Sleep may often be written off as eight hours of your life lost every night, but it’s not just a big waste of time with you unconscious. Sleep is an important aspect of good health, and it is the way that you, just like your phone, “recharges your batteries” so that you’re ready to deal with another day.
That’s why sleeping during summer can, depending on your home situation, create some very difficult living conditions. New York is famous for its sudden heat waves where temperatures and humidity suddenly make even the act of sleeping a chore. But if you’ve got air conditioning you can beat that with three simple tricks.
Set Your Ideal Temperature
This seems simple, but depending on your situation there are a lot of factors that go behind this. First, there’s your own personal preference for a temperature that’s cool and comfortable at night.
But there may be family members you might need to agree with on comfortable temperature levels. Finally, there are your own budgetary considerations, if you have any.
You want to hit that sweet spot between being able to tolerate the heat, but not working your air conditioning so hard that it spikes your electricity bill for the month.
Experts usually put this temperature at 78° for the best balance between comfort and energy efficiency. If however, your bills monthly amount isn’t a big concern for your budget, then set your temperature as low as you like.
Let Fans Help Your AC
A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that once you get air conditioning in a home, you don’t need to use fans. This, however, isn’t 100% true. Fans can actually help your AC achieve more efficiency, especially if you’ve got ceiling fans installed in your home.
Just make sure that your ceiling fans are rotating in the right direction. Counter-clockwise is the way they should be rotating in summer. This means that the fans are cycling air back down, creating a motion that provides a pleasant, cooling breeze at night. This can also increase the efficiency of your air conditioning by up to 40% thanks to the extra help in distributing the air through a room.
Reduce Humidity
That famous summer humidity in New York is the biggest factor that can interfere with a good night’s sleep. Every New Yorker knows all about that hot, muggy, thick, clingy feeling to the air.
But it doesn’t just feel unpleasant, it actually magnifies the perception of heat, making every day feel like 100 during a heat wave. It even interferes with your ability to sweat, making you feel even more uncomfortable.
Normally sweating cools you down. Perspiration on your skin evaporates, and cools your skin. But with high humidity, there’s “no room” in the air for your sweat to evaporate, so it just stays on your skin, and, at night, that means it stays in your sheets too.
But air conditioning can take care of this. While it’s impossible to predict when a bad, humid heat wave in Brooklyn, NY will happen, you can prepare for it. Make sure your air conditioning is in good shape, and ready to keep you cool and comfortable during the hottest months of the year.
