Sleep Aid Tips for Tropical Nights

Sleep Aid Tips for Tropical Nights

07/27/2013

First you had to wait in this country for so long for the summer and now it seems to be too much of it. Over 30 degrees during the day and hardly any cooling at night. To help you sleep better during the tropical nights, a few simple tricks help.

Optimal sleep temperature at 15 to 18 degrees
Up to almost 40 degrees, the thermometer is expected to rise this weekend in some places. If the temperatures during the day are extremely tiring, then they do not lead to restful sleep at night. On the contrary: if it gets barely colder than 25 degrees at night, you will be awake for a long time, because the optimal sleep temperature is 15 to 18 degrees and if the values ​​are too high, the body's own cooling system will be limp. Jürgen Zulley, Head of the Sleep Medicine Center at the University of Regensburg, has given away some of his tips in order to better deal with the heat in the bedroom.

Cool bedroom
If you can not spend the night on the balcony or in the garden, like in a hammock, you should at least try to keep the bedroom as cool as possible. Ideally, it closes the windows during the day and does not allow the sun to shine directly into the room due to lowered blinds or drawn curtains. After sunset you can then open all the windows wide and ventilate the room with a draft. If possible, leave the windows open all night. Sensitive people then have to be careful of the drafts.

Sleep researchers advise to functional underwear
In order to protect yourself against possible drafts, even a thin sheet is often sufficient to cover, which in any case is more suitable in midsummer than a thick feather duvet. If the heat tempts to carry as little as possible to nothing on the body, yet many people are used to sleep while sleeping, even for hygienic reasons. Sleep researcher Zulley advises so-called functional underwear made of material that transports moisture and heat to the outside. Especially for people who sweat heavily cotton is rather unfavorable because the sweat drips in it and leads to an unpleasant feeling of moisture on the skin. But after a lukewarm shower just before going to bed you can leave a light moisture film on your skin, by not drying yourself completely and thus taking a pleasant coolness to bed. If this does not last long, it may be enough to go to sleep.

Cooled hot water bottle and light bedding
If you place a hot water bottle filled with water in the fridge during the day, not in the freezer compartment, it can become a cooling bottle. Then you can put them according to your wishes between the feet, under the neck or on the stomach. It should also be taken into account that although you should drink plenty of water during the day, but not just before going to bed, because otherwise you have to go back to the toilet at night. And because the body is already so stressed out by the heat anyway, it should not be plagued even more by heavy digestive work. That's why it should be easy „Betthupferl“ be respected, so rather light food and best not to eat after 19 o'clock.

Natural remedies
Restful sleep is the basic requirement for health, performance and well-being. However, if this is difficult because of the current temperatures, you should still not resort to chemical sleeping pills. There are also natural remedies. For example, sleep aids made from valerian extracts alone or in combination with hops, lemon balm and passionflower have proven to be an alternative to risky synthetic hypnotics and sedatives in a large number of clinical studies. So Prof. Dr. Dr. Martin E. Keck from the Zurich Center for Natural Sciences in Munich some time ago: „The comparison with synthetic sleeping pills shows that phytopharmaceuticals are an evidence-based, well-tolerated and well-accepted alternative for traditional synthetic drugs“. A tip from Zulley was then that you should not be upset if it does not work immediately with falling asleep. Because in summer you need about an hour less sleep anyway in winter than in winter. (Ad)

Picture: twinlili