We usually don’t value sleep, right until the moment when we don’t get enough of it, and when insomnia is to blame, every minute of shut-eye turns into precious and treasured time. But what if we told you that sometimes, it isn’t stress, genetics, or your sleeping position that’s to blame for poor sleep quality, it’s the temperature of your surroundings. It turns out that room temperature affects not only our sleep quality but our overall health as well.
In fact, scientists have proven that the cozy feeling you get when you sleep under the covers in a cold room isn’t just pleasant, but also beneficial for your metabolism and weight loss, may help lower chronic inflammation and pain and promotes hormonal regulation. Here is why you should try to always sleep in a cold room.
1. You’ll get more and better sleep
Temperature regulation plays an incredibly important role in our sleep, as our temperatures naturally drop by bed time. This is a necessary biological process that’s part of circadian rhythms that regulate our sleep, eating schedule and energy levels. And while this natural drop in body temperature works well in most people, a cool, but not freezing room temperature can facilitate this process and help you fall asleep faster.
The recommended range of temperatures is between 60 and 67°F (15-19°C). A cool room temperature is especially beneficial for those whose circadian rhythms are disrupted (which is true of some insomniacs), as it nudges your body in the right direction even when you don’t feel particularly sleepy.
2. Cold temperatures can help you get your beauty sleep
It’s known that melatonin production is at its peak when a person is in a dark and cool surrounding, which is a good thing, as melatonin does a lot of helpful things for our body. For one, melatonin is a powerful antioxidant, so it will make you age slower and be less prone to chronic disease.
As a bonus, melatonin also regulates fat cells in the body, so make sure you sleep in a dark and cold room if beauty maintenance is your goal.
3. Pain and inflammation decrease in the cold
If you ever applied a cold compress on a swollen wound and watched it get better, you have observed the anti-inflammatory effects of cold first hand. In fact, the pain brought about by inflammation may be the primary reason why you have trouble sleeping, so by literally cooling things down, you’ll be able to hit two birds with one stone and improve your symptoms and sleep better simultaneously.
4. Your metabolism benefits from cooler temperatures, and so does your waistline
A healthy metabolism is key to keeping such problems as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity at bay. One way to boost your metabolic health is to simply sleep in a cold room, as proven by a 2014 study. In this study, participants slept at a temperature of 66°F (19°C) for only 4 weeks, and by the end of the experiment, it was observed that their insulin sensitivity, as well as brown fat production, was much better than before.
Insulin sensitivity is a key marker measuring how well our body regulates blood sugar, and being more sensitive to insulin means you’re less at risk of suffering from metabolic syndrome and diabetes. An increase in brown fat, in turn, is also a beneficial marker, as brown fat is the kind of fat our body will use up, unlike white fat, that just accumulates in our body.
In this way, sleeping in a cold room may help you prevent diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and will keep your waistline in check.
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