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12 ways to survive sleeping in the heat

Summer has officially arrived in the UK and with it, a whole lot of moaning. With temperatures set to hit 37 degrees – the highest temperature in recorded history – this week, it’s not uncommon to suffer from a sleepless night.

Fans are rendered useless, an open window can cause allergy sufferers mayhem and then there’s the issue of what to wear for a night of discomfort.

We got some expert advice to find out just how to survive the night without crying yourself to sleep.

READ MORE: Soaking in the bath before bedtime helps you sleep better

“The ideal temperature for your bedroom is around 18 degrees,” Professor Colin Espie, co-founder of Big Health, creator of Sleepio, and professor of sleep medicine at the University of Oxford commented. “If you get too hot, you may get restless. Too cold and you may struggle to drop off or have bad dreams.”

“Air the room by opening a window before going to bed: fresh air will help you sleep because it contains about 20% oxygen, and that’s what we survive on. If a room is stuffy and there is no influx of fresh air, we end up re-breathing our own exhaled air which has reduced oxygen content.”

READ MORE: Three in four adults not getting enough sleep

From eating spicy food (makes no sense, we know) to slathering yourself in aloe vera, here’s a few other options you’d never have thought of.

Article updated from a piece previously published in October 2017.