While winter officially doesn’t start for a few more days, parts of Australia are incredibly chilly at the moment.
A poll of nearly 3,500 Yahoo Lifestyle readers found that 84 per cent will use their heaters this winter, with many located in the bedroom.
But Aussies have been warned not to turn up the temperature too high, otherwise it can affect their sleep and make the following day much worse.
Healthylife sleep expert Dr Moira Junge told Yahoo Lifestyle that as you get close to bedtime, your core body temperature will start to drop, which helps produce melatonin, a vital hormone that aids sleep.
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But if you get into a bedroom that’s sitting at 25 degrees, and you hop under the blankets dressed in cosy pyjamas, you could ward off that sleepy hormone and struggle to nod off.
“You want to keep your bedroom in the 17 to 19 degrees range, so your heater should reflect that,” Dr Junge said.
Common winter heater ‘trap’ that prevents sleep
The expert, who is also the CEO of the Sleep Health Foundation, said it’s a common “trap” Aussies fall into during winter, as they want to keep their bedrooms as warm as possible.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to turn the heater on the highest setting and make it feel almost like summer is back.
“But the quality of the sleep is not going to be great,” Dr Junge said.
“It’s a bit like if you were too full, or you had too much alcohol.
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“Your body is not going to go through the normal physiological states that it’s meant to, and the different sleep stages will be disrupted.
“If you’re too hot, you’re going to be probably more restless. You’re probably tossing and turning, and sweating.
“There’s just that general disruption that will affect the quality of the sleep.”
You might not even need a heater this winter
Dr Junge said if your heater has a temperature gauge on it, then keep it in that Goldilocks range of 17 to 19 degrees.
If it doesn’t, make a decision on whether you absolutely need the heater once you get into bed.
“Once you’re under the doona, your body temperature warms up as the blanket traps the air underneath, so we don’t need the whole room to be hot as well,” she said.
You could be preventing yourself from nodding off by wearing too much and having your heater on this winter.
(Anna Shcherbinina via Getty Images)
This also applies to electric blankets, and you should aim to have one that will eventually switch off rather than stay on the whole night.
A whopping 38 per cent of Australians aren’t satisfied with the amount of sleep that they’re getting, according to the Sleep Society.
Almost 60 per cent experience issues such as trouble falling asleep, or waking up too early and not being able to fall back asleep at least three to four times a week.
Can being too cold stop you from going to sleep?
Dr Junge said being too cold doesn’t affect the body as much as being too hot, but shivering can raise your cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone, and that can prevent you from nodding off.
But most of the time, you’ll eventually warm up once you’re under the blankets.
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