We all love the idea of summer until its actually here and youre trying to sleep in a bedroom that feels like a literal greenhouse. Theres nothing worse than spending half the night violently kicking the duvet off because youre sweating, only to pull it back over yourself ten minutes later because your toes are suddenly freezing. For most of us, getting a solid eight hours of sleep in the middle of July is basically like an extreme sport. It doesnt have to be a total nightmare if you just fix a few basic things in your room though, so consider doing these before the summer comes back around.
Ditch the winter bedding
You cant just keep your massive heavy winter duvet on the bed all year round and hope for the best, but swapping to a miserable thin sheet isnt the answer either because most if us actually need that physical weight to be able to fall asleep properly. Get a low tog summer duvet and invest in some pure cotton or linen sheets instead of those cheap polyester blends that just trap all your body heat. If you use synthetic sheets you will inevitably wake up completely stuck to the mattress at 3am (feeling like youve run a marathon!) Good sheets are a bit of an investment but are so worth the money, especially when the weather is hotter.
Stop opening the windows
Most people just throw every window in the house wide open as soon as the sun comes up to get some fresh air. That is a massive mistake because it just lets all the boiling hot outside air straight into your bedroom and traps it there for the rest of the day. You actually need to keep the curtains drawn and the windows completely shut until the sun finally goes down and the temperature drops. If you are lucky enough to have proper air conditioning installed then you can ignore all of this and just press a button on a remote, but the rest of us have to rely on strategic window opening and hoping for a tiny bit of a breeze.
Change your bedtime routine
You dont want to be staring at your phone in bed because the bright screen just tricks your brain into thinking its still daytime. We all know this, but most of us are still guilty of doing it! And if you’re already struggling to sleep because of the heat then the last thing you need is more things that are keeping your brain awake. If your usual bedtime routine consists of having a hot drink then that’s another easy change to make, the last thing you want is to be bringing your core temperature up. Have a cool shower which will reduce your body temperature a bit and make it that bit easier to drift off to sleep.
