Getting a good night’s sleep is something a lot of people take for granted, since, most of the time, it’s so easy to do. Just get into bed, close your eyes, and provided that everything is dark and quiet, it takes very little effort to drift off and start recharging your physical and mental batteries for another day.
What few people realize—until it happens to them—is just how damaging to your day it can be to not get your full eight recommended hours. Not sleeping can cause low energy levels, a lack of alertness, an inability to focus, and many other types of impairment that can really hurt your daily activity. Summer heat can be one of those things that keep you up at night, but not if you follow our air conditioning tips.
Nail Down Your Ideal Temperature
There are actually a few different considerations that can factor into what your preferred temperature is for your home’s air conditioning system.
Part of that is what everyone in the home can live with, since a variety of different people will have different tolerances for when cool gets too cool, or too warm to sleep at night.
Beyond just the physical preference however, you also have to think about your wallet. The lower you set the temperature, the longer and harder your air conditioning needs to work, which will mean an increase in your electrical bill.
While 78° is the recommended temperature for comfort and energy efficiency, you’ll have to decide whether you can live with this, or need to keep your AC at an even lower setting. Of course, if budget isn’t a consideration for you at all, then set it as low as you like!
Use Other Fans In The Home
You’d think that with central air conditioning installed, this would mean you no longer need to use any of the other fans you might have in the house. However, they can still be of use, and even make your AC work more efficiently. Ceiling fans, for instance, are fantastic at complementing your AC.
By ensuring that a ceiling fan is set to rotate in a counter-clockwise fashion, you circulate the cool air, and it gets pushed back downwards. This creates a “breeze” effect which helps the room to feel both cooler, and can save on air conditioning efficiency, sometimes by up to 40%!
Fight Humidity
Humidity can be a major factor in preventing you from getting a good night’s sleep, since it can be so uncomfortable. Humidity itself is when there is so much moisture in the air itself you can feel it as a muggy, clingy, thickness in the air.
This is already unpleasant, but then it combines with magnifying the perception of heat in the air, with preventing you from sweating properly. Normally, sweating helps you to stay cool. Perspiration on your body evaporates, and that evaporation process cools you down.
When the air is too humid, however, sweat can’t evaporate and so stays on your body, soaking your sheets and making you feel even more uncomfortable in bed! Good air conditioning fights this!
Hot summers can definitely happen in Spring, TX but the proper use of air conditioning in your home ensures you can still sleep comfortably at night.