How to Enjoy Cool & Uninterrupted Sleep This Summer

Sleeping hot is the worst. Unfortunately, it happens to the best of us. Falling into a deep sleep (and staying there!) requires a low body temperature, which can be difficult to achieve during the hot summer months. Fortunately, we have some great tips and tricks for getting those ZZZs while beating the heat.

Sometimes cooling down means going back to the basics. Mattresses, especially memory foam, can trap heat and leave you feeling hot and sweaty while you’re trying to sleep. Luckily, mattresses made specifically for keeping you cool are available. Our Yogasleep Hybrid Cooling Mattress, for example, uses heat-conductive copper to pull extra warmth away from your body, leaving you cool, clean, and sweat-free throughout the night.

Protect your investment while also utilizing the capabilities of a cooling mattress protector. Designed to help you maintain a well-regulated body temperature while sleeping, cooling mattress protectors can also help cut down on excessive night sweats. They can be used in combination with a cooling mattress for the ultimate chill sleep sesh, but they’re also beneficial for any mattress that acts as a heat trap during the night.

Try switching to sheets made from cotton, linen, or bamboo. These materials encourage air circulation and can wick moisture away, helping you stay cool and dry during bedtime.

Go beyond simply flipping your pillow over, and get a pillow made specifically for breezy ZZZs. Enhance your sleep with a cloud-like pillow that combines the naturally antimicrobial and cooling properties of copper with temperature-regulating gel memory foam. The Yogabed Copper Pillow Yogasleep Hybrid Cooling Mattress Copper Pillow gently aligns your head and neck in any sleeping position while maintaining its luxurious composition for support throughout the night.

Creating the perfect sleep environment, and having good sleep hygiene, are crucial elements for great sleep – not just for hot nights, but for good rest in general. Here are a few ways to make the most of your bedtime surroundings.

Setting up your bedroom before it’s time to sleep can go a long way in getting through hot summer nights. Try setting your thermostat between 60 and 67 degrees, which is considered the perfect room temperature for sleeping. Keep your bedroom blinds shut throughout the day so your room is nice and cool when it’s time to crawl into bed. Try to avoid getting too much sun during the day, which can keep your body temperature elevated well into the late evening.

White or pink noisecan help you wind down for bedtime, and keep you asleep throughout the night by blocking out disruptive noises. You can even play the soothing sounds of rolling ocean waves or refreshing summer rain, imagine you’re on a cool, relaxing vacation, and drift off into dreamland. Yogasleep offers a variety of white noise, pink noise, and multi-sound machines that will help you find the perfect sleep sound for your nighttime routine.

Encouraging good air flow is imperative when it comes to keeping cool. Strategically place fans around the room to push hot air out and bring cool air in. Try placing box fans facing out a window, which helps pull hot air out of your room, lowering the temperature of your sleep space.

Use windows and doors to create natural cross-ventilation, which helps prevent heat from accumulating in a room. To achieve a good cross-breeze, open windows that are directly across from one another, and try to make a small opening for the air to enter the room, and a large opening for the air to exit the room – this technique helps increase air speed, meaning the hot air travels quickly out of your room while the cool air replaces it.

Set yourself up for some deep, restorative sleep with relaxing amber lighting. Some of our top-rated sound machines, like the Dreamcenter, Nod, and Duet, feature adjustable night lights to help create that perfect soothing glow while also providing the relaxing sleep sounds we mentioned earlier – a winning combination that’s sure to help you sleep better, even on miserably warm nights.

Try sleeping in pajamas made from cotton, linen, or bamboo. Just like with sheets, these fabrics can help wick away moisture and keep you sleeping cool. You can even consider sleeping in the nude to prevent sweaty clothes from sticking to you and making you more uncomfortable.

Sleep hygiene is critical when it comes to getting good rest in general. Taking a lukewarm shower before bed can help you relax while also cooling you down. Just be sure to avoid drastic temperatures — a hot shower can raise your body temperature too much, and a cold shower can wake you up instead of putting you in the relaxing state of mind that’s needed for sleep. Placing a face mask in the fridge and putting it on right before bed can help lower your body temperature while letting your brain know that it’s time to stop stressing. You can also put a bottle of aloe vera gel in the fridge and apply it before bed – this can help cool you down while providing good moisture for your skin. Having a calming bedtime routine helps ready you for deep, restorative sleep, and can prevent you from tossing and turning before bed.

While we all have our favorite sleep positions that we find most comfortable, changing your position around can help you drift off to sleep. Lying in a “starfish” position allows your body to have the most contact with circulating air, preventing heat and sweat from building up where it would otherwise if you were all curled up.

Try sleeping alone to lower your body temperature. That means no snuggling with partners or pets in bed. We know, we know — this probably isn’t your favorite idea, and cuddling can even improve your health and strengthen your relationship. It may seem lonely or depressing to sleep without snuggling your partners or your pets, but sometimes you just need space when it comes to cooling down during bedtime.

Freeze a washcloth before bed and place it on your neck or forehead – two of the areas where people sweat the most. Or, try placing a frozen water bottle or ice pack on pulse points, including your ankles, wrists, backs of the knees, and crooks of the elbow, to help lower your body temperature.

Putting your sheets, pjs or socks in the freezer before bedtime can save you some stress if you get too hot during the night. Simply put the clothing or bedding into a plastic bag and place it in the freezer a few hours before bedtime. When you’re ready for some cool sleep, just remove the items from the freezer and wrap yourself in a cooling oasis.

Your bedroom may already be situated on the lowest level of your home — lucky you! If it’s not, you may consider moving your bedroom downstairs if sleeping hot is enough of a problem. Going to lay down on the couch may also be worth it for an especially hot night if you just can’t find another way to cool off.

Ancient Egyptians used to soak their sheets in cold water before bed in order to keep themselves cool during the night. To do a more modern and less messy version of this, soak a large towel or sheet in cold water, squeeze out as much liquid as you can, and put the item into your washer on the spin cycle. This dries the fabric just enough to still cool you off without getting you completely drenched. Instead of transferring the fabric to your dryer, place it in the fridge for a bit, and then bring your new DIY cooling cloth to bed with you.

Maybe your AC has gone out, or maybe you don’t even have one — yikes. For a quick fix, try placing a bowl of ice cubes in front of a fan. The ice emits cool air, and the fan will push that cool air out into the room, mitigating that awful, sweaty feeling — at least long enough to fall asleep

Hopefully these helpful tips and tricks will keep you cool during warm summer nights. Don’t forget to check out soothing sound machines, cooling bedding, and our new copper-infused cooling mattress to create the perfect sleep oasis for hot summer nights. Follow us on Instagram and let us know if these life hacks work for you!