Does a Warm Bath Really Help You Sleep?

Pre-sleep rituals like powering down your electronics, reading and listening to music are known to help improve the quality and quantity of your sleep. But there are rituals – like taking a warm bath – that may be leading you astray. So The Matress Hub, your Wichita mattress store, is here to set the record straight.

A cool body means a sleepy body, right?

Your body temperature fluctuates throughout the day. Then it slowly decreases while you sleep, dropping gradually until you wake up in the morning. This drop creates the perfect conditions for sleep. So the idea goes – a warm bath before bed raises your temp, allowing for a sharper drop in core temperature and better sleep, right? Well, yes and no.

Bathed in potential drawbacks

Here’s the primary problem – most insomniacs tend to have an elevated core temperature at night. So for those who have trouble cooling down, a warm bath would raise their temperature, in turn making it harder to fall asleep and increasing their chances of waking up in the middle of the night.

Warm bathes also impact REM sleep. Multiple studies have found that warming the body before sleep reduced the duration of the first REM sleep period. But to warmth’s credit, those same studies also found that warming the body before bed was effective for quickly inducing sleep.

So, should you do it?

After this incredible buildup, we’re going to say – it’s simply a matter of personal preference. If a warm bath helps you fall asleep faster, great. But if you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night because of it, try taking your bath earlier in the day to leave enough time to dry off and cool down. And when you find what’s best for you, the experts at The Mattress Hub are here to tell you that a new mattress will always help you get a better night’s sleep. Their sleep experts are waiting with bated breath to lull you into the best sleep of your life.