Baby, It’s Cold Outside!
Everyone thinks of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” as a Christmas song. But it’s really a winter song, when you get right down to it. And now that it’s February, right smack in the middle of winter, it seems like a good time to talk about winter and cold weather, and how they affect our sleep.
Sorry to you readers in the southern hemisphere who are smack in the middle of summer right now! Maybe reading an article about cold will help you feel cooler. Nah, that never works, does it? I’ve tried it in the middle of an Arizona July, and . . .nothing.
February might not be the coldest month of the year where you live, but it may well seem like it as the winter drags on and folks start dreaming of Spring.
If you’re wondering what kind of credibility someone in Arizona has talking about cold weather, well then, okay. Point taken. In my defense though, my heat pump has been wonky on the heat setting for the last few years so I don’t run it during the night in the winter, and I’m not ready to replace the dang thing quite yet. (Thankfully, so far, it’s okay during summer, or I’d have no choice!) So it often gets down to the mid- to- low-50s F at night in my house. That’s cred, my friend!
Ambient Room Temperature
Since we’re talking about the most obvious characteristic of winter – cold weather – let’s talk about the temperature in your house. Experts tell us a cooler ambient temperature is best for sleeping. The range you’ll hear varies slightly depending on which expert you’re talking to, but there seems to be agreement that 65° F is right in the middle of the perfect range.
Lucky for most of us (sorry again, southern hemisperians!) it’s pretty easy to keep your house around that “ideal” temperature in February. In the summer, it’s tougher to maintain that cooler range. I don’t know about you, but I’m not wild about paying that electric bill. But, I digress – back to February.
Strangely enough, it’s often not that it’s too cold in your house for great sleep, but that it’s too hot. It feels wonderful to be cozy-warm in your bedroom, with your flannel sheets, warm blankets, toasty comforter, your flannel jammies or gown or maybe thermal underwear. And your thermostat set at a comfy 72° – 75° F. But all that may just be too cozy for great sleep.
You can try lowering your thermostat to around 65° before you go to bed, and see how that feels. Once you’re all tucked into all the coziness described above, you’ll most likely feel as toasty as ever, with the difference being that you don’t wind up too hot in the night and have to throw some covers off or kick off your socks. Experiment with what temperature feels best to you and your family. You might just save some money while you’re improving your sleep.
Dry Air
With furnaces and heat pumps going full blast, the air in your home gets extremely dry. For that matter, it’s dry practically everywhere you go in the winter. Offices, shopping malls, your vehicle, outside. Unless you’re in a place with effective humidifiers running, that air just dries everything out, including you.
Your skin gets dried out, making it itchy and uncomfortable. Static electricity that builds up in your hair, clothes, furniture and bedclothes can be rather annoying and shocking! But what really affects your sleep is how winter air dries out your nose, causing you to breathe through your mouth, which can lead to snoring. And we all know how detrimental snoring can be to your sleep, and to your partner’s sleep.
Investing in a good humidifier for your bedroom (and your kids’ bedrooms too) can make a big difference in your sleep comfort, and the quality of your sleep. But there are other ways to increase the humidity while you’re sleeping.
Having live plants in your room is another idea. Or setting open containers of water in the room can help quite a lot. They can be anything from the practical mixing bowls or plastic tubs you have around the house to more decorative crystal bowls or pretty, ceramic or earthenware containers. You can even hang-dry some laundry in your room while you’re sleeping. It will release moisture into the air all night.
A little more elaborate, but quite doable, a small water feature in your room, like a little fountain or waterfall not only adds moisture into the air, but the soothing sounds they make can also be great for sleep.
Short Days and Not Much Light
Wintertime really can be dark and gloomy, depending on where you live, and the farther north you are, the shorter the days are. Now that it’s February, you may be noticing it getting light just a little earlier and dark just a little later each day. But the daylight hours can still feel mighty short, especially when you have to be inside at work or school during most of them.
We think of the dark as being conducive to sleep – and it is. What isn’t so helpful, though, is when the contrast you experience between dark and light is less pronounced like it is in winter. You get up in the morning, and it’s dark. You get to work, and it’s dark or maybe just getting light. You step out during your lunch break and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch some sunshine. If not, it’s dark and gloomy. You leave work after a long day under the fluorescents, and it’s either already dark or getting there. That’s a lot of dark!
This has a couple of different effects on you. First, not experiencing the bright sunshine for many days in a row can cause you to feel sad, depressed, sleepy, lethargic and a whole lot more equally unappealing things. And feeling that way doesn’t help your sleep.
Another way this affects you is that your body doesn’t produce melatonin as efficiently when it experiences less light-dark contrast. When you are exposed to sunlight during the day, and the days are longer like during summer, your body has no doubt it’s time to start pumping out some melatonin when it gets dark. But when the days are short in winter, and you may not see sunlight for days on end as it stays gloomy and gray, your body doesn’t experience it getting dark in the same pronounced way. The upshot of this is that your body doesn’t produce as much melatonin, and what it does produce may come too early in the evening for it to really help you at bedtime.
Make every possible effort to soak up whatever rays you can during February. The warm sun sure feels good during colder months, and it could help regulate your sleep too.
Me? I love February. It’s gorgeous in Arizona in the wintertime, and I’ll take this weather any day of the year. For those of you in colder climes, never fear. Spring will be here before long and you’ll be soaking up the warm sun again.
To your sleep!