Heat, hay fever, alcohol: Summer is costing us a lot of sleep

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If you get enough sleep, you’ll be more productive and less susceptible to illness. This is probably clear to everyone by now. However, many people are regularly sleep deprived, especially during the summer months.

Evidence: A British company asked 2,046 Britons aged 18 and over about their sleep habits. Three quarters of the participants in the study stated that they sleep less in summer than in other seasons. The average responder sleeps only 5 1/2 hours a night. In autumn, winter and spring it is 7 ½ hours.

Almost a quarter of those surveyed try to alleviate sleep deprivation by taking a nap during the day. 36 percent tip energy drinks or take food supplements that should provide extra energy.

The most common causes of insomnia in the summer

• 71 percent are very hot at night.
• 64 percent are more socially active or pursuing their hobbies more often.
• 55 percent drink alcohol more often in the summer and sleep less as a result.
• 28 percent work harder in the summer.
• 17 percent suffer from health problems such as hay fever, asthma or overheating from the sun.

We sleep less on hot nights

“We actually sleep a little less in summer than in winter,” says Professor Kai Spiegelhalder, sleep researcher at Freiburg University Hospital (DE). The difference measured in the sleep lab is very small, at about three minutes, but patients rest there, protected from the summer heat. In reality, the difference could well be larger. However, the effect of temperature on sleep has hardly been studied scientifically. But almost everyone can confirm from their own experience that hot summer nights make it difficult to fall asleep.

Gender and age differences

A team from the University of Copenhagen presents the first evidence that rising temperatures affect our sleep, in a study on global warming. However, its effects do not affect everyone equally. Women sleep even less than men on hot nights. In older people, the effect is almost twice as strong.

Better sheep despite the heat

• Rule number one: Icy showers and cold drinks are counterproductive. It is better to take a warm shower before going to bed and not dry yourself completely. This is how moisture evaporates and cools.
• If you don’t let the bedroom temperature rise above 22 degrees, you’re halfway there. Lower the blinds and never leave the window open during the day.
• You should not exercise right before bed, even if the evenings are cooler. This wakes you up. Yoga is better. Or a short walk in the countryside, which relaxes the body, before going to bed.
• Three Hugos are not good at the summer party. Alcoholic sleep is in a coma and is less restful.
• During the day, lower the blinds, even on the shady side. Blinds and curtains also help. In an emergency, you can use the first aid blanket that you stick on the outside of the window. Silver color reflects sunlight. The better the house is insulated, the cooler it will stay.
• Turn off electrical devices completely. Even the standby mode on a laptop generates heat.
• So are the fans! If you put it on an open window in the evening, its cooling effect will be more and it will blow the cool air inside. Tip: Put a PET bottle with frozen water in front of the fan or stretch a cloth with ice cubes and an icy wind is created. (CENTIMETER)

Source : Blick