If your parent, friend, spouse, or roommate ever yelled at you for dropping down the thermostat to 60 degrees at night, you can enjoy the sweet pleasure of being right because science is on your side. Namely, it has been proven that sleeping in a cold room has some health benefits such as reducing insomnia and the risk of metabolic illness and lowering the stress hormone in your body.
According to Harvard Medical School, the human body drops its temperature before falling asleep. During sleep, the core temperature gets reduced by 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit as a way to save energy. Sleeping in a cold room, you will help your body drop to that temperature faster while at the same time helping yourself to fall asleep quicker.
Moreover, researchers from the US National Institute of Health discovered that people who sleep in cold rooms have increased their metabolism and their brown fat (which appears to be a good thing), and they have improved their sensitivity of insulin which is connected to a reduction of the risk of metabolic illness.
Even more so, the University of South Australia conducted a study that suggests the key to curing insomnia is lowering the room temperature. They found that people who struggle with insomnia actually have higher levels of body temperature at night and therefore they have difficulty falling asleep.
“Temperature regulation is a significant factor in each of the two types of insomnia. The difference is when the insomnia occurs,” said Dr. Cameron Van den Heuvel. “Studies of sleep onset insomniacs show that they consistently have a warmer core body temperature immediately before initiating sleep when compared with normal healthy adults.
This results in a state of heightened arousal that prevents them from falling asleep when they go to bed, probably because they have to wait for their bodies to lose the heat that’s keeping them awake. We’re only talking about a half to one degree but that small temperature change can result in significant differences in arousal between insomniacs and people without sleeping problems.”
There you go, now you have scientific reasons why you should keep the air conditioner on at 20 degrees Celsius. It is for everyone to have a good night sleep.
