Five Ways to Protect Your Sleep Through a Warm August
On Monday we published What Actually Happens to Your Body While You Sleep, which looked at the repair work your body carries out overnight. If you have not read it, it is worth ten minutes before this one. Today's article puts that understanding into practice.
August is the month people most often tell us their sleep has slipped, and the reasons are usually practical rather than medical.
The bedroom holds the day's heat well into the night, and during a sustained warm, dry spell it may not cool properly at all
The evenings stay light until well after nine
Routines loosen with visitors and long days in the garden
None of the changes below costs anything.
Five Ways to Protect Your Sleep
Cool the Room Before You Try to Cool Yourself
Falling asleep depends on your core temperature dropping slightly, and that happens more easily in a cool room. Cooling a hot bedroom in the evening is harder than keeping it cool all day.
Close curtains and blinds on the sunny side of the house first thing
Open a window in the coolest room early in the evening, and leave the bedroom door open so air moves through
Position a fan to move air across the room rather than aimed directly at you
Swap a heavy duvet for a single cotton or linen sheet, which moves moisture away from the skin in a way most synthetic bedding does not
Have Your Bath or Shower Earlier
A warm bath or shower around ninety minutes before bed brings blood towards the skin. As that blood cools, your core temperature falls a little faster than it otherwise would.
Warm is the important word. A cold shower just before bed is briefly refreshing, but the body then works to warm itself back up at the moment you want it settling.
Protect the Light Signal at Both Ends of the Day
Your body clock takes most of its instruction from light, and long summer evenings push that signal later. The correction is less about avoiding light in the evening than about getting plenty of it early.
Aim for ten to fifteen minutes outdoors within an hour of waking; standing on the doorstep with a cup of tea counts. Research suggests morning light is one of the more reliable ways to bring a drifting sleep pattern back.
In the last hour before bed, lower the light level rather than counting screens. One lamp instead of the overhead light helps more than people expect.
Keep Your Wake Time Steady
For many people the problem is not falling asleep but staying asleep, and the usual cause in August is a wake time that has started to wander.
Sleep pressure is the drive for sleep that builds across your waking hours. A steady wake time keeps it building on a predictable schedule, while a lie-in after a late night flattens it and makes the following night harder.
Choose a wake time you can hold seven days a week, within about half an hour, and let bedtime move around it.
If discomfort rather than heat is what wakes you, Sleep, Sleep Positions and Pillows: What Actually Matters? covers how you are lying and what your pillow is doing about it.
Move Earlier in the Day
Regular activity is one of the strongest supports for good sleep, and it does not need to be strenuous. Studies consistently show that people who move regularly fall asleep faster and wake less often.
In August the timing matters. A brisk walk at seven in the evening leaves you warm and alert at the wrong hour.
Move the effort earlier instead. An early walk on the coast path or around the garden does the same work and gives you your morning light. Why Walking Could Be the Best Exercise for Healthy Ageing is a useful place to start.
When it is Genuinely Hot
A warm week and a prolonged hot, dry spell are different problems. During a long run of hot days the house never fully gives up its heat overnight, and the advice above needs adjusting rather than repeating.
Treat the daytime as the important part. Closing curtains and windows on the sunny side by mid-morning does more than anything you can do at ten at night
Open up only once the air outside is genuinely cooler than the air inside, which in a hot spell is often later than it feels
A fan is better used to move air across the room than aimed at you all night, which tends to leave people stiff-necked and dry-eyed by morning
Drink steadily across the day rather than making up for it in the evening, which mostly buys you a trip to the bathroom at two in the morning
Expect several disturbed nights in a row, and hold your wake time anyway. A long lie-in after a bad night is the thing most likely to extend the run
Older adults tolerate heat less well than they used to, and often without noticing the change. If a hot spell is leaving you unusually drained, unsteady or unwell rather than simply tired, that is worth raising with your GP rather than treating as a sleep problem.
What to Do if You Wake in the Night
Waking briefly overnight is normal and becomes more common with age. The difficulty is usually the frustration that follows.
If you are still awake after about twenty minutes, get up, go to another room, keep the lights low and read something undemanding until you feel sleepy. Lying in bed willing yourself to sleep teaches your body to associate the bed with effort.
Apollo Insight
The detail patients most often get wrong is treating sleep as something that begins when the light goes off. In practice the two hours before bed decide most of it: the room temperature, the light level, and whether the nervous system has been given any signal that the day is finished.
We also see people abandoning a change after three nights. Sleep patterns adjust over a week or two, and the first few nights of a new routine are often slightly worse before they are better.
This Week's Movement Tip
Wind Down With Slow Nasal Breathing
Sit on the edge of the bed or lie on your back, whichever you find easier, with a hand resting lightly on your stomach. Breathe in gently through your nose for a count of four, feeling your hand rise a little, then let the breath out slowly through your nose for a count of six. Do not force either part, the out-breath simply needs to be a touch longer than the in-breath.
Carry on for two minutes. If counting feels fussy, breathe at whatever pace lets the out-breath stay the longer of the two.
It should feel unremarkable , no lightheadedness, no strain, no sense of running out of air. If it does feel strained, shorten the counts. Two minutes is plenty; this is a signal to the nervous system that the day has finished, not an exercise.
On a hot night this is worth doing before you get under the covers rather than after, while you are still comfortable.
Before starting any new exercise programme, please consult your healthcare professional if you have any medical conditions, concerns or existing injuries. If you experience pain or worsening symptoms whilst exercising, stop and seek appropriate medical advice.
How Can Apollo Help if Poor Sleep is Leaving You Stiff and Sore?
When disturbed sleep and morning stiffness arrive together, it is worth looking at both. Osteopathy can address the discomfort that wakes you or greets you first thing, and Clinical Exercise & Rehabilitation can build the daytime activity that supports better sleep.
If August has been uncomfortable, our team at the Sheringham clinic is happy to talk it through. You can see our services or book an appointment.
How Apollo Health Collective Supports Healthy Ageing
Healthy ageing is about understanding your body, looking after it well and having the right support when you need it.
At Apollo Health Collective, we help people stay active, capable and independent through personalised, evidence-informed care. Our integrated approach brings together different areas of expertise to support movement, recovery and long-term wellbeing.
Our Sheringham clinic offers Osteopathy, Sports Therapy, Sports Massage, Clinical Exercise & Rehabilitation, Reformer Pilates, Podiatry, Biomechanics, and Lifestyle & Wellbeing services. We also offer Osteopathy appointments in Norwich and Coltishall.
Whether you are recovering from an injury, managing ongoing concerns, looking to improve your movement or simply investing in your future health, our team is here to support you.
