Sleeping with the air conditioning on in summer: a good or bad idea?
You won’t find many holiday destinations that don’t have air conditioners. Here, they ensure a pleasantly cool temperature and a good night’s sleep after a long day at the beach. If you’re thinking about purchasing an air conditioner to get you through the summer months at home, you might be wondering how to use it properly, since it’s not particularly advisable to leave it running all night – and not just because of your next electricity bill!
25 October 2024 • 3 min reading time
A running ceiling fan provides cooling and a pleasant sleeping atmosphere.
Even though the temperatures in our region may be moderate in summer, it can still get pretty hot, especially in loft flats or in south-facing bedrooms. So it’s not surprising that you’re thinking about buying an air conditioner.
The advantages are obvious: sleeping through the night again without waking up soaked in sweat. No more tossing and turning for hours, and finally being able to use a thin duvet again, which makes lying in bed more cosy. You can also keep the window closed at night, which promotes a good night’s sleep, especially if your bedroom is located on a busy road.
Sounds great so far – but there are two sides to this coin, and you should definitely hear about both of them before you buy an expensive air conditioner.
Sleeping with the air conditioning on in summer creates a pleasantly cool sleeping environment and often improves the quality of your sleep – even if the ideal sleeping temperature of 16 to 18°C is hard to achieve, even with air conditioning. While it may sound tempting, using an air conditioner at night also has its drawbacks:
air conditioning units, maintenance and electricity are costly.
Cheap appliances are often noisy, which can disrupt sleep.
Viruses in the appliance can cause colds.
The draught of air can cause headaches and neck pain.
The air becomes drier, which may lead to dry mucous membranes.
As you can see, there are a few points that speak against using air conditioning at night. However, if you can’t manage to get any shuteye unless you’re in a room with a cooler temperature, we have three important tips for getting a healthy and restful night’s sleep, even with the air conditioning turned on.
Finally… your bedroom is nice and cool, your pyjamas are on and you can lie in bed comfortably despite the hot temperatures outside. A few hours later, you wake up – the room is freezing cold, your mouth is dry and your neck feels stiff. To prevent this from happening, it’s good to familiarise yourself with how to set your air conditioning correctly at night.
Even if it seems tempting to direct the cool draught from the air conditioner directly onto your bed in hot weather, we strongly advise against this. To avoid catching a cold, or getting dry mucous membranes, neck pain or headaches, you should always turn the draught from your air conditioner towards the ceiling – and that includes when you’re on holiday.
The lower, the better – right? In the case of the air conditioning, it’s a completely different story. To avoid overcooling at night, do not set the appliance to the lowest/coldest setting. Instead, make sure that the bedroom temperature is no more than 7°C lower than the outside temperature. At 30°C, that would be 23°C in the bedroom – and since nighttime temperatures are lower anyway, the ideal sleeping temperature of 18°C quickly becomes possible again.
To prevent colds caused by a dirty air conditioner, it’s very important to have the appliance cleaned and serviced regularly – especially if children are sleeping in the air-conditioned room. During a service, the dirty filters are replaced, which not only improves your health, it also boosts the energy efficiency of your air conditioner and thus reduces your electricity bill.
During long periods of hot weather, constantly running your air conditioner at night can quickly become very expensive. What’s more, sleeping with the air conditioning on is also not particularly recommended for your health in the long term. Here’s what you can do instead to get a restful night’s sleep in summer:
Prevent your bedroom from getting too hot by keeping your curtains/blinds/shutters closed during the day and airing the room out at night.
Turn the air conditioning on about an hour before going to bed to cool the room down, and then switch it off again.
In summer in particular, your choice of pyjamas and bedding is also crucial to making it easier to sleep through the night: breathable pyjamas, pillows and summer duvets made from natural materials regulate body temperature and absorb moisture better, meaning they contribute to a good night’s sleep, even in the hot months.
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