When winter arrives, many of us instinctively turn up the heating and pile on blankets to stay warm. However, this cozy routine might be undermining your ability to get restful sleep.
Dr Gareth Nye, a biomedical science lecturer at the University of Salford, teamed up with Pretty You London, a sleepwear brand, to explore how winter conditions affect sleep patterns. Their findings highlight a surprisingly common mistake: overheating the bedroom.
While it seems natural to keep your room warm against the biting cold, raising the thermostat too much can interfere with your body’s natural sleep rhythm. Dr Nye explains that a key part of falling asleep involves lowering your core body temperature. Cooler bedroom temperatures generally promote better sleep, but rapid temperature drops can sometimes cause discomfort and shivering, which disrupts rest.
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“Overheated bedrooms prevent the body from cooling down properly,” says Dr Nye. “This hampers the natural temperature drop your brain relies on to signal sleep.” The result? Tossing and turning or waking in the middle of the night feeling too hot.
But freezing isn’t the answer either. Phoebe Street, sleep specialist and marketing manager at Pretty You London, advises keeping the bedroom cool—ideally between 16 to 18 degrees Celsius—while focusing on warming the bed itself. Using a hot water bottle briefly before bed, wearing breathable, long pyjamas, and opting for lighter layers of bedding can create the perfect balance.
Dr Nye also highlights the role of warm extremities in sleep quality. “Warming your feet helps dilate blood vessels, which promotes heat release from your core and kickstarts the sleep process,” he notes. Supporting this, a 2018 study found that people who wore socks to bed fell asleep faster, slept longer, and woke less frequently than those who didn’t.
The key is to wear loose, natural fiber socks that won’t restrict circulation, as tight socks can have the opposite effect.
In short, to improve your winter sleep, keep your bedroom cool, warm your bed selectively, and consider warming your feet to help your body naturally prepare for restorative rest.