Hot summer nights can make it harder to fall asleep—and stay asleep. If you’ve been waking up sweaty or lying awake long after bedtime, your bedroom temperature could be part of the problem.
Chitra Lal, MD, clinical professor of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine and director of University of Utah Health’s Sleep Wake Center, has helped many patients overcome persistent sleeplessness by troubleshooting a common culprit: body temperature.
Small changes to your sleep environment, paired with simple lifestyle habits, can help you wind down and improve the quality of your rest.
Simple Habits to Help You Sleep Better
As bedtime approaches, your core body temperature naturally drops by 1–2°F. Setting your thermostat at 65–67°F can help support that process, although older adults may feel more comfortable slightly warmer—around 67–74°F.
A bedroom that is too warm can make it harder to get quality sleep by causing you to:
Take longer to fall asleep
Wake up more often during the night
Get less REM and slow‑wave (deep) sleep
Feel less rested in the morning
Your bedding matters, too. During the summer, choose breathable fabrics like cotton or linen fabrics. In colder months, switch to insulating fabrics like microfleece, but avoid using anything too warm that disrupts your body’s natural cooling process.
A cooler room works best when paired with healthy sleep habits. Lal also recommends these simple steps to help your body wind down each night:
Keep the room dark.
Skip caffeine within three to four hours of bedtime.
Avoid alcohol within four to six hours of bedtime.
Don’t watch TV or scroll on your phone in bed.
Go to bed only when you’re ready to sleep.
Clean your humidifier regularly if you use one.
Time Your Light Exposure
Temperature isn’t the only thing that affects your body’s internal clock. Light exposure also plays an important role in helping your body know when it’s time to sleep—and when it’s time to wake up.
It’s true that blue light disrupts sleep, but when timed correctly, it can actually help regulate your circadian rhythm. Here’s how to use it to your benefit:
Avoid blue light before bed
Put devices away at least a couple of hours before bed or switch them to ambient/night mode. Research has shown that evening blue light:
Delays sleep
Pushes your internal clock later
Makes it harder for your core temperature to drop
Use blue light in the morning
Early morning blue light can shift your circadian rhythm earlier and strengthen your natural wake‑up signal. You can find blue‑light therapy lamps at most major retail stores including pharmacies, department stores, and online shops.
A bedtime yoga routine improves sleep quality by reducing stress and anxiety. Techniques like deep breathing and restorative postures calm the nervous system. Studies show practising gentle yoga helps individuals sleep longer and wake up less during the night.
Many adults struggle with fragmented sleep or insomnia, often turning to medications for relief. However, health experts suggest a much more natural approach. Practising gentle yoga before bed calms the nervous system and prepares the body for rest. Scientific data shows that a consistent evening routine can significantly improve the duration and quality of your sleep.
Lowering stress and anxiety before bed
Modern medicine often focuses on treating insomnia symptoms rather than addressing the underlying causes, such as chronic stress. Yoga facilitates sleep by directly reducing stress, anxiety, and arousal, which are known causes of poor rest. A national survey reported that over 55 per cent of people who practice yoga found that it helped them get better sleep, while over 85 per cent said it helped reduce stress. The mindful breathing involved in the practice allows your brain to transition into a relaxed state, making it much easier to drift off.
Photograph: (Wikimedia Commons)
Improving sleep duration and quality
Committing to an evening routine offers long-term benefits over taking sleep medications. A study monitoring a 30-minute evening breathing and meditation practice found that, after eight weeks, participants slept an average of 36 minutes longer each night. The researchers also noted that participants woke up less frequently during the night, improving their overall sleep quality by 11 per cent. According to recent findings by Johns Hopkins Medicine, practising yoga daily can reduce insomnia, helping individuals get into the right mindset to fall asleep and stay asleep.
3 simple postures for better rest
You do not need to be flexible or engage in complicated movements to see results. Hatha or restorative yoga styles are best for pre-sleep routines. Try these three basic movements before getting into bed:
Legs up the wall (Viparita Karani): Lie flat on your back and rest your extended legs straight up against a wall. This simple pose helps recirculate your blood flow. Hold the pose and breathe deeply for one or two minutes.
Child's pose (Balasana): Kneel on the floor, bring your big toes together, and sink your torso onto your thighs. This posture releases shoulder tension and provides a sense of calm and stability.
Corpse pose (Savasana): Lie completely flat on your back with your arms and legs straight. Focus entirely on taking slow, even breaths until you feel completely relaxed from head to toe.
Taking drugs to help you sleep is not a reliable long-term solution. By dedicating a few minutes to mindful breathing and restorative poses, you train your mind and body to relax naturally. This gentle evening habit ensures you wake up feeling genuinely rested and prepared for the day ahead.
Sleep experts explain what sleep hygiene really means—and how small changes to your routine and environment can lead to better rest and better health
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Sleep hygiene is about daily habits and bedroom environment—not just how long you sleep.
Consistent bedtimes, limiting screens, and reserving your bed for sleep can dramatically improve sleep quality.
Small, gradual changes to your routine are more effective than overhauling everything at once.
When we think of having good hygiene, our first thoughts go to showering daily, flossing and brushing our teeth, and wearing clean clothes. Sleep hygiene, however, is a little bit different from the typical grooming and cleanliness of everyday hygiene. In other words, it has nothing to do with washing your sheets (which you should be doing weekly and is also very important!).
What Is Sleep Hygiene?
Credit:
Emmanuel Faure/Getty Images
Sleep hygiene refers to a general set of practices, habits, and strategies aimed at promoting good quality sleep and preventing sleep problems, says licensed psychologist Luke Allen, PhD. “These practices include both behavioural and environmental factors that can impact sleep quality,” he explains.
How exactly does sleep hygiene work, and what actionable steps can you take to have better sleep hygiene, and therefore better nightly rest? Here’s what sleep experts have to say about what sleep hygiene actually means, and how to develop and maintain healthy sleep habits for life.
Why Sleep Hygiene Matters
Since we spend one-third of our lives sleeping (or attempting to do so), the steps we take to promote good, restorative rest are essential to overall wellness. “Up to one in three Americans experience insomnia at some point each year, and a third of them suffer on a nightly basis,” says Robert Satriale, MD, FAASM, a sleep medicine specialist at Temple University. “Good sleep habits are known to improve sleep quality, and sleep quality is important in regulation of blood pressure, maintaining cognitive function and control of blood sugar.”
Plus, Dr. Satriale says that getting good sleep reduces chronic pain and even risk of cancer. That’s why Allen believes sleep hygiene isn’t just about sleep. “I emphasize the importance of good sleep hygiene to virtually every client I work with,” he says. “It’s fundamental to physical and mental health.”
Allen also says good sleep hygiene can make it much easier to fall asleep when you want to, and can help your body (and brain) learn how to associate your bed with sleep.
What Poor Sleep Hygiene Looks Like
Unfortunately, there seem to be more ways to have poor sleep hygiene than good sleep hygiene sometimes. Consuming caffeine or other stimulants before bed, sleeping in an uncomfortable or hot environment, having an irregular sleep schedule (going to bed and waking up at different times each day), working in bed, and eating heavy meals before bedtime are also considered poor sleep hygiene, Allen says. Even foods like chocolate, some sodas, and teas contain hidden caffeine. Spicy foods can exacerbate upper gastrointestinal discomfort; and high-fat, sugar-filled foods can disrupt sleep as well.
Having devices that emit blue light in your bedroom, like smartphones, laptops, tablets, and e-readers, can disrupt your sleep cycle and are arguably the biggest culprits behind poor sleep hygiene.
“Many adults may not consider the consequences of staying up late to watch a few extra episodes of a TV show, or indulging in a midnight snack or extra glass of wine, but these habits significantly detract from overall sleep quality,” says Dr. Satriale. “Falling asleep with the television on is another bad sleep habit, as studies show that even low levels of light and intermittent noise contribute to poor quality of sleep.”
And as great as it feels to sleep in, it’s another driving factor in poor sleep hygiene. “Sleeping in may seem like a privilege adults have earned, but our circadian rhythms become too fragile to tolerate such extravagances, making this poor sleep habit loaded with unfortunate consequences,” he says.
What Good Sleep Hygiene Looks Like
There are some widely agreed upon practices, habits, and strategies for following good sleep hygiene. The biggest guiding principle is to only use your bed for the three “S’s”: sleep, sickness, or sex.
This means habits like eating, working, texting/scrolling, and watching TV should be done anywhere but your bed (the living room couch or kitchen table are much better choices). “The more you do other things [besides sleep] in bed, the harder it is for your body to associate bed with sleep,” Allen says. “In fact, most mental health professionals I know do not keep a TV in their bedrooms.”
In addition to practicing the three “S’s”, the number one thing you can do for good sleep hygiene is to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day of the week, according to Allen.
“You can receive the biggest return on investment by adopting this strategy,” he says. “If there are days you go to bed late or get little sleep, continuing to wake up at the same time every day regardless will help maintain your sleep schedule, as your sleep drive will naturally build throughout the day.” This means the next night, you’ll want to go to bed at a reasonable time.
Other good sleep hygiene habits include avoiding taking too many naps, especially long ones or too late in the afternoon (which can make it harder to sleep at night), getting regular exercise during the day, get some natural light as soon as you can after waking up, daytime exercising and trying relaxing activities before bed, like bedtime yoga or taking a warm bath (which has been scientifically proven to help you get to sleep more quickly).
Allen also recommends investing in high-quality products that help you sleep well (everyone needs different things). “We spend a third of our life sleeping, so it’s wise to invest in a comfortable sleep environment that’s cool, dark, and quiet.” This includes comfortable bedding and pillows, maybe cooling bedding for hot sleepers, solid shades to block light, good earplugs or a sound machine for those with noisy neighbours.
How to Improve Your Sleep Hygiene
Worried you have less-than-stellar sleep hygiene? Don’t worry. Like any habit you’re trying to break and/or adopt, you can always turn things around with a little practice and patience. The key, Allen explains, is taking baby steps, especially if you’re used to, say, watching TV in bed or even snacking in bed.
“Trying to make drastic changes to one’s sleep routine all at once can be challenging and overwhelming,” he says, “which can lead to frustration or giving up on the goal.” Instead, use a slow-and-steady approach to create change. Once you’ve started breaking these behaviours, you can then replace them with new, sleep-promoting habits.
A great place to start? Choose one or two of your subpar sleep habits to work on. For example, if you always watch TV before bed, try turning it off 20 or 30 minutes earlier and opening up a book to read a few pages before lights-out. Once you’re used to cracking open a book as the last thing you do before bed, start turning the TV off a little bit earlier, and a little bit earlier, gradually. Do you drink caffeinated tea in the evenings or soda with dinner? Switch to more soothing, caffeine-free options—or just hit the water instead.
“One key to success is monitoring and logging your progress daily,” Allen recommends. “You can use a habit tracker app, an Excel spreadsheet, or notes on your phone.”
Experts tell us why women with insomnia should be screened for upper airway resistance syndrome
[SINGAPORE] Despite getting sufficient hours of shut-eye every night, LT would wake up feeling tired and with a mild headache. During sleep, the 29-year-old software engineer would also grind her teeth.
She tried to improve her sleep by wearing mouth tape, nasal strips and has even had a masseter Botox injection, which delivered the drug into the large chewing muscle on the jaw to relieve clenching and teeth grinding, or bruxism.
But nothing worked until she saw a sleep specialist who diagnosed her with upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS).
Many are familiar with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), a medical condition in which the airway is completely blocked and breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.
But few are aware of UARS, a form of sleep disorder involving mild airway narrowing and micro-awakenings driven by extra breathing effort.
Dr Lee Chuen Peng, a pulmonologist, sleep physician and intensivist consultant at O2 Lung Centre and medical director of O2 SleepWell Laboratory, says: “Your brain notices the struggle and wakes you up just enough to fix it, over and over throughout the night.
“You rarely remember these wake-ups, but they stop you from getting a deep, restful sleep. Your oxygen level stays fine, and your airway never fully blocks – which is why it so often gets missed.”
Upper airway resistance syndrome is more common in women than men. PHOTO: PEXELS
Dr Leow Leong Chai, senior consultant at Singapore General Hospital’s Department of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine and director of its sleep centre, says UARS is much less common than OSA.
“Data from a local study showed the prevalence of moderate to severe OSA in about one in three adults,” he says. “UARS is thought to be about 10 times less common.”
While OSA patients are predominantly male in the ratio of three or four to one, UARS is about three times more prevalent in women. “Because it’s so often misdiagnosed or missed entirely, the real number is probably higher,” adds Dr Lee.
What’s going on?
Women with UARS are typically younger than the average OSA patient, slim or of average weight, and may have a smaller jaw or narrower airway.
They tend to grind their teeth, suffer from headaches and brain fog and may also be described as anxious, depressed, or having fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
In general, these patients – mostly women – feel very exhausted, says Dr Kenny Pang, who treated LT. He is an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist who focuses on sleep medicine and surgery at Asia Sleep Centre.
“The paradox is that while most of them are tired and exhausted, many have insomnia or sleeplessness.”
Dr Leow adds that not infrequently, these patients have sought medical attention before, and their symptoms have been dismissed as insomnia or stress-related.
The cause
The primary problem is nasal obstruction, says Dr Pang, whose UARS patients make up 20 to 25 per cent of his sleep practice.
The narrowing of the upper airway during sleep can have anatomical reasons such as facial structure, jaw positioning or a deviated nasal septum.
There may also be physiological causes, including the relaxation of throat muscles during sleep, inflammation or swelling of airway tissues, enlarged tonsils or adenoids and chronic nasal congestion.
Dr Kenny Pang of the Asia Sleep Centre says the primary problem behind UARS is nasal obstruction. He is pictured conducting a naso-endoscopy. PHOTO: ASIA SLEEP CENTRE
Unlike OSA patients – many of whom are able to sleep through pauses in breathing – UARS sufferers have low arousal thresholds. This means their brains detect even a little collapsing of their airways, causing them to bite down or clench their jaws, says Dr Pang.
This reflex mechanism keeps the upper airway muscles open, but leaves the patient with neckaches and headaches from biting down hard every night.
The patient also becomes tired and exhausted because of the broken sleep. “Moreover, because of the frequent biting and teeth grinding, the patient develops jaw joint problems,” he says, referring to the temporomandibular joint disorder.
The health risks
Unlike OSA, which carries a risk of hypertension, strokes, heart attacks and sudden death, UARS causes impairment to sleep quality, mood and daytime functioning, notes Dr Leow.
Sufferers are also at a higher risk of depression.
This is because chronic broken sleep feeds anxiety and low mood, says Dr Lee. The lack of deep sleep also robs the sufferer of the ability to consolidate memory, so thinking becomes foggy and slow.
Fragmented sleep also worsens other conditions, including pain, chronic fatigue andIBS.
In women, the health risks are amplified during perimenopause and menopause as hormone levels fall.
Drops in progesterone – which naturally helps keep the airway open and breathing steady – makes the throat more likely to narrow during sleep. A fall in oestrogen, which supports airway health and reduces inflammation, can also lead to nasal congestion and airway irritation, making snoring and breathing problems during sleep more likely.
Hot flushes and night sweats break sleep further, while the heart and blood vessel risks from poor sleep become more serious with age, says Dr Lee.
“A woman who was managing okay with UARS in her 30s may suddenly feel dramatically worse in her 40s and 50s, and no one connects it to her breathing.”
Indeed, Dr Leow points out that studies have shown a stark increase in prevalence of sleep disordered breathing – from snoring to UARS and OSA – after menopause.
“That’s why we must be vigilant about screening for this condition in women who present with poor sleep quality or insomnia, instead of blaming it on hormonal changes or stress.”
The diagnosis
The gold standard for diagnosing UARS is by having the patient undergo an overnight sleep study in a clinical setting that monitors and records physiological parameters to analyse sleep patterns, says Dr Leow.
In UARS patients, their Apnoea-Hypopnea Index – which measures the average number of breathing pauses (apnoeas) and shallow breathing events (hypopnoeas) in each hour of sleep – remain normal.
So sleep specialists look specifically for the tiny wake-up moments caused by increased breathing effort, called respiratory related arousals (RERAs).
“The key findings are normal oxygen levels all night and a low or normal standard breathing score, but repeated micro-arousals tied to breathing effort plus daytime symptoms such as exhaustion and brain fog,” says Dr Lee.
Dr Pang, however, has been using the WatchPat – a wristwatch-like sleep test used at home – to measure patients’ respiratory disturbance index (RDI). High RDI readings are indicative of high RERAs, which cause tiredness, sleep fragmentation and sleep disruption.
The treatment
To treat the condition, nasal airflow must be optimised, so any nasal congestion has to be dealt with first. “Then UARS can be treated with continuous positive airway pressure therapy, oral appliances or positional sleep therapy devices,” says Dr Leow.
At Dr Pang’s practice, antihistamines and nasal sprays are first prescribed to see if they relieve nasal congestion and allergies.
If they do not, he opens the nasal passage by performing nasal turbinates reduction – a procedure to shrink enlarged bony structures (turbinates) inside the nose – and straighten the septum if it is deviated. These were the surgeries LT underwent.
A dentist can also give the patient a splint or mouth guard to protect her teeth and temporomandibular joint and administer masseter Botox.
Properly treated, patients feel they can breathe so much better through their nose and have less bruxism.
“My sleep quality has improved significantly,” says LT. “Now, I wake up feeling refreshed and the headaches are gone.”
Women also commonly report their energy returning and are able to get through the day “without crashing”, says Dr Lee.
In addition, better sleep lifts their mood, improves their memory and leads to clearer thinking, fewer headaches, less pain and calmer digestion.
“For many women, just getting the diagnosis after years of being dismissed is a turning point,” he says. “Treatment gives them their life back.”
