With regard to a comfortable night’s sleep, many believe they have singular standards that a bed or environment must meet before they can properly fall asleep.  In some ways, this is true.  Some like a lot of blankets, and some like a few.  Some employ natural sleep remedies.  Some like two pillows. Some like one.  Maybe some like three, but not every aspect of sleep is so subjective.

If you toss and turn every single night, you’re a light sleeper, and you feel too hot or too cold as you’re falling asleep, temperature is usually the singular culprit of your discomfort.  A well-adjusted thermostat is central to a good night’s sleep.  Most sleep best at temperatures from 60 degrees through 67 degrees, a little on the cold side.  There are many reasons why colder temperatures are more comfortable for sleeping, but cold is definitely the way to go, even if warmth might be more intuitive or immediately comforting.

You may know that body temperature decreases before and during sleep.  If the room’s temperature is cooler than normal, it can facilitate that ideal sleep state.  The coldest temperatures are usually the best.  Still, there is a limit as to how extreme temperatures can be.  Temperatures as high as 75 degrees Fahrenheit or as low as 50 degrees will begin to have a negative impact on one’s ability to stay comfortable and fall into a restorative sleep.

Body temperature fluctuates throughout each day.  It is highest in the afternoon and lowest in the early morning.  Bodies cool off into that morning trough over the course of the night.  To help our bodies reach low temperatures faster is to allow for a much deeper sleep.  About an hour before people fall asleep, their core temperatures already begin to lose heat, arousing a feeling of exhaustion.  Our bodies undergo physical changes before we even fall asleep.  We do not even discern what is happening until we reach our beds.

Apart from a deeper sleep, there are other health benefits to sleeping in temperatures on the colder side.

You Can Sleep Better at Night

Your sleep can be much more restorative when your body is not working so vigilantly to maintain an appropriate temperature.  Sleeping in cool temperatures is a potent weapon to wield against many types of insomnia, so if you like to sleep in a hot room, you may actually be incorrect. 
Consider a cooler temperature.

You Can Look Younger

Yes, you can look younger because melatonin is an anti-aging hormone, and if your body’s under optimal circumstances, including temperature, then it can produce more melatonin, so it’s not all about the intrinsic health benefits of sleep.  Maybe you only want to look younger!

How Can I Optimize My Sleep?

While air conditioning is the most immediate option, it can also be the most expensive option, especially if you live in a climate that’s hot all year-round, but air conditioning is far from the only solution. You can sleep with fewer clothes.  You might also chill certain parts of your bed.  Stick a top sheet in the freezer, lay it on your bed at bedtime.  There are also chemical cooling pillows that can draw the heat from your body.  Of course, you can also do simpler things like turning a fan on (just for circulation) or taking some covers off your bed.  You can stick your feet out from under the covers.

You might also consider sleep patches.  These patches are infused with essential oils that are designed to make you fall asleep faster.  More importantly, it can help your kids fall asleep.  Adults do not need to stay up all night, though oftentimes it seems like kids never tire of the vanity inherent to staying up late.  Instead of offering another bedtime story among other types of haggling, sticking a sleep path on them might make things easier if not possible in the first place.

A sleep patch can calm any nervous system in such a way that spreads a feeling of relaxation across the body.  It triggers receptors in the nostrils that indicate to the limbic system that it’s time for bed.  Also, these patches diffuse over the course of the whole night, so you needn’t worry about waking up in the middle of the night.  Consider buying a pack of them and wearing them 30 minutes before bed.  You can use it later, but know that it will take longer for you to fall asleep.

Falling asleep is difficult for many people.  We have a natural urge to stay up late and get out of bed late.  Discipline is necessary to stick to a decent sleep schedule, and maintaining a good sleeping environment requires as much discipline.