Optimal Internal Temp=Optimal Sleep

To sleep "like a baby," your child needs to have her internal temp at the optimal for her temperature. How your child is dressed at night will have a strong impact on how well your child sleeps at night. If your child is too cold, your child will wake up frequently. If your child is too hot, your child will wake up frequently. Just like Goldilocks with her three bears, there is a "just right." Being too hot or cold can lead to not only poor sleep, but nightmares and night terrors. Your goal as a parent is to find what is just right for each of your children.

Some children like to be warmer than others, just like some adults like to be warmer than others when sleeping. Your child's preferences for how to be dressed for sleep at night can change with the seasons, age, weight, and probably the wind. Here are some key things to pay attention to:

• Socks: In general, when the weather is colder outside, your child will sleep better with socks on the feet. However, some people just hate sleeping with socks on. I have a sock-hating child. This child hated socks even as a newborn. I got lots of passive-aggressive comments from the older people in her life about her lack of socks (even though it was 80 plus degrees outside). If your child likes to sleep without socks, hold strong and true and ignore the back-seat parenters.
  
  In warmer weather, your child may or may not need to sleep with socks. I love to sleep with socks, but I have a couple of months a year (the hottest ones) where I need to go no socks. 
• Sleeve Length: In cooler weather, long sleeves is usually a good idea. In cooler weather, short sleeves is a good idea. If your child does not sleep with blankets, or kicks blankets off, long sleeves might be best even in warmer weather.
• Pants Length: I am sure you are seeing a trend already. In cooler weather, longer pants. In cooler weather, shorts are great. If your child sleeps with a blanket, shorts might be okay even in cooler weather. If your child does not sleep with a blanket or kicks it off, long pants might be best even in summer.
• Layers: Your child might need to sleep with layers. In colder weather, I find babies need to sleep in layers unless the room is very warm. My babies sleep with socks, a onesie, and footed pajamas or a sleep sack.

I find the main keys to a warm enough child are:

• Warm feet.
• Warm arms.
• Warm "trunk"--this is your child's belly.

There are other considerations for warmth at night:

• Blanket Use: Figure if and how many blankets to use for your child. For babies, I don't use blankets. They squirm around too much for the blanket to stay on. That is why I go for the layers as I described above. Sometime as a 2-3 year old, children usually can sleep most if not all of the night with a blanket on if needed. 
• Number of Blankets: Use your common sense here. If the room is warm, a light blanket or even just a flat sheet might be enough. If the room is cool, your child will need warmer blankets. Our children add blankets to the bed in the winter and remove those extras at some point in the spring. 
• Location of Bedroom: Different rooms in the house are warmer than others. Basement rooms are cooler than second story rooms. Rooms in older homes are usually closer to the outside temperature, especially rooms that are close to the roof. Rooms that are on the West side of the house are warmer at sunset than rooms on the East side, which are warmer in the mornings. 
• Temperature of Room: The temperature of the room at night impacts how well you sleep. Sleep experts typically range the "ideal" from about 65-75 degrees. Some take it down to 60-70 degrees. You can use fans to cool things off. You can open windows to cool things off until your child goes to sleep. You can use blinds or curtains to block the sun from making the room too hot. You can use a space heater to warm the room up before your child goes to bed. You can keep your home thermostat set at the ideal for your child. You can open or close heater vents as needed. My children sleep with doors closed for a variety of reasons (including fire safety and sound barrier). One benefit is that the temperature of the room seems to stay more constant. Closets are often cold, so if it is colder in your child's room, keep the closet door shut. 

All of these things can be applied to you and your spouse, also. These things impact sleep of everyone. It is definitely worth taking note of these things in your child and yourself for optimal sleep for everyone. 

See Also:

• Dressing Baby for Sleeping

• Can it be too hot to sleep?

• Some Like it Hot (Sleep, that is)

• Merino Sleep Sack Review

• Regulatory Sleep Systems

Can it be too hot to sleep?

"Please don't blame [poor sleep on] changes in the weather--it is never too hot or too cold to sleep well" (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, page 226).

So I am reading along through HSHHC and come across this line--and I am totally surprised. I obviously have a strong disagreement with this statement--just read my post Some Like it Hot--Sleep That Is. I kind of think most people would agree with me--I think most of us have been either too hot or too cold at least one night of our lives and we didn't sleep well that night. In most post linked above, I included this info:

"Experts agree the temperature of your sleeping area and how comfortable you feel in it affect how well and how long you snooze. Why? “When you go to sleep, your set point for body temperature -- the temperature your brain is trying to achieve -- goes down,” says H. Craig Heller, PhD, professor of biology at Stanford University, who wrote a chapter on temperature and sleep for a medical textbook. “Think of it as the internal thermostat.” If it’s too cold, as in Roy’s case, or too hot, the body struggles to achieve this set point. 

That mild drop in body temperature induces sleep. Generally, Heller says, “if you are in a cooler [rather than too-warm] room, it is easier for that to happen.” But if the room becomes uncomfortably hot or cold, you are more likely to wake up, says Ralph Downey III, PhD, chief of sleep medicine at Loma Linda University..." (source)

Now, I think Weissbluth is a sleep expert--no doubt. So then I think, why would he make such a statement? I think the answer lies in the context of the statement. In this section of the book, he is talking about the importance of not overstimulating a child (which he defines as keep up too long). He is cautioning parents not to keep baby up too long and if you do, baby won't sleep well. He then makes his statement to not blame the temperature. I think (my interpretation) what he is trying to impress is the importance of waketime length and to not fall into a trap of blaming what isn't at fault. He does make several of contradictory statements throughout the book (like, Never wake a sleeping baby versus wake baby if needed to preserve future naps), so he will make a strong statement in order to make a point without using qualifiers and caveats. My assumption is that this statement falls into that category.

I think temperature is very important to consider for good sleep. We need to be dressed appropriately for the temperature in the room. As things have warmed up this summer, we have had to remove several of Brayden's blankets he loved to sleep with during the winter. When he gets too hot, he has night terrors. You obviously aren't sleeping well during a night terror.

In the end, despite this one-liner in this book I respect, I still stand by my belief that temperature is an important factor to consider with good sleep.

Finding the Right Temperature for Sleep

My children amuse me. I know everyone is amused by their own children. Children are like most people--incredibly quirky. My children are no different, and I find quirks both fascinating and amusing.

Brayden does not mind being cold. He is bewildered when his friends want to go inside after playing in the snow for two hours. Even as a pre-toddler, he did not want to wear a coat out in the brisk fall weather. He just doesn't mind it.

Kaitlyn does not like to be cold. Unless incredible fun is happening, she is done in the snow after 30 minutes. She especially does not like to have wind blowing on her. Spring is not a fun time due to the wind issues.

McKenna is like Brayden--she does not mind the cold. She will play outside in the snow forever. Brayden is lucky to have her.

That isn't the quirky part. Here comes the quirky part.

Brayden (6 years old) does not like to be cold when he sleeps. He currently sleeps in a sweatshirt, flannel pajama bottoms, and socks. He wears a child-sized snuggie that his grandmother gave him for Christmas. Then he has his sheet, a comforter, a heavy afaghan, his baby quilt I made him, two fleece blankets, and a couple small cotton blankets thrown on top. His room is kept at 70 degrees. Not kidding.

Kaitlyn (4 years old) loves to be cold when she sleeps. She has the coldest bedroom in the house. She currently sleeps in a flimsy nightgown meant for warm summer nights and hates to sleep in socks. She sleeps with a sheet, comforter, and a couple of fleece blankets because I think she must be freezing, not because she wants them. 

McKenna (2 years old) also does not like to be cold when she sleeps. She sleeps in warm pajamas and socks. She has the warmest bedroom in the house. She has more blankets than I can count and she knows if I try to remove some. And she knows which ones I have removed. If she wakes from a nap and had bare arms (because she took off her cardigan because she was "too hot" during playtime), she wakes up crying. 

See? They are quirky. 

I share these quirks to illustrate that some children like to be warm when they sleep and others like to be on the cooler side. ALSO, it takes some observation to know what they each like--it isn't always what you might assume.

How Do You Know?
I know this is an annoying answer for some people, but for me, I just knew. I could tell Brayden liked to sleep warmer as a baby. When Kaitlyn came along, I quickly figured out she liked to be cooler (and I got many lectures from certain relatives about her lack of socks--she hated socks as a four week old and still hates socks as a four year old and I feel so vindicated as a mother!).

The best advice I can give you is to pay attention. You need to notice patterns. You might need to take notes to see these patterns, or you might be able to track it in your head. What did your child wear to sleep in? What blankets, if any, were involved? What was the temperature in the room?

And with that information, how did your child sleep that night?

What Temperature is Best?
It seems most sleep experts agree somewhere between 65-70 degrees is best (though some go as low as 60 and high as 75). That really is a wide range, though. 60 feels very differently than 75. How do you tell what is best for your individual child? Once again, this is where the power of observation comes into play. You have your range to work with, now experiment and see what works best.

Why is temperature so important?

"Experts agree the temperature of your sleeping area and how comfortable you feel in it affect how well and how long you snooze. Why? “When you go to sleep, your set point for body temperature -- the temperature your brain is trying to achieve -- goes down,” says H. Craig Heller, PhD, professor of biology at Stanford University, who wrote a chapter on temperature and sleep for a medical textbook. “Think of it as the internal thermostat.” If it’s too cold, as in Roy’s case, or too hot, the body struggles to achieve this set point. 

That mild drop in body temperature induces sleep. Generally, Heller says, “if you are in a cooler [rather than too-warm] room, it is easier for that to happen.” But if the room becomes uncomfortably hot or cold, you are more likely to wake up, says Ralph Downey III, PhD, chief of sleep medicine at Loma Linda University..." (source)

Finding the perfect temperature gets tricky with the more people you add to the family.

I recommend you figure out what the lowest temperature needs to be. So in our family, my husband and Kaitlyn like to sleep in a cooler environment. So the thermostat is set to a cooler temperature for those two. Even in the winter, my husband sleeps with only a sheet and a light blanket. No socks.

Then the rest of us warm sleepers adjust our environment as needed. We all wear warmer PJs and all wear socks in the winter. We all have our layers of blankets. The children have space heaters in their rooms that have a thermostat.

So in your quest for good sleep in your family, do not underestimate the importance of temperature, pajamas, and blankets. It is a vital element in getting peaceful, continuous sleep. What is perfect for you will not automatically be perfect for anyone else in the home. Work to figure out the ideal for each person and figure out how to achieve that in your home. You will all be sleeping better if you do!


It’s Babywise Blog Network Week! All week, we’ll be featuring blog posts from other Babywise-friendly blogs. The schedule is as follows:

• Monday: Valerie Plowman, Chronicles of a Babywise Mom 
• Tuesday: Maureen Monfore, Childwise Chat
• Wednesday: Hank Osborne, Daddy Life 
• Thursday: Rachel Rowell, My Baby Sleep Guide
• Friday: Bethany Lynch, The Graceful Mom