All of these mechanisms are important as you get ready for bed and ease into the different stages of sleep. You may have experienced this shift in temperature before. For example, whenever you feel cold in bed and putting socks on makes you feel a bit warmer, that’s because a lot of heat loss occurs through our extremities — hands and feet. Thus, covering them will help make you feel warmer. Conversely, when you feel warm under the covers but don’t want to fully kick off the blanket, sticking your feet out from under the blanket may be the heat relief you need to be able to fall asleep.
Temperature and sleep
Throughout human evolution, temperature has been a strong cue for sleep and wake time. It serves as a so-called “zeitgeber” or time-giver, which is an external cue influencing our circadian rhythm. When researchers looked at sleep in three geographically distinct pre-industrial societies, they found that subjects fell asleep just as the external temperature began to drop and continued as temperatures declined. Similarly, waking up often occurred before sunrise when the ambient temperature was at its lowest and corresponded with the narrowing of blood vessels, or vasoconstriction, as indicated by the temperature of the fingers.
Additionally, thermoregulation and temperature impact the different stages of sleep. It’s been found that about two hours before sleep onset, your core body temperature begins to drop and reaches its lowest point during slow-wave sleep. Additionally, the temperature in the brain also slightly decreases at this time.
Our core body temperature hovers around 98.6 °F (37 °C) but fluctuates by about two degrees Fahrenheit during the night.
Decrease in one’s core body temperature during sleep stems from reducing our metabolic output, decreased muscle tone, and decreased sympathetic tone from vasodilation leading to heat loss distally.Valerie Cacho, MD, Integrative Sleep Physician, and Women’s sleep expert
According to Dr. Cacho, while melatonin is most often associated with light exposure, a cool room and the drop in body temperature can also help to increase the production of this “sleep hormone.”
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