How to keep your bed cool during hot summer weather

A cool sleeping environment is essential for getting a good night’s sleep. Too hot and you’ll overheat, toss and turn and find it difficult to achieve true restorative shut-eye. If you’re one of the many that are plagued by the heat sleep thief then Hope Bastine, the resident sleep psychologist at sleep technology brand Simba® provides some easy tips on how to tackle the heat and stay cool this summer.

Keep your drapes and windows closed
A tip from our Mediterranean friends! Keep your windows and drapes closed throughout the day. This will stop the heat coming in and reduce the temperature of your room. Once the sun sets and the temperature drops, open them back up for a ‘slightly’ cooler breeze.

Wear cotton
What you wear to bed greatly affects how well you sleep. Loose-fitting, well-ventilated cotton pyjamas are the best option. Avoid synthetic materials that will cling to you at night. Cotton has moisture-absorbing properties that will help keep the sweat from your body and ultimately allow for an improved level of comfort.

Ice packs at the ready
Have ice packs at the ready to help cool your body temperature in an instant. When we find ourselves awake sweating in the middle of the night, tossing and turning to get comfortable, we can often make ourselves hotter as we stress about not getting any sleep. This is the time to turn to your ice packs. Place them on your wrists or forehead for a few minutes and relax as your body temperature quickly begins to drop. No ice packs? Use a soft cloth or cut up an old towel.

Flip your pillow
Everyone loves that feeling of flipping your pillow over to the cool side. When the heat is unbearable and you’re getting a little clammy, don’t forget to flip over and enjoy that momentary respite from the heat.

Inspired by the space suits worn by astronauts – experts in regulating body temperature – the Simba® Hybrid Pillow uses clever phase change technology that actively responds to the body’s temperature throughout the night, keeping you cool and comfortable. Applied to the pillow, StratosTM technology regulates your temperature by absorbing and releasing heat during the night, ensuring you maintain the perfect conditions for a deeper and longer-lasting sleep. You’ll know which side of your pillow is the high-tech one because Simba has added handy colour-coded piping along the edges. Blue side = cool side!

Invest in a cooling fan
With fans, you get what you pay for. If you don’t mind that constant hum then head down to your local store and pick up a cheaper one. If you want to invest a bit more money, we’d recommend the Dyson AM06-10 desk fan. With no blades and being up to 75% quieter than conventional fans, this is an ideal addition to the bedroom.

Makeshift air conditioner
We’ve all been there: as soon as hot weather hits, the air conditioner decides “not today!” Here’s a great tip to help that high-quality fan cool you a little more. Put some ice in a shallow baking tray, pan or bowl and place that in front of your fan. As the ice begins to melt, the breeze will pick up the moisture and disperse a cooling mist across the room. This makes a huge difference on those stuffy nights.

How can a mattress keep you cool in the summer?
The Simba® Hybrid 2500 is made with innovation in mind and real sleepers at heart. Features SimbatexTM Technology, a specially developed foam infused with graphite flakes to keep you cool and up to 2,500 unique patented British steel Aerocoil® springs, designed to maximize airflow. The patented coils move both vertically and horizontally, contouring the shape of your body, and helping to lull you into a deeper and longer sleep. It’s a super soft ‘breathe in, breathe out’ sleep surface that aids freshness and temperature control. In engineering the perfect mattress, Simba® used state-of-the-art body-profiling data from ten million people, to craft it.