A warm bedroom can make it harder to get rest, according to Denise Rodriguez Esquivel, a clinical psychologist at Banner University Medical Center South in Tucson.
“Our body cools down as we start to approach sleep, and typically our environment cools down, too,” Rodriguez Esquivel told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Monday. “In Arizona, we don’t always get down to that low temperature point.”
Rodriguez Esquivel, who has lived and worked in the state for five years, said every summer she sees an uptick in patients reporting insomnia. They say it’s hard to both fall and stay asleep due to the heat.
“If that bedroom temperature isn’t low enough, it can pull you out of sleep, so you get less sleep overall,” Rodriguez Esquivel said. “You get less sleep overall or breaks in your sleep in ways that normally we would not be experiencing.”
People with these sleep issues won’t feel well throughout the day. They engage in less activity and struggle to concentrate on work and school, Rodriguez Esquivel said.
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