It’s the hot time of the year, which means you may find yourself tossing and turning at night. CPAP Central would like to offer some tips on getting a good rest sleep no matter how hot it gets this summer:
- Keep the house from heating up during the day by keeping the house dark during the day. Close your blinds and pull your curtains or drapes in the morning and leave them closed during the heat of the day, especially on south and west sides of the house. Look into lined curtains that are built to keep light and heat out. Before drapes were decorative, they were used to keep heat in during the winter and out during the summer months. This will help you from having to run the air conditioning as much during the day too.
- Keep windows closed. Letting in the hot, moist air of an open window will heat your house. A hot breeze is not a good breeze.
- Change your sheets. Choose breathable cotton sheets for the best feeling of coolness. Look for a higher thread count and replace bedding that has worn too thin. Cotton will feel cooler against your skin and keep you from sweating as you sleep.
- Lose the big, fluffy pillows. Think about it; when most of your head is surrounded in a pillow, your head will be hot and you can only flip to the cool side of the pillow so many times!
- Run the air conditioning when you sleep. You won’t need to set it as cool as you would when you are awake and moving around because our bodies are more susceptible to feeling cold when we are asleep.
If you use a CPAP machine from CPAP Central the rest of the year, keep using it in the summer. If your device has a humidifier, continue to use it. It may be humid outside, but you need to worry about the humidity on the INSIDE of the house. Remember, sleep apnea doesn’t look at a calendar.