To sleep well in a hot house, block daytime sun with curtains, use fans to circulate air (especially with a bowl of ice in front), take a cool shower before bed, wear light cotton PJs, use breathable bedding, stay hydrated, and apply cold compresses to pulse points like wrists and neck to cool down quickly. Sleeping on a lower floor can also help, as heat rises.
You want to be warm and cosy in your bed but be breathing cooler air as you sleep. Leave a window open if possible so you have plenty of fresh air at night. If you have central-heating try to make sure the rad in your room's not turned on or up too high during the night.
The 3-2-1 bedtime method is a simple sleep hygiene strategy: stop eating 3 hours before bed, stop working 2 hours before bed, and stop using screens (phones, tablets, TVs) 1 hour before sleep, helping your body transition to rest by reducing stimulants and digestive load for better sleep quality. A more detailed version adds 10 hours (no caffeine) and 0 (no snoozing) for a 10-3-2-1-0 rule.
What to do when it's too hot to sleep
Poor sleep and fatigue
It is difficult to fall asleep in a bedroom that is too warm. While you're lying in your bed, sweating, rest and relaxation often seem far away.
Sleep experts believe the best temperature for great sleep is between 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit. But in addition to making you uncomfortable and interfering with healthy sleep patterns, being too hot at any time of day or night can cause health risks like dehydration and heat stroke.
10 tips to keep you and your house cool this summer
A Warm Room Blocks Your Body's Cooling System: Your body cools itself by releasing heat through the skin, especially the hands and feet. A hot environment prevents this process, making it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Sinus Irritation: The constant airflow can dry out your sinuses, leading to congestion, headaches, and a sore throat. Muscle Aches: Sleeping with a fan can cause muscle tension, especially if it's blowing directly on you. Dry Skin andEyes: The dry air from a fan can irritate your skin and eyes.
In his piece, he revealed that through his years of research, he's found that rumination is the biggest thing that causes poor sleep. He says that being worried about something at night has affected his own ability to fall asleep.
The 80/20 Rule means that you stick to your healthy, consistent sleep schedule 80% of the time. You then can make exceptions to your schedule 20% of the time. The 80/20 Rule allows you to “live life” and enjoy those special moments with your family.
The koala is famous for sleeping around 20-22 hours a day, which is about 90% of the day, due to their low-energy diet of eucalyptus leaves that requires extensive digestion. Other extremely sleepy animals include the sloth (up to 20 hours) and the brown bat (around 20 hours), with some snakes like the ball python also sleeping up to 23 hours daily.
Common reasons for heat imbalances include poor insulation, inefficient HVAC system, blocked air vents, drafty windows, and imbalanced airflow distribution within the home.
Cold showers might not improve sleep because of cold water's stimulating properties. Cold water immersion raises levels of cortisol and norepinephrine.
If the summer temperatures have you needing to chill out, try our tips.
It depends on whether it is warmer outside than inside or vice versa, and on the absolute temperature as well. If it is warmer inside, then exhausting hot air out, or sucking cold air in helps. If it very hot both inside and outside, you might be better off just blowing the fan onto your face.
Tuning out environmental noises with the soothing sound of white noise from a fan can significantly improve sleep quality. While our ears hear white noise as a grainy static, it contains all of the frequencies found in the spectrum of sounds in equal parts. White noise varies in intensity, which a fan can regulate.
Both ceiling and floor fans are generally energy-efficient, but floor fans can offer more targeted and localized cooling. While ceiling fans distribute air throughout the entire room, the cooling effect may be less concentrated on the areas that need it most.
The 3-3-3 rule for sleep is a technique to help manage anxiety and improve sleep quality. It involves focusing on three things you can see, three things you can hear, and moving three parts of your body.
How to sleep during a heatwave and high temperatures
Gen Z stays up late due to a combination of technology (blue light, endless content), significant stress and anxiety (FOMO, financial/global worries), biological shifts (natural teenage circadian rhythm), and "revenge bedtime procrastination," where they sacrifice sleep for personal time, often in bed, scrolling social media. This digital-heavy, high-stress lifestyle creates overstimulation and a misalignment with natural sleep patterns, leading to chronic sleep deprivation, notes the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Health Foundation.
The 3-minute rule is a simple but important guideline: wait at least three minutes after turning your air conditioner off before turning it back on. That short pause gives the refrigerant pressure in the system time to equalize.
Yes, running fans is significantly cheaper and more energy-efficient than running air conditioning (AC) because fans use far fewer watts (e.g., 50-75W) to circulate air, creating a wind-chill effect that makes you feel cooler, while AC units use much more power (500-2,000+W) to actively lower the room's temperature, costing many times more per hour. Fans can cost just pennies an hour, whereas AC can cost tens of cents or more, making fans ideal for mild days or for boosting AC efficiency by allowing a higher thermostat setting.
Close curtains and blinds
Something like 30% of unwanted heat comes in your windows so keeping curtains and blinds closed will help, especially during peak sunlight hours and on windows that face the sun. Some roller blinds are designed to let you see out while still blocking those rays.