So your heating and cooling system is humming along at peak performance. Morning, daytime and evening, your entire home is maintaining the perfect, comfortable temperature…Then it’s time for bed. And the debate begins inside your own head, with your partner or both about where to set the thermostat.
A rule to sleep by: Heat is the enemy.
Curling up with a blanket in front of the fireplace may feel nice and cozy while watching TV — and you may even doze off doing that — but high-quality sleep comes with cooler temperatures. Your body starts to naturally cool down when you go to bed, and your core body temperature may drop by as much as 2 degrees while sleeping. When your body remains cooler, you enjoy deeper sleep with less interruption. Then you wake up feeling refreshed. If it’s too warm, your core body temperature rises, leading to discomfort and restfulness.
So what’s the magic temperature?
Sleep experts favor about 65 degrees room temperature for ideal sleep, although it’s more of a range than one ideal sleep temperature. Think 60 to no more than 70 degrees. When you get past 70 degrees, you’re more likely to experience insomnia, tossing and turning, and not getting the kind of deep sleep you need to recharge your body. The good news is your well-maintained heating and cooling system can keep your bedroom temperature within a narrow range all night long.
Suppose your partner likes the “wrong” sleep temperature.
Seriously, you and your partner may disagree how cool or warm your room should be at night. Unless he or she wants to sleep in a freezer of sauna-like environment, there are ways to keep each of you comfortable. If the two of you can’t find one room temperature that keeps both of your comfortable, consider these options:
• Try cooling pillows, pillowcases, sheets and blankets for the one who would prefer to be cooler at night. If you like the feel of a weighted blanket but without the warmth, they actually make weighted blankets with cooling properties.
• That opens up the possibility of sleeping under separate covers, which is way better than constantly fighting over control of the thermostat. Light-weight covers for the “cooler” partner, heavier covers for the other. It’s known as the Scandinavian Sleep Method and as a bonus, this eliminates blanket-hogging.
• Let the partner who likes it warmer set the thermostat initially, but then agree that over a period of days or weeks you’ll periodically lower the temperature a degree or two at a time. The goal is to find a healthy, cooler temperature that works for both of you.
While the temperature itself is important to sleeping well, maintaining whatever temperature set within a narrow range is critical. Programmable thermostats and keeping your HVAC system in top shape can make that happen. Our experienced heating and cooling experts at Knight’s Mechanical can help.