A world-renowned sleep expert has shared the exact temperature he has his bedroom at night to best enable him to fall into a deep sleep. Neuroscientist and speaker Dr Matt Walker spoke to Chrissy Teigen this week for her Self-Conscious podcast.
Part of their conversation saw Dr Walker explain: “I make my room like a cave. It is dark, it is quiet, and it is cold.” Chrissy replied: “Wait, that’s interesting, I always thought warm would a nice, deeper sleep”.
Dr Walker said that he keeps his bedroom at around 67F, or just over 19C, as he continued: “It’s actually the opposite. You need to create that cool environment because your body needs to drop its core temperature by about two to three degrees Fahrenheit to fall asleep and stay asleep.
“If it’s too cold, not great either, but you will still fall asleep faster in a room that’s too cold. Why? Because it’s moving your body in the right temperature direction for good sleep.”
In a previous interview with Dr Chris Kesser, Dr Walker further explained that the 67F mark is “about optimal for most people”, adding: “You can play around with it, but it’s a lot colder than most people think”.
The expert continued: “If you get cold hands and feet, actually prevent yourself from falling asleep, because the way it works is that your hands and your feet radiate heat from your body. And you actually need to expel the temperature from the core of your body. How do you do that? Well, your hands and your feet are wonderful peripheral radiators of heat.
“And this is the reason why when you get into a hot bath or a shower, you think that you sleep better. It’s actually not because you’re coming out nice and toasty.
“It’s because in the bath, you get massive vasodilation. All of the blood comes to the surface, you get rosy cheeks. That when you get out of the bath means that you have this enormous thermal dissipation of heat from the core of your body, which drops your core body temperature, and that’s why you fall asleep easier.”