5 Mistakes You're Making When Trying to Sleep in the Heat — And What to Do Instead

A sleek modern hotel bedroom with large sash curtains in front of the balcony door and window, with the bed in front. .

Unless you live in a country or a state that boasts a warm climate all year round, it’s unlikely that your home has air conditioning. And that means that when a heatwave hits, it can make sleeping almost impossible, especially if you haven’t taken any precautions beforehand.

Naturalmat’s resident sleep expert, Christabel Majendie explains that “temperature is a significant influence on sleep. If the room is too hot, people often have trouble dropping off and get more fragmented sleep. To get to sleep, your core body temperature has to drop, and this coincides with a release of melatonin, the hormone that indicates to the body it's time for sleep. If the room is too hot, this process is interrupted.”