Circadian health expert and medical scientist Logan Pendergrast, Ph.D., explains how temperature and thermoregulation affect the body’s ability to reach deep, restorative sleep. He describes why cooler environments support healthier sleep architecture and what happens when the body overheats during rest.
This segment explores practical ways to create the right thermal conditions for sleep, from adjusting your environment to adopting simple bedtime habits. By understanding how body temperature interacts with sleep cycles, you can set yourself up for more consistent rest and recovery.
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We'll start here first with the most
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important and likely most alterable
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factor that influences our sleep and
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that is the light in our environment. So
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the exposure u to light in times when we
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are approaching sleep whether that's
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evening or whether that's during the day
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suppresses the release of melatonin and
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melatonin is a hormone that is
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responsible for preparing our body for
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sleep. So if we're exposed to the some
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of these common culprits like our
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smartphones or our video games, our
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television screens or even the overhead
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lights in the room, this will suppress
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that melatonin. It will make it more
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difficult for us to sleep. So in order
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to influence this, there are fortunately
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cheap options that we can implement.
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There are blackout curtains that can be
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purchased online that can be placed over
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top of windows to reduce the amount of
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light that's coming into the room far
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more effectively than for instance
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simple blinds which allow light to pass
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through them, street lights from
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outside, etc. And so these these
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blackout currents can be quite
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effective. There's also dimmable lamps.
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So if it's the case that we're reading
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in the evening uh in the room that we'll
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also be sleeping in or reading during
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the day in the room we'll also be
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sleeping in then we can dim the amount
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of brightness in these lamps uh so that
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we are reaching the amount of brightness
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that is below the amount that would keep
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our body awake. And in the same vein as
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this, there are also smart light bulbs
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that can be programmed to reduce the
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amount of brightness that they emit over
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the course of the day or over the course
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of the evening so that as you're
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reaching the time where you would go to
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sleep, you are exposed to less actual
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bright light. And one quick tip as well
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that we can utilize to improve the
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amount of light that's in our sleep
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environment or reduce the amount of
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light that's in our sleep environment is
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to swap the typical LED lighting that is
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in rooms and um insert some of these low
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lumen light bulbs. So there's 2700 K as
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this threshold that is considered to be
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low lumens and this should minimally
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disrupt the amount of light exposure
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that we are experiencing as we're
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approaching sleep and can help us
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preserve the function of our melatonin.
