In most households, there’s a struggle- or at least a friendly debate- over thermostat settings. One person may enjoy comfortable temperatures year-round, while another just wants to save money on utility bills. The temperature at which you decide to set your thermostat during the day is a matter of personal preference, but experts agree on how it should be set when you go to bed at night. So what do they say is the best temperature for sleep?

The short answer: somewhere between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping your room in this temperature range will help you stay asleep, while raising or lowering the temperature can cause your sleep quality to suffer. You may be restless or even wake in the middle of the night. In fact, researchers have found that on hot summer nights, people tend to experience abnormal sleeping patterns.

What’s the science behind keeping your room at a cave-like cool temperature? It has to do with your body’s circadian rhythm, the shifting of your internal body temperature over the course of a 24-hour period. Around the time you go to bed, your body starts to cool itself down, and body temperature continues this downward movement until around 5 a.m. when It reaches its low point. It does this by expanding the blood vessels in your skin, so you might notice that your hands and feet tend to get warm at night. This is because your extremities release heat to reduce the temperature at your core. If your room is cool and you still can’t sleep, consider wearing socks or placing a hot water bottle at your feet. These measures may seem counter intuitive, but they can help regulate your body temperature by dilating your blood vessels more quickly.

Is 60-67 the ideal temperature for all people? Not quite. Babies and toddlers should sleep in slightly warmer rooms, between 65 and 70 degrees. This is because babies can’t regulate their body temperatures as well as adults, and they shouldn’t be sleeping with covers because this raises their risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). And while it’s good to keep babies a little bit warmer than adults, perhaps by using a sleep sack, it’s important not to overheat them, because this can also raise the SIDs risk.

Keeping your bedroom cool and comfortable is just one of the ways you can create the perfect sleep environment. If you need new furniture to make that environment a reality, you owe it to yourself to check out Mancini's Sleepworld. Since 1969, the Mancini family has owned and operated their store in Sunnyvale, CA, selling brand name mattresses at fair prices and treating every customer with respect. Beginning an expansion in 1989, the Mancini's now have 33 locations across the greater bay area, allowing for same-day mattress delivery in most cases. To learn more about Mancini's Sleepworld, contact us through our website or call 800-647-5337.