MAINTAINING a bedroom temperature of 24C overnight can reduce stress responses in older adults while they sleep, new research from Griffith University has found.
Griffith’s School of Allied Health, Sport and Social Work researcher Dr Fergus O’Connor assessed the impact of warmer nighttime bedroom conditions on heart rate and stress responses in people aged 65 and over.
“For individuals aged 65 years and over, maintaining overnight bedroom temperatures at 24C reduced the likelihood of experiencing heightened stress responses during sleep,” Dr O’Connor said.
He said the body’s natural response to heat exposure was to increase heart rate as it worked to circulate blood to the skin surface for cooling.
However, Dr O’Connor said when the heart worked harder for longer, it created stress and reduced the body’s ability to recover from heat exposure from the previous day.
Participants wore fitness activity trackers on their non-dominant wrist, while bedroom temperatures were monitored using installed temperature sensors during data collection across an Australian summer.
The findings provide what the researchers say is the first real-world evidence showing the effect increasing bedroom temperature can have on heart rate and stress responses.
Dr O’Connor said climate change was increasing the frequency of hot nights, which could independently contribute to cardiovascular illness and death by impairing sleep and limiting autonomic recovery.
He said while guidelines existed for maximum daytime indoor temperatures of 26C, there were no equivalent recommendations for nighttime conditions.
The study, Effect of nighttime bedroom temperature on heart rate variability in older adults: an observational study, has been published in BMC Medicine.
