Slept well? It is hardly if these last days, one still dares to ask the question to his neighbor or his work colleagues.
For almost two weeks, the inhabitants of the south-east of France have been stunned by an endless heat wave, with an exhausting cocktail: record-breaking mercury easily exceeding 30°C during the day and struggling to drop below 25°C at night.
Orange vigilance in the heat wave that will continue
Bad news, this observation should continue.
Météo France has maintained, for this Friday at least, the Côte d’Azur and the Var in orange vigilance at the heat wave.
Problem: Current temperatures are affecting our sleep and our ability to regulate our body temperature.
How are current temperatures disrupting our sleep?
A Danish study, published in May, demonstrated the impact of heat on the quality of our nights. Direct result? 14 minutes less sleep when it’s 30°C in our room.
And his conclusion is without appeal. By 2100, we might lose between 50 and 58 hours of sleep per person per year due to climate change.
Dr. Faredj Cherikh is a psychiatrist, head of the addictology department at the University Hospital of Nice and specialist in sleep abounds: “If we don’t sleep in summer as we usually sleep in winter, with a different sociability for example, several factors will disrupt the quality of sleep at this time”he explains.
“We will stay up later because we can’t sleep, because we can’t cool down our body”he illustrates, while this process is linked to drowsiness which leads to falling asleep. “All this leads to a phase shift”.
And for those who manage to get to sleep, the high nighttime temperatures, “and the tropical climate in which we are today”disrupt our nights in more ways than one.
“We sweat during the night and it wakes us up. This will decrease the periods of deep sleep”, the period when the muscles relax completely and the body goes into standby. Hence this feeling of fatigue on waking, and this feeling of not being rested, resulting in our mood, our attention.
What are the tips to adopt?
Also, the specialist recommends several tips related in particular to the preparation for falling asleep.
A preparation that is done almost throughout the day, with good hydration and a few small gesturesby closing the blinds or the shutters, by ventilating early in the morning and late in the evening, especially if one manages to create a current of air.
To these “common sense advice”he suggests others, which, if taken before a heat wave, allow the body to adapt more easily. “We have 15-day rhythms so that there is a real change”. But it’s not all too late.
There is food at the end of the day. “We will try to eat earlier in the evening, and lighter”just to not complicate his digestion.
If there is what we eat, there is also what we drink: “avoid stimulants such as coffee, tea, sodas but also drinks that are too cold”.
The specialist also advises to elevate his legs, on a cushion for example, to promote blood circulation and avoid the phenomenon of heavy legs.
What are the gestures to avoid?
The famous cold shower is a bad ideabanned Dr. Faredj Cherikh. “If it will refresh you immediately, it has a vasoconstrictor role”.
The heartbeat will speed up and the body will increase its temperature. In short, everything we want to avoid. We favor a lukewarm shower, without necessarily drying ourselves completely, so as to go to bed a little damp.
For the happy owners of air conditioning, we avoid putting it too low, below 20°C in particular. “We recommend it to cool the room before going to bed. If you find yourself using the blanket at night to cover yourself, the air conditioning is too cold.“. It recommends use not below 23°C.
Finally, if the quality of the bed is important, the choice of sheets and clothes that we wear is just as important: “Avoid synthetic materialsto favor what is natural, such as cotton”.
One last piece of advice comes from the Coué method. “We don’t think regarding the heat wave and we don’t tell ourselves that we’re going to sleep badly, because that’s what will happen for sure”.
