Thanks to our changing climate, summer means three months of sticky, humid, scorching heat waves that much of our infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle. And even though it cools off a bit at night, falling asleep under a blanket of unrelenting heat is no easy task. 

If you have an air conditioning unit at home, you may not have a problem at all. But keeping it breezy all night long can be an expensive waste of energy, so you might want to get your bedroom comfortable with as little help from your AC as possible.

Why temperature is important for sleeping  

About two hours before bedtime, our body helps us go to sleep by dropping its temperature below the average 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Once we drift into dreamland, it cools another one to two degrees throughout the night so we can reach slow-wave sleep: a deeper stage of slumber that helps us feel fresh and rested in the morning.

When it's grossly hot outside, our body has a harder time getting our core temperature to drop as low as it needs to be, so we struggle to doze off. And even if we manage to fall asleep, we sleep poorly. To comfortably catch those coveted Z's, try to keep your room temperature between 60 and 67 degrees (15 and 20 degrees Celsius)—or as close as you can with the tools that you have. 

Before bedtime: Get your home ready 

The cooler you keep your home throughout the day, the easier it will be to hit that sleeping sweet spot at night. 

Keep the sunlight and heat out 

Close drapes and windows (especially those not facing north) during the hottest and brightest hours of the day. In the summer, this generally means the hours between 12 and 4:30 p.m., depending on your location and other weather conditions like wind and cloud cover. This will prevent heat from entering and getting trapped in your home.