How to Save Money and Get Better Sleep By Lowering the Temperature In Your Home

Do you set your programmable thermostat to save energy? By programming your HVAC up or down a few degrees (depending on the season) when you’re sleeping or away from home, you can save on utility bills while still maintaining comfort.

But it turns out there’s an added benefit of setting the furnace thermostat down in wintertime. The fact is, a colder room — 65 degrees appears to be optimal — can actually help you sleep better.

Why Colder is Better

Every 24 hours, our body temperatures peak and decline, say sleep experts. Body temperature tends to be highest in the early afternoon and at its lowest about 5 a.m. As you fall asleep, your body cools down. Maintaining that lower temperature can help you achieve deeper sleep. This temperature decline, which starts in the central core of the body, begins long before we go to bed and is one of the mechanisms that makes us feel tired.

If the room temperature is too warm or too cold — that’s more than 74 degrees and less than 54 degrees — our bodies will try to regulate the temperature, and we will lose sleep from tossing and turning in bed.

Other Benefits

Besides better rest, sleeping in a colder room offers these additional benefits:

1. Increases production of melatonin. This hormone not only helps us sleep, but also keeps us younger looking.
2. Decreases blood sugar. When you sleep longer and better, you’re getting rid of blood sugars that might otherwise cause you to gain weight.
3. Burns more calories. Sleep tests show that sleeping in a colder room burns more calories, and increases so-called “brown fat,” which is the good fat. This fat allows you to burn calories rather than store them, which lowers your risk for metabolic diseases, including diabetes.
4. Improves REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. REM is the restorative stage of the sleep cycle and is important for learning, memory retention and creativity, as well as psychological health.

To learn more about how to save energy, contact Energy 1 Heating and Air Conditioning. We serve Lorain, including Oberlin and Elyria.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about saving money and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 440-201-2959.

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