Turn Down the Heat and Keep Your Cool
Keep your room temperature down for a good night’s rest
Image Courtesy Samsung
Do you struggle to fall asleep on these hot South African summer nights, or do you toss and turn, waking up exhausted? This might be caused by the fact that your bedroom temperature is too high at night. Maybe you’re trying to save on electricity by not turning on an air conditioner in the summer, but if you didn’t know, the temperature can affect your sleeping patterns.
“Samsung’s Smart Inverter Compressor is the answer to keeping your electricity bill down. It adjusts its speed in response to the surrounding temperature. By running only at the speed needed, energy wastage is kept to a minimum, which reduces your electricity usage,” says Mike van Lier, Director Consumer Electronics at Samsung South Africa.
Dr. Christopher Winter, Medical Director at Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine, says your bedroom should be between 15ºC and 18ºC for optimal sleep. When trying to fall asleep, your body temperature decreases to initiate sleep and these suggested temperatures can help facilitate this. If your bedroom is cool, rather than warm, it will be easier to shut your eyes for the night.
Temperatures far lower or higher than what is recommended could lead to restlessness and can also affect the quality of rapid eye movement sleep – the stage of sleep with the highest brain activity. During this stage, you’ll have higher brain metabolism and will often dream. There are spontaneous rapid eye movements and minimal body movement. It’s usually difficult to wake a sleeper during this stage. Think of your bedroom as a cave, it should be quiet, cool and dark for the best chance at getting enough rest.
If your room is cooler while trying to fall asleep, you will:
- Fall asleep more quickly
Provide an environment for your body to fall asleep more comfortably and quicker. If it’s too hot or too cold, your body will waste energy trying to regulate its temperature and will leave you tossing and turning all night.
- Get a better night’s sleep
When your body isn’t trying to regulate itself, you’ll fall into a deeper, more restorative sleep. Research** has proven that sleeping in cooler environments can help decrease certain types of insomnia.
- Look more youthful
It’s been shown that sleeping in temperatures between 15ºC and 18ºC will allow your body to release more melatonin, one of our best anti-aging hormones.
- Decrease your risk for certain metabolic diseases
According to Dr. Francesco Celi***, Chairman of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, sleeping in an 18ºC room not only burns more calories while awake, but the amount of “brown fat” (or good fat) in the body increases. Brown fat allows your body to burn calories, not store them. Together, this could help lower the risk for metabolic diseases like diabetes over time.
“With our technical expertise and products designed with the consumer’s needs in mind, Samsung aims to help people live healthier, productive lives using technology that address that improve and simplify their lives,” concludes Hume.
* http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/08/30/sleep-cold-room-health/
** https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/putting-insomnia-on-ice/
*** https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/cool-temperature-alters-human-fat-metabolism
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