Waking up in the morning to find your pillow soaked with sweat is customary in some circumstances. Mainly if the room’s ambient temperature is high, it’s always worth adjusting the room temperature to a level conducive to better sleep and a night of cooler sleep.
The optimal sleep temperature for a bedroom is around 18 degrees centigrade, give or take a degree or two. Of course, if you find yourself cold in bed, you can always increase your comfort range.
Our body, when functioning correctly, changes temperature through the day and certain stages through REM sleep. On average, the body regulates heat by around two to three degrees through the night, and your body clock makes the adjustments automatically.
Does The Body Temperature of Men and Women Vary?
Some things can vary a female’s body temperature that you should be aware of. Contraceptives pills can change the temperature balance due to hormones being adjusted within the specifications of the medication.
Women in later years approaching menopause are susceptible to hot flushes. Again this is hormone levels changing in the body. At certain times profuse sweating can be experienced and is considered in the normal range for menopausal females.
What Causes Sweating
If your body becomes overheated by internal factors such as an infection, then you may develop a fever, the body’s natural way to fight the infection.
When your body overheats, blood surges to your extremities and the smaller blood capillaries, giving a flush experience. You will sweat as the natural part of your body’s cooling mechanism.
Other Factors For Sweating Through The Night
If you are sleeping on a material that does not breathe and allows for air movement or wicking of the sweat, you will wake with a sweaty head and a wet pillow.
It is almost like trying to sleep on a plastic bag. You would quickly notice the sweat increasing without breathable material.
Check your bed linen and make the necessary changes for a sweat-free night.
There are external factors that you may not have even considered when waking with a wet pillow.
Stress can be a significant contributor to the amount you are sweating at night.
It is interesting to understand that some of us are not sweating more at night. We sweat at the same rate, but we don’t notice the sweat during the typical working day due to ventilation.
Of course, the situation changes when you rest for the night: less ventilation and sweat build-up over the sleeping hours.
Medical Reasons For Sweating Through The night
There are many reasons you could be experiencing excessive perspiration through the night. Some of the reasons may have more sinister characteristics behind them.
Diabetes can cause the body to have an elevated temperature. If you think you may have diabetes, it is advisable to consult with your GP to verify your symptoms and take the appropriate action.
If you are taking drugs for depression, you may be feeling hotter than usual. Again you should seek medical advice if you are concerned.
There are so many medical conditions that can raise your body temperature, from high blood pressure to heart attack and many, many more. If you are worried, you may have a medical condition consult your doctor.
How to Regulate the Temperature of Your Bed
Assuming you are in good health, there are several ways to regulate the temperature of your bedroom and bed.
Changing the temperature of your room is the easy part. Reduce the thermostat settings to a lower sub-twenty-degree setting; you will notice how you sleep faster and better from the very next time you sleep.
It becomes a little more tricky with regulating your bed and pillow temperature.
If your pillow is old, ditch it. It’s time to move into the age of modern pillow technology. There will be a pillow for you. Pillows should breathe and be made from quality materials. If your night sweat is severe, you can look at purchasing a pillow with cooling gel technology.
Cooling gel is interspersed with memory foam to give you a cool night’s sleep. The cooling gel technology disperses your heat and provides you with a cool pillow that will allow you to sleep without waking in a puddle every morning.
Bed Linen and pillow Cases
It goes without saying if you invest in a pillow that will keep you cool when beneficial and provide its best performance if covered in a fabric suitable. Such as a quality breathable pillowcase made from cotton.
In conjunction with your new pillow and pillowcases, make your bed cooler.
If you sleep on memory foam, you will have noticed they tend to retain the heat more than a traditional style bed.
However, all is not lost. If your memory foam mattress is on a solid base, change it. If you can place your memory foam mattress on a slatted base, the mattress will draw air from the base giving a cooler sleep.
Hybrid mattresses work well, increasing airflow; the air flows perfectly around the hybrid bed, drawing heat away from the user using simple technologies.
If your mattress is old and compressed, consider using a foam mattress topper to increase the overall satisfaction of your sleeping experience with comfort designed into the materials.
Lifestyle Changes
One of the reasons you may be struggling with overheating is that your lifestyle is a contributing factor.
Don’t eat spicy food before going to bed. Alcohol will increase the amount you sweat through the night, and you will have less quality sleep.
Conclusion
If your health is not contributing to perspiring through the night, the fixes are relatively easy to put in place.
Dropping the room temperature combined with a decent breathable cooling pillow with good bed linen should do the trick, allowing for a great night’s sleep and reducing the heating bills.