According to the CDC, 35% of all adults don’t get the recommended amount of sleep. If you’re one of the millions of people that fall into this statistic, we hope this post can help you find the rest you’re looking for.

If you go searching for advice on how to fall asleep, you’ll find a lot of it. It can be overwhelming… and we totally get it! For people who have trouble getting or staying asleep, it can feel very hit and miss when trying to find a solution that works for you.

Here’s our first tip: start small, start with something you can change or control easily without leaving the comfort of your home. Start by changing the temperature. 

How does the temperature affect the way a person sleeps? 

Sleep is regulated by something called the circadian rhythm. Our circadian rhythm is a process in our brain based on the sun’s light cycles. To simplify: we have an internal body clock that is naturally related to the cycle of the sun but can also be messed up by a lot of outside forces. Outside forces that mess with sleep can be emotional or physical. Environmental factors also come into play when it comes to better regulating your circadian rhythm. Some of the most common environmental factors that impact sleep include light exposure, hormone production, and… temperature.

When you lay down to sleep at night, the average temperature of your body is going to go down. Usually a degree or two, this natural drop is part of the chemical process in our bodies that induces sleep. Because our internal temperature is so integral to finding sleep, having an external temperature that’s too high or low can get in the way of that signal triggering. 

What’s the ideal temperature for sleeping? 

The ideal ambient room temperature for sleeping is 65 degrees. Go check your thermostat and see where it’s at. If it’s set too high or too low, it could be one of the reasons you’re having trouble falling asleep. If you prefer your thermostat set to a different temperature during the day and don’t want to be fiddling with it all the time, we recommend looking into a programmable smart thermostat.

An article published by Health.com included an interview with Chris Winter, MD and president of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine where he says, “65 degrees is ideal. That doesn’t mean 66 or 67 is terrible, but a cooler environment usually lends itself to a better quality of sleep.” Because the room you’re in is slightly cooler at 65 degrees, it makes it easier for your body’s core temperature to reach the needed dip in order to fall asleep.

Leonardo da Vinci once said, “A well-spent day brings happy sleep.” We hope this post helps you find your happy sleep more easily. If you’d like to make your sleep even happier, contact us today to schedule a smart thermostat appointment and take your next step on the path to successful, comfortable sleep.