Trying to sleep in warm weather

Most of you on here know I work nights and have been for the past thirteen years. I suffer a constant problem which gets worse as the weather becomes warmer.

Sleeping off my night shift in the mornings, the bedroom is so hot because of the weather outside.

I can't open the window because it's too noisy and I can't wear ear plugs as they cause a pressure build-up in my head and affect my tinnitus. A fan is good but I then get a stiff neck from the draught, plus they are irritating and take ages for me to ignore and fall asleep. I can't keep the bedroom door open either as the light from the house and noise from my quiet-as-a-mouse wife creeping around trying to be quiet still wakes me up.

Any ideas folks?

Re: Trying to sleep in warm weather

Have to tried reading a book Floydy?

Re: Trying to sleep in warm weather

I can't do that Susie because I'm usually shattered when I come in from work at 6.30am and just need my bed. I'm okay falling asleep but a couple of hours later I wake up roasting hot and fighting for breath almost.
I don't go on my phone as I know about the 'blue light' thing which is terrible for keeping you awake.

Re: Trying to sleep in warm weather

It sounds like a horrible list of things that keep you awake. Maybe a low dose of a sedative would help?

I would talk to my doctor. I often wake up at dawn which is really early in the summer but I've got a pair of those blackout blinds which ensure no light comes into the room, otherwise the light would keep me from sleeping longer.

Re: Trying to sleep in warm weather

Keep the bedroom curtains shut to keep out the sunlight, and keep the windows closed to keep out the hot air.

Buy an aircon machine and ask your wife to switch it onto maximum an hour or more before you get home, to cool the room down, keeping the bedroom door closed.

Before you go to sleep, take a tepid shower to cool off. Not warm, not cold, but at a temperature that you can scarcely feel, i.e. blood heat.

Soak your hair. If you don't have much hair, wrap a rung-out wet towel around your head. (You'll need to protect the pillow with something).

Place an ice pack into the pillowcase, also to keep your head cool.


That lot should do it!

Re: Trying to sleep in warm weather

Some ideas there, thanks both.
Thing is, I do have blackout curtains but although they have the extra lining they are a light colour. I think I'll replace them with darker ones before summer, so that would help. It wouldn't make any different to the room being hot though.

Pyxell, unfortunately I can't be asking my wife to wake up at 5 a.m. to sort out an air conditioning unit. Plus, they would make a noise so they wouldn't be practical. Likewise, a shower first thing would wake me up rather than make me tired that early in the morning.

Some kind of cooling pillow might help though, I'll look into it

Re: Trying to sleep in warm weather

Stop working nights?

Joking aside though I have read why you work nights, similar reasons to myself. I can sympathise though as I too worked permanent nights getting on for 25 years and had similar problems. Most times I returned home after 12 hour plus shifts mentally shattered so did sleep most times. Fortunately, when it was really hot indoors I retreated to the garden and slept out there in the shade of a tree. That was alright while the neighbourhood was quiet, very different when the schools were on holiday though.

You do seem to be in an impossible situation, although a lot of Pyxell's suggestions would probably help. The aircon machine might probably be the answer, maybe on a time switch, but if it had a fan of any description which it probably would, the noise might disturb you if left on while trying to sleep.

Nowadays, after stopping working nights and being retired for some ten years I often have trouble sleeping at night, my body clock tells me I should be awake! That's even though working nights was 20 plus years' ago now!

Best of luck in finding some way out of this, not getting sleep is the worst of all things I reckon.

Edited to add: I bought one of those cooling pillows last summer when it was so hot (Boots £9.99 from memory) and they do work.

Re: Trying to sleep in warm weather

Thanks Baz, some interesting points.
Yeah tell me about it. I work Sun-Thurs nights, 10-6 and come Friday and Saturday I'm up in the middle of the night wide awake. It doesn't matter if I've forced myself to stay awake all day Friday I then get an hour's sleep and I'm wide awake again. It's weird.
I'm looking at the possibility of leaving nights next year as I'm paying off some debts until then, but the thing is my job may not be available during the day and I certainly do not want to work 6-2 and 2-10 like they would get me doing. No shifts is the only way but it's finding a job that is decently paid with the right hours - and then even if I tried to find something else with another company I'd have to start all over again and I can't be doing that at my age now.

The cooling pillow sounds a great idea though and I'll buy one this week when I go shopping, thanks.
Meanwhile, has anyone had any experience of this item or similar:
https://www.googleadservices.com/pag...9aACCE0&adurl=

You just pour water into it.

Re: Trying to sleep in warm weather

My night shifts were Monday to Friday, 20.30-05.30 and often up to five or so additional hours on top too. The day following the last shift I found it better to stay awake, mostly catching up on work at home or in the garden, then having three or so hours' sleep late afternoon before the full night's sleep that night. That way it's halfway between nights and days, then one full night's sleep before the first night shift. I usually tried to get just an hour or so to sleep sometime late in the day before that first shift.

What I used to find the worst was that feeling of being so tired after the last shift that my eyes felt 'gritty' as if full of sand and very uncomfortable. That 'weird' feeling I know too but after all we weren't designed to be awake at those hours.

I am sure someone on here had one of those units during that last hot summer, I recall they found it really good from the comments made.

Re: Trying to sleep in warm weather

Sunday nights are the worst for me, Baz as it's the first night back after the weekend. Just as you're getting your sleep pattern back it starts all over again. So many of my colleagues are developing health problems too. Someday....

Yes, I did write a similar thread last year (but maybe that wasn't me?!) and someone mentioned a humidifier. This little thing seems a better option as it's not as expensive.