If you can’t sleep in the summer — you can blame your cavemen

Lifestyle

as if Hilary Andrews, FOX Weather

May 29, 2023 | 10:44 am

If you love winter but can’t get enough sleep with the warmer temperatures and longer days, you’re not alone.

There’s a medical reason you’re tossing and turning instead of snoozing in late spring and summer.

Dr. Sampson Davis, an emergency medicine physician, says you can blame your cavemen.

“The thing with sleep, the interesting thing, is that our habit of cooling the environment is like a cave,” Davis said. “We wanted it to be cold, dark and unbroken. What happens in the summer – it’s hot, and the days are longer. So the hormone melatonin, the hormone released when the sun goes down, is released later, making summer sleep a little more difficult.

Davis says that although most of us sleep more in the summer because we’re so busy, our bodies need the same amount of sleep year-round.

He encouraged people to prioritize sleep.

Why heat and sleep do not go together

Your body produces melatonin naturally, and it helps regulate your circadian rhythms, your body’s internal clock.

According to a study, the hormone actually lowers your body temperature.

A cooler body temperature “reduces arousal and increases the tendency to sleep.”

In children, the increase in nighttime melatonin is responsible for 40-50% of the decrease in core body temperature, according to another study.

Melatonin levels decrease with age.

Summer heat also keeps the body warm.

This not only makes it difficult to fall asleep, but also makes it difficult to fall asleep, according to the National Institutes of Health.

According to the CDC, the ideal room temperature for most adults to sleep is 65-68 degrees.

The obvious answer is to turn on the air conditioner, but not everyone has it.

Keeping the AC running at 65 all night is also expensive.

Davis offers these tips for getting your room ready for summer sleep:

• They close the blinds and windows during the day to keep the heat from escaping from the bedroom.
• Turn on the AC one hour before you plan to sleep.
• If you don’t have AC, open the windows and turn on the fan to let in the cool night air.
• Try placing your mattress on the floor as warm air rises.
• Get rid of the pajamas and blankets and make sure you have breathable bedding. Natural fibers are more breathable than synthetic materials.

The CDC, health experts, and journal research offer a few tips to help you fall asleep faster, sleep longer, and wake up refreshed.

• Change the filters regularly, the CDC suggests.
• Make sure the fan is not blowing in your face. The Mayo Clinic and the American Academy of Ophthalmology report that the weather can dry out the skin, eyes, mouth, nose, and sinuses. This causes mucus to build up, which can cause headaches, sore throats, stuffy noses and snoring.
• Dust the fan. In the year A 2016 study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics found that inhaling allergens and dust can cause sneezing, itching, runny nose and difficulty breathing. Allergy sufferers may want to skip the fan.
• A 2019 study published in Sleep Medicine Reviews also suggests taking a warm bath or shower an hour or two before bed. Scientists believe that warm water stimulates blood flow to the hands and feet, which causes the body temperature to decrease to the core temperature.

Climate change can affect sleep

Sleeping in the future can be difficult, a study has found.

According to Dr. Kelton Miner of the University of Copenhagen and the study’s author, people have lost an average of 44 hours of sleep, or six sleepless nights, since the turn of the century due to rising temperatures.

In the year By 2050, the study predicts we will have 12 nights of shorter sleep and 15 more nights of sleep by 2099 due to climate change.