LOUISIANA (KTAL/KMSS) — Are you finding sleeping more challenging? As days become longer and nights become hotter and more humid, a recent study identified each state’s worst night sleep in 2024.
Conducted by Amerisleep, they analyzed 30 years of weather data using Weather Spark, using an interactive map to indicate when each state can look forward to its worst night’s sleep.
Researchers have found the link to rising nighttime temperature disrupts sleep quality, which is detrimental to functioning and overall poorer health – compromising the immune system and making us vulnerable to infectious diseases such as COVID or the flu.
When is your state’s ‘worst night’s’ sleep, according to Amerisleep’s findings:
- Louisianaians can expect their worst night of sleep to be Monday, July 22nd. They state, ‘Louisianaians can rest assured that the worst nights of sleep will soon be behind them, paving the way for more restful slumber in the future.’
- Arkansas’s worst night of sleep is set for July 21
- For those living in Central Texas, the worst night sleep is July 21st; for South Texas, it is July 29th; and for North Texas, it is July 31st.
Sleep expert and author April Mayer notes that regulating one’s core body temperature is key to a good night’s sleep, and the temperature of the skin and brain changes during deep sleep.
Amerisleep underscores dehydration from high humidity levels, which increases sweating and prevents deep sleep and restorative sleep stages.
‘High temperatures can increase the heart rate, making it difficult to enter deeper stages of sleep, which is necessary for physical and mental recovery.’
One study of First Nations people in Australia found that they wake up when there’s a change in temperature. They experience significantly worse quality of sleep compared to non-indigenous Australians, representing their sleep health inequity.
They underscore that sleep health is a cornerstone of general health and has a cause-and-effect relationship.
So, how can you get a good night’s sleep?
Amerisleep shared some tips for better sleep during heatwaves:
- Optimize Your Bedroom Environment: fans rotating counterclockwise can help create a cooling circulation; blackout curtains or blinds and light bedding can help keep your bedroom cool throughout the day.
- Stay Hydrated: prevents dehydration while you sleep.
- Wearing lightweight, breathable fabrics to bed.
- Cool down before bed: ‘Take a cool shower or use a damp washcloth on your neck and wrists to lower your body temperature.’
Amerisleep suggests setting the AC at a higher temperature during the day or for shorter periods before bedtime if energy costs are a concern.