Many of us struggle with our sleeping patterns during summer due to a combination of the heat and longer daylight hours. Polar Electro, the world leader in personal guidance for fitness, sport, and health, shares its scientifically proven tips to beat the bright nights and stay fully charged all summer long.
For some, summer is a time for better living. The arrival of sunshine and warmer temperatures pulls us out of the gym and into outdoors, for running, cycling, swimming, and hiking. However, summertime also comes with its drawbacks, especially when nighttime rolls around.
Polar has been following the development of global sleep patterns in anonymized user data since 2020, and the data findings are clear: on average, our sleep time is nearly 15 minutes shorter in June, and, moreover, there is a clear drop in sleep duration during the summer months.
The drop might not seem like much, but it can disturb our circadian rhythm, which in-turn impacts our restfulness and alertness levels throughout the day. While our reduced sleep schedule is partly due to high temperatures, busy social calendars, and a tendency to eat later in the summer, the extended daylight hours are a major cause – one that can be tricky to address.
Here are Polar’s scientifically backed tips for catching your Z’s and staying fully charged, all summer long.
- Watch what you drink. Avoid caffeine at least eight hours and alcohol at least two hours before bedtime.
- Time your exercise wisely. Exercise in the morning or afternoon promotes early melatonin release for an easier early sleep. High-intensity exercise near bedtime delays sleep and affects quality by hindering metabolism and body temperature regulation.
- Keep your room cool and dark. This will limit your exposure to sunlight and prevent your room from being too hot to sleep in.
- Have a hot shower before bed (seriously). While it can be tempting to take a cold shower on a hot summer night, opting for a hot shower will trigger a self-cooling mechanism in your body.
- Clear your head. Use the hours before bedtime to de-stress and decompress, perhaps with some tried-and-tested relaxation activities such as meditation or gentle stretching.
Why do summer nights throw us off-rhythm?
Like most creatures on Earth, humans come equipped with a 24-hour internal body clock – a natural timing device that regulates the circadian rhythm – and influences important functions in our bodies, such as hormone release, eating habits, body temperature, and sleep patterns.
“External light is a key pacemaker” explains Liisa Kuula, a senior sleep researcher at the University of Helsinki. “It regulates the rhythm of most of our bodily functions, directly impacting our mood, cognitive performance, and behavior”.
One reason that the summer nights of summer throw us off-rhythm is chemical. Melatonin, the so-called sleep hormone, helps to produce our sleep cycles. The secretion of melatonin is triggered by light exposure, so seasonal changes in daylight directly knock our sleep hormones out of balance. The result is that many of us are getting insufficient sleep for substantial chunk of the year, impacting our performance and our wellbeing. Kuula adds that, while some people can adapt to these dramatic changes in daylight, others will struggle.
“Drastic changes in the amount of light we are exposed to poses frequent health and wellbeing risks, and can trigger risk-taking behavior, manic episodes, and even depression in extreme cases”.
So, if the sun’s refusal to turn in for the night is working against us like this, what can we do about it? For Kuula, prioritizing sleep is the single most important thing you can do to get your circadian rhythm back on track.
Use the latest technology to catch better Z’s
Ultimately, knowing yourself and your rhythm is the best way to get back in control. For this, you can check out Polar’s SleepWise suite of features, which will track your sleep and forecast your daytime alertness, to empower you to find your way back to restfulness.
Meanwhile, Polar Ignite 3 users will now be able to benefit from our Nightly Skin Temperature Sensing, so you can see how your body temperature is being affected by those sweaty summer nights. With the right information about your body, you can find out exactly what works for you to stay fully charged all summer long.
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