow pillow protector, is a slightly cheaper chilling solution. If things start to get really swampy or you don’t want to run out to buy a new product, you could even store your case in the freezer throughout the day (in a ziplock bag) before sliding it on your pillow.
5. Wear the right pajamas.
There are no hard-set rules about what you need to sleep in, according to Dr. Holliday-Bell, but your skin needs room to breathe—whether that’s while in the nude or in light fabrics that allow air and heat to escape from your body. Dr. Holliday-Bell recommends pj’s made from 100% cotton. Like bedding, skip synthetic fabrics like polyester, which can trap hot air.
Though it might seem counterintuitive, you might also want to slip on some clean cotton socks before sliding under the sheets, Dr. Holliday-Bell says. Some research has suggested doing this cools your body down and helps you snooze overall.
6. Don’t just continue to toss and turn.
If you wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat, you might default to cursing and then scrolling to see what you missed on social media until you fall back to sleep. But try to steer clear of your phone: Exposing yourself to the light from a smartphone, while not directly related to hot sleeping, is only going to make your wired state a lot worse, according to Dr. Rowley. “Staying in bed too long awake can have the paradoxical effect of making you stay awake,” he says. (Plus, stressing out over a situation you can’t immediately fix might actually make your body temp go up and make sweating worse.) Rolling out of bed and getting fresh air on your skin, either near a fan or window, might help your brain, and body, calm down, Dr. Rowley suggests. He also says a hot midnight shower can be a good idea if you’re struggling to nod off.
Again, talk to a doctor if you’re constantly waking up in a pool of perspiration—they can scan you for issues that could be causing the problem. Still, it’s common for some people to just run hot naturally and have no health ailments, so if a medical professional doesn’t find anything to fix, don’t freak out. Keep your fan, frozen pillowcase, and soothing reading material close by. Sweet, icy dreams are within reach—it might just take a few swampy nights to get there.
Related:
3 Things to Do When You Can’t Fall Asleep Because You’re Overthinking…Everything
3 Things to Do If the Heat Starts Making You Feel Physically Ill
Originally Appeared on SELF
