If you live in the Northeast–or anywhere else for that matter–you’ve probably been hitting record high temperatures this summer.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
I know I’ve been begging for relief, but the heat may be here to stay. Too hot or too cold, the wrong temperature can turn bedtime into a battle. Frustratedly tossing on top of the covers, it feels like it takes forever to overcome the discomfort and fall asleep. Zeo tells me that the temperature doesn’t actually affect my Time to Z–which is reassuring–but it does affect some of my other sleep stats.
Cold, Hard Data
When it gets too hot or too cold, my ZQ plummets by more than 10 points:
And, it turns out that I lose some restorative sleep:
Beating the Heat (in Bed)
With that said, what is the right temperature and how do I make sure that my room and bed are just right for sleeping? Experts say that the overall room temperature should be between 60 and 75 degrees; check out this article in the sleep information center, or this one from WebMD for more info (though I personally found that it’s my Deep Sleep that’s affected, and not my REM). In the spring I leave the windows open at night as breezes helps to keep things nice and cool, but in the summer even the nights are hot, so I have to resort to AC. I’ve also used a fan in the past and it helps, but not as much. As a final measure, I swap out my winter blankets for a light coverlet, just enough to keep me comfortable (but not too hot). It’s also a good layer if your bed partner likes a much colder room temperature than you!
The bottom line is that while temperature did not seem like a huge sleep stealer for me, it actually was. I’m now thinking about testing different temperatures within the “optimal” 60 to 75 degree range to see if there’s one that’s best for me; in the meantime, I’m just trying to stay cool! What’s your experience been with sleep this summer?
Rhiannon (ZQ: 101) was our Sr. Consumer Research Analyst during her tenure at Zeo; all of us here wish her the best in her new endeavors. 
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