
Australia is well-known and loved for its warm sun and balmy days, even during winter. While it’s great for the thriving beach culture, it can make sleeping at night difficult, especially for CPAP users.
When it’s hot, all we want to do is throw off all of our sheets, because lying in a bed can be sweaty and uncomfortable. Unfortunately, wearing a mask over your face doesn’t help matters, and can further prevent you from getting a restful night’s sleep.
For your CPAP therapy to be effective, it’s important to continue to use your machine every night, despite being tempted to leave the mask off when those temperatures start escalating. However, using your CPAP machine in hot weather is easier than you may think.
To assist you, we have compiled this blog to provide you with more information and some handy tips on managing your CPAP therapy to try to make you feel more comfortable throughout those warmer nights.
Temperature Impact on Sleep
Room and body temperature has a significant impact on our sleep, so getting this right is important, first and foremost.
Sleep consists of several stages1, with the first being where you transition from consciousness and into light sleep. During the following stages, the body’s core temperature generally needs to drop by about two to three degrees2 to reach the state of deep sleep. However, if our core temperature is too high, the brain cannot clearly differentiate the transition between the states of awake and sleep, which directly impacts how effectively we rest.
Surrounding temperature can affect our core temperature, meaning that how hot or cold your room is can have a direct influence.
In general, it has been found that around 16 to 18 degrees Celsius is ideal2,3, and that’s because this range is the most complementary to the cooler temperatures your core experiences during the middle of the night. The low temperatures ensure that your body doesn’t warm up earlier and therefore transition too quickly out of the deep sleep stages, thus promoting a more restful night.
Therefore, the ideal conditions for getting the best rest is when it’s dark, quiet and cool.
So, what do you do when it’s warm?