Overheating at Night? These 6 Unexpected Factors Could Be the Reason

We are living through record heat waves right now. Not only is walking around in the heat uncomfortable, it’s difficult to sleep in. Especially for hot sleepers, this heat wave can be irritating. When your temperature rises, it disrupts your body’s thermoregulation process. In short, you toss and turn, and it’s difficult to become comfortable enough to fall asleep again.

If you’re a hot sleeper, chances are there’s something making you hotter at night, such as your mattress, pillow or even what you wear to bed. Here are six things to examine when you find yourself sleeping hot. 

6 things that make you especially hot at night

There are many things that affect your sleep quality. Let’s start with bedding.

Your pillow

Any aspect of your bedding, from your sheets to your pillows, can act as an insulator. If you have a pillow with thicker material or memory foam, it can raise your body’s temperature and result in you waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat.

When choosing your pillow, look for cooling pillows. How these work is they often contain perforated gel or foam, shredded poly foam or a material that doesn’t absorb your body heat. Instead, there’s usually a cooling cover or a cooling layer that disperses the heat away from you. You can also check our guide to the best pillows and find the right one for you.  

Your sheets

Bed sheets could also be the cause of you tossing and turning or waking up in a pool of sweat. When choosing your bed sheets, stay away from ones made of polyester or fleece — and be aware of thread counts, the higher the thread count, the warmer it can make you feel. 

Instead, opt for cooling sheets or ones made with breathable fabric. Cooling sheets, similar to cooling pillows, pull the heat away from you, dispersing it throughout. That way, you remain cool and comfortable. 

Your comforter

Hot sleepers should choose comforters made of cotton, silk or bamboo. Each of these offer natural breathability, so you don’t wake up drenched. You could also buy a cooling comforter that distributes the heat from your body evenly, allowing you to sleep well without overheating.  

What you wear to bed

You want to choose pajamas or other clothing with breathable fabrics. PJs constructed of cotton, linen, silk or lyocell can keep you cool by allowing your body heat to escape. 

Meanwhile, when the temperatures soar, you might feel the temptation to sleep with no clothes on. Doing so, however, means your body will sweat without any material to wipe it away, like you would with cooling PJs. So while sleeping in your birthday suit seems like a smart option, it can actually keep you warmer at night. 

Your partner

Having a partner or four-legged companion snuggle up to you can be divine — until the body heat combines to resemble a Florida afternoon in July. 

Here are some ways to keep your cool while getting your snuggle on: Have fans on each nightstand to keep each person cool. You can place the hottest sleeper next to the window, place fans on each nightstand to keep your cool, ensure everyone is properly hydrated before bed or ditch the larger comforter in lieu of two twin cooling comforters. 

Your mattress topper

Lastly, if you need added comfort but don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for a new mattress, consider a mattress topper. Cooling mattress toppers, like the Saatva Cooling Graphite Mattress Topper, offer you three inches of blissful foam. And the graphite layer pulls body heat from each sleeper, dispersing it evenly throughout. You gain comfortable nights of sleep without waking up in puddles, and your wallet can rest easy since you didn’t fork over a kidney for a new bed.