- May 6, 2025
Summer Sleep Solutions: Why We Struggle and Herbal Remedies
Hot summer weather makes your body sweat more, leaving you feeling sticky and uncomfortable all day. You might find it harder to fall asleep, and when you do, you wake up frequently throughout the night, leaving you exhausted by morning. If this sounds familiar, you're likely experiencing poor summer sleep quality.
What Causes Poor Sleep in Summer?
According to data collected by Sleep Score Labs from 28,000 Americans over 500,000 nights, people tend to stay up significantly later during summer months. This could be due to school and work breaks, social gatherings with friends, and longer daylight hours. This information shows that poor summer sleep is common and affects many people.
High Temperatures
This is perhaps one of the primary causes of poor summer sleep. Hot weather makes it difficult for your body to lower its temperature in preparation for sleep. We often feel uncomfortable, sweaty, and restless. Research shows that rising temperatures can reduce sleep efficiency by 5-10% when temperatures increase from 25°C (77°F) to 30°C (86°F).
Extended Daylight Hours
The later sunset during summer can trick your brain into thinking it's still daytime. This signal alters your body's circadian rhythm, causing your brain to delay the production of melatonin—a crucial hormone that regulates sleep.
Extended sunlight hours can trick your brain
High Humidity
Beyond just heat, summer in many regions also brings high humidity, which prevents sweat from evaporating properly. This leaves your skin feeling sticky and uncomfortable, negatively affecting your sleep.
Changes in Routine
Summer is the season of trips, parties, and gatherings with friends that can lead to staying up late and sleeping in. Over time, this disrupts your body's biological rhythm.
Changes in Diet
Summer parties with oily, spicy foods can cause indigestion and affect your sleep quality.
Party food with excess oil can cause indigestion
How to Improve Poor Summer Sleep?
Based on the causes above, here are some ways you can improve your sleep quality during hot summer months.
Establish a Specific Sleep Routine
No matter how long the fun lasts, try to maintain consistent bedtime and wake-up times to create a habit for your body. This will help improve your summer sleep issues safely and effectively.
Rest When Your Body Signals
When sleepiness hits, don't push through to finish that TV episode or continue scrolling through social media. Listening to your brain's signals will help you overcome summer sleep difficulties and insomnia in general.
Create an Ideal Sleep Environment
The main causes of summer insomnia are largely related to temperature and light. Take time to create an ideal space for quality sleep: What temperature do you need from your air conditioner or fan? Should you keep a dim night light on or turn everything off? Do frequency sounds or music help you sleep better?
>>>Related article: The Art of Gifting for a Good Night’s Sleep
Limit Caffeine After 5 PM
Caffeine increases brain focus and helps you stay alert in the morning, but consuming it in the afternoon can keep you tossing and turning all night, making it difficult to fall asleep.
Use Herbal Products That Support Sleep
Certain natural herbs can improve insomnia, giving you a deeper, more restful sleep each night. This is an ideal choice for supporting poor summer sleep safely and is suitable for many age groups.
Maintaining a stable sleep schedule helps improve summer insomnia
>>> Related article: 4 Reasons You Should Use Herbal Products During Summer
Recommended Products to Help You Sleep Better in Summer
Consider these herbal-based products to improve your summer sleep quality.
1. Herbal Packs
The warmth from these herbal packs combined with gentle herbal aromas will help soothe both your body and mind. These also make ideal sleep-well gifts for family members.
2. Herbal Teas
Chamomile tea, lotus heart tea, lavender tea, wild passiflora tea, and others have been proven to calm the mind, relax the spirit, and help you fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply.
Drinking a warm cup of tea in the evening not only helps you relax but also creates a healthy pre-sleep habit. The gentle herbal aroma will help you easily drift into deeper, more restful sleep each night.
3. Essential Oils
You can improve your sleep with herbs in the form of aromatherapy using natural essential oils. A familiar space with pleasant aromas helps dispel fatigue after a long workday, allowing your mind to relax and fall asleep more easily.
Aromatherapy from natural essential oils
>>> Related article: 30-Minute Nighttime Routine for Deeper, Healthier Sleep
4. Scented Candles
Like essential oils, scented candles are popular as a therapy for good sleep. The gentle aroma from candle wax helps soothe the mind, reduce stress after a long day, and support easier sleep onset.
However, you should not burn candles while sleeping to avoid fire hazards. Instead, light scented candles about 30-60 minutes before bedtime to fill the room with a pleasant aroma. Alternatively, you can use a candle warmer—a safer way to melt wax with heat while maintaining the gentle aroma throughout the night.
5. Silk Pillowcases
The cause of summer insomnia might be the pillow you're using. Some pillowcase fabrics can trap heat and feel stuffy, affecting your sleep. Soft, breathable silk pillowcases will help you sleep more comfortably. Additionally, silk is good for your skin and hair because its smooth, clean surface doesn't create strong friction against your skin and hair.
6. Scalp Massage Combs
Scalp massage before sleep offers wonderful benefits for sleep, especially for those with insomnia during summer or throughout the year. Massage helps stimulate blood circulation, relieve tension, and allows sleep to come more quickly. You can combine a specialized massage comb with natural essential oils to increase the effectiveness of improving poor summer sleep.
Scalp massage stimulates blood circulation and helps you sleep better
Conclusion
Poor summer sleep is quite common due to hot weather, and over time, it can create negative health effects. We hope this article has provided useful information to help improve your difficulty falling asleep on summer days, as well as helping you and your loved ones enhance sleep quality each night.
If you're looking for a gift to help a loved one relax and sleep better, explore sleep support products like scented candles, herbal pillows, calming teas, and more on CHUS. These small but thoughtful gifts will make summer sleep more comfortable than ever before.
