As the UK experiences its chilliest nights in over ten years, many of us are burrowing under the duvet, desperately seeking warmth before drifting off to sleep. However, in our quest for warmth, we may inadvertently overheat, leading to a relentless cycle of feeling too hot and then too cold.
Sleep expert Rex Isap from Happy Beds has shed new light on this issue, offering advice on how to achieve the perfect night’s sleep. Heated mattresses have been gaining popularity, according to the sleep guru, but it’s crucial to use them correctly to reap their full benefits.
Rex elaborated: “They provide consistent warmth but prolonged use can interfere with deeper sleep stages like rapid eye movement (REM) and slow-wave sleep, which are vital for restoration. During REM sleep, the body’s temperature regulation is naturally suppressed, making it more sensitive to external heat. If a heated mattress is too warm, it can disrupt this delicate balance, potentially shortening or fragmenting the REM phase.”
Read more: Taskmaster star’s health battle
Rather than keeping your heated mattress on when you climb into bed, Rex suggested that it should only be used to warm up your bed, not to sleep with. He advised: “To avoid overheating, use these to pre-warm your bed and then switch them off before you fall asleep. This ensures a cosy start to the night without compromising sleep quality.”
Similarly, people should adopt the same strategy with a hot water bottle, using them solely to warm up beds and not to sleep with.
Rex added: “Sleeping with a hot water bot Using a hot water bottle can actually be dangerous. Prolonged skin contact can lead to irritation and if you accidentally roll onto it, the bottle could burst causing burns.”
A safer approach is to use the bottle to warm your bed before sleep, and remove it before lying down.
If your hot water bottle is over two years old, it is more prone to bursting.
“Check the daisy wheel, a small circular marking on the bottle with a number in the centre representing the year it was made and segments around it for the month to confirm its manufacturing date and ensure safety.”
Once your bed is nice and warm, Red advised people to invest in a weighted blanket and a SAD lamp to enhance their sleep.