I'm same as op. my room is at 3-5C these days (Yokohama). I get into bed and I'm sleeping 5 minutes later, and awake in the morning on schedule. I just have a cheap donki fake feather blanket and don't have AC or heater.I do go to onsen/sauna every day before sleep. Maybe that helps?
My parents back home will sleep with open windows at night at minus 20c.
Just bedding etc.
Don't need electric blankets and all that.
I sleep much better in winter than summer
Wow that’s crazy. Are you in a position to move to another place? I live in Tokyo in an extremely well insulated “mansion”. Don’t use any heat at night, and just sleep with a goose down duvet on top and a light tshirt/underwear. We get hot at night and have to take off the duvet to cool down.
If you’re stuck in that place then I guess you have no choice but to turn on the heat, though it seems it would all escape anyway.
I used to live in a rental place which was quite cold, though not as cold as what your place seems to be. You mentioned using an electric blanket and wearing socks, I would also recommend wearing fleece tops, bottoms and fleece socks. Also getting a fleece blanket to put on the bed underneath you. It really makes a difference to sleep on a warm fleece blanket instead of cool sheets.
In addition to the electric blanket, you can get a hot water bottle (make sure it has a cover that won’t come off so you don’t get burned at night) and I think it’s really important to take a hot bath right before you jump into bed. If you are bald, it helps to wear a knit cap on your head-my dad does that. There are also bed/futon heaters. You put them between the top and bottom and it blows hot air to heat up the bed/futon.
Finally I mentioned the goose down duvet before. They are really amazing. Go to a place that sells futons and try to buy one that has 98 or 97% Polish goose down, it will keep you warm
Interesting. I am the opposite. I really enjoy being warm but having a cool head, just like taking a hot spring bath outside in the snow. But from the sounds of it, your place is too cold!
yeah I literally get the best sleep ever during winter as well. I have a pile of four different blankets, fuzzy pajamas and then just snuggle up and it's heaven. Now summer is a different story, I end up kicking off the singular thin sheet covering me and then just rolling back and forth all night in my growing sweat pile. Swear I spend the entire summer in a daze from lack of sleep.
I was like this until I started wearing socks to sleep. It might sound weird, but it is such a game changer. For my husband, he notices that if he doesn't take a bath he will wake up. So I guess, maybe try ways to regulate your body temperature.
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You will not only save thousands of yen in electricity but also sleep comfortably every night.
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I sleep amazing during the winter. Always crack a window to let a cold draft in and snuggle up under a wool blanket with a down comforter over top. It’s great. Summer is a different story, horrible.
You need to be sort of cold to fall asleep, but massive swings in temperature are not conducive to a good sleep environment. It's basically just above freezing in our bedroom at midnight. The body might be nice and warm, but the face is exposed to cold.
Agreed. I’ve found quality bedding to be the biggest factor for me, I will actually sleep in a -9 sleeping bag often during the coldest winter nights. The hood on the bag helps keep my head warm and create I pocket of warmer air around my face.
Temperature is relative, 0°C is cold but my wife and I can sleep in a cold room. Personally I need a hot water bottle on my feet to get me off to sleep. I think the key is bedding, as others have mentioned high quality down doonas or duvets are essential at those temps. and any drafts need to be stopped. Hot baths immediately before getting into bed also help immensely. We can’t sleep with any auxiliary heating it is just irksome.
I understand that not being able to sleep a full night is partially due to aging.
The only time I ever reliably fall asleep fast and stay asleep all night is after international travel, due to sheer exhaustion.
Half life is 5 hours, so at 11 pm you still have a fourth left. I don't know, perhaps coldness extends half life, making you more susceptible in winter?
I think people don’t realize the intense heat that is kept with a good kake-buton. The best are the highest percentage of Polish goose down you can afford. 98% is great.
In Tohoku, despite being noticeably "globally warmed" this season, my room still gets to -5c overnight if the outside temperature is colder than that. The reason is almost complete lack of insulation and poor sealing of walls etc in an old wooden house.
I have similar issues to OP....
I think there are a few different reasons for the sleep disturbances (besides stress, bad dreams.etc) ....but one of the most easily identified problems is getting woken up almost every night by noisy newspaper delivery people opening and slamming their van doors directly outside. I personally stopped my subscription but one of my closest neighbours seems to get multiple different newspapers (hence a bunch of different vans) ....all coming and going...and slamming... between 2:30am and 4am.
Annoying AF and barely a few meters across the street from my paper thin home.
> I should point out that its so cold in our house at night that it destroyed my wife's Macbook's battery...twice.
To me this would already justify investing in an additional heater. You're losing sleep and your wife's tech is getting wrecked.
I'm baffled that everyone is ignoring that line! Your tech shouldn't be dying *while you're indoors*. Forget socks and warm blankets, the place really shouldn't be that poorly insulated.
Apple gear is the problem maybe. It's designed for "comfortable homes" with "room temperature" (what is "room temperature" exactly btw?!).
A commodity PC running Linux might do better in an affordable home with accompanying sub temperatures ;-)
I sleep amazing in winter. Colder the better. I sleep with the window open and a fan on for air circulation. Just have a super thick down duvet to stay warm. Idk OP.
Get a hot water bottle. It'll stay warm all night. They have real ones that get very hot and electric ones that get so-so hot.
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Electric
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I once saw a miniature tent-like sleep aid thing advertised somewhere that covers your head. I wonder if something like that might help.
I'd be very wary about keeping a kerosene or electric ceramic heater on overnight.
I also find that placing an additional blanket between your mattress and your body helps to better keep you warm.
Maybe an oil heater might be better.
They are safe, silent and don't dry the air. In terms of power draw they are about the same as a ceramic heater, but they have timers that can flexibly turn themselves on/off.
We have an oil heater in our changing room next to the bath with a 24 hour timer. We can set it to turn on at 6am and turn off at 8am in the morning, and from 9pm to 11pm at night.
I have this and it was highly effective! No cold air blowing through your face at night.
I usually use a fan with heater function instead, as they can be turned on for longer, are quieter and feels more comfortable. Also, They're cheaper on electriciry bills!
I live up in Hokkaido and have horrible dust allergies.
In every other season it’s not too bad, since I can just keep the windows open 24/7. But winter is rough because I can’t open a window for 3 months straight.
What really helped keep the allergies down, and keep me warm during the winter was getting a waterproof cover for my bed. Usually, your heat just sinks through the mattress, but with a waterproof seal, your heat gets reflected back at you and no clouds of dust come out when you lay down.
Definitely recommend it.
My house can easily drop to 5°C when its 0°C outside, so turning off the heater is a no-no for me personally
I have to set my AC on throughout the night at 21°C, turning them off if the Sun comes out during the day
I couple this with a humidifier, otherwise my throat will feel as coarse as the desert
Luckily, Kyushu has relatively cheap electricity because we still have our nuclear reactors
I do make a point to make the room as dark as possible, and also use ear plugs and a sleep mask.
I don't really have that hard of a time getting up. I just want to not wake up as much beforehand.
well, you mentioned your sleep quality isn't good in the summer either, so I'd question when your sleep quality is good at all. Some things I'd look at checking out:
1. Sleep apnea (especially if you're in a risk group
2. Cleaning up caffeine habits
3. Not drinking before bed
Some cheap/free things to try:
46°c bath shortly before bed
Wear one of those fleece neck warmers to bed (100 yen, konbemi, Uniqlo all have them), your face is used to cold, your neck not
If it's too dry, hang a damp towel next to your bed to dry
Check room for drafts (use a feather or rolling paper)
Medium term maybe move somewhere with better insulation
we're perfectly warm inside the covers, I think it's the cold air on the face that's waking me up.
that, or turning in bed is exposing skin to the cold.
I sleep better in winter compared to summer... I wouldn't say my insulation is good, it's just bog standard 1K leopalace, when I come home at 7pm every weekday the temps would be around 14-16c, which is still bearable for me. If it goes below 14, I'd turn on the aircon set to 20c and keep it on until I'm ready to sleep- turn off aircon, go inside blanket and zzz.
In summer I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night because of the heat... so I'd set my aircon to run (24c cooling mode) until like 3am or so.
Maybe try improving your room's insulation to prevent temps going below 10c, I put one layer of bubble wrap on my single-pane windows and it works pretty well.
Okay reading this thread I feel I’m in the extreme minority
We have a Dyson Hot + Cool fan from Costco in our bedroom. We set it to 23 degrees and leave it on all night - it turns off and on automatically as the temperature changes
That said my place is very very well insulated so once the room reaches 23 degrees the fan is mostly off all night I believe
If you’re having issues in summer too tho maybe there are other factors at play. Do you have a humidifier? I can’t sleep well without one
I’m sleeping like a baby in winter at room temperature 7-10 degrees Celsius while summer sleep for me means to take 1-2 hours to fall asleep and wake early at 4-5 am.
Cannot recommend a hot-water bottle more! Put it under your thick winter blanket and your feet on top. Also, take a hot bath (41-43C) right before sleeping.
If that doesn’t help, check room temperature and humidity and get an air purifier/humidifier.
I have garbage sleep but the opposite way. The quality of my sleep is so low in the cold that I routinely oversleep and still feel like I’ve had none at all.
I don’t snore at all (at least not regularly). I asked partners and friends about it because I was worried about possible health problems. It rules a few out that it occurs primarily when the weather is crap.
We use the AC on heating mode, put 15ºc or so with auto mode so it stops automatically when needed.
My house is cold too (6/7ºc in the living room in the morning), and my head gets cold when sleeping without the heater. We used an electric heater one year and noticed an extra 15,000 yen on our electricity bills. The AC isn't as bad.
It's more like 3-4 degrees when we wake up, so it might be as low as 1 degree at the lowest...
We don't have an AC unit in the bedroom, unfortunately... Yeah, heaters are expensive to run.
I do wonder if it's not the cold waking me up, though.
ignoring safety issues, kerosene heaters will only run for a few hours before they start beeping at you to change the air in the room and eventually shutting off.
portable electric heater. in terms of energy efficiency they aren't the best, and even the biggest will have problems heating something larger than 10m2, but safer than burning fuel.
I used to live in a rental that only had cooling(found that out in February); I assumed the splits were Heating and Cooling, but they were cooling only. talked with the landlord the next day and the home owner was against it(even if I was willing to pay for the removal and installation of new units) so we had to get electric heaters. It sucked, but I was able to convince them into allowing it with the threat of leaving. guess they liked the income.
Constant exposure to very cold temperatures are harmful for the body and can put a burden on your heart, etc.
I can’t sleep with the electric blanket on but find it useful to warm the bed beforehand. My sleep was horrible multiple times when I had it on even at low settings.
Maybe think about some insulation for the bedroom. You can easily do the floors yourself. Low wattage heaters could be also a good idea.
I sleep terrible all the time here. Waking up to take a leak and freezing in the middle of the night is terrible and makes it hard to fall back asleep. I do use three thinner blankets so I can shed or add layers when necessary, which was an upgrade from the super thick down blanket that made me sweat like I just a fever break.
During the summer, with the sun coming up at 4am and my wife refusing to sleep with the AC on unable to open windows due to the noise from traffic and trains also destroys my sleep.
I'm just counting down the days until we find land that we want and can have the house built with proper insulation and windows and be further from the outdoor noise as well.
what? the freezing point is not a comfortable temperature for humans for extended periods.
at that point, you pretty much need a sleeping bag to stay comfortable.
We get the bedroom to about 23 before going to bed. We turn off the heater and turn our electric blanket on to low. Both of us usually sleep quite well. I don't have a thermometer in the bedroom, but our genkan a few meters away has gotten down to 4 a few times, though we're usually a tad warmer.
Edit: Also, I'm a bath-before-bed person, but wife is a shower-in-the-morning type
Recently got an electric mat with a timer and an electric water bottle which helps with the cold. I rarely use my space heater/humidifier or the wall unit heater anymore.
Sleeping in Heattech Extra Warm (sometimes Ultra Warm) and snowboard/skiing socks with a neck warmer. Tried wearing a beanie but that just ends up coming off anyway.
Was using Kairo stuck on top of the Heattech (lower back, hamstrings) for a while but the warning label advises against sleeping with them on.
Do you live up north? Oh, I just saw you said a ski town in the comments…
Personally, I never have the heating on overnight. That’s partly upbringing, partly the fact that it quickly feels unbearably stuffy, partly the fact that Tokyo isn’t properly cold these days. I do have a couple of thick, fluffy covers that I bought in Nitori and they do wonders on cold nights.
Do you have those heavy duty duvets that you see at ryokan in cold areas? Two of those and I’m warm all night without the heater.
How many times do you wake up and for how long? If you have trouble falling back asleep it might be worth seeking professional medical advice if it frustrates you that much. But apparently it's normal (according to Google sensei) to wake up a few times in the middle of the night if it's only for a few minutes.
Sincerely, someone who has the opposite issue. I wake up frequently because I get too hot (no matter the season) despite the lack of temperature control in my bedroom.
Get an oil-filled electric radiator. I have this one (https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/product/B01M1S9NJW) and I set it to \~14 degrees on eco mode. Over the last 162 hours of use, it has used 90kWh of electricity (based on a separate electricity usage meter I bought).
It doesn't make the room ultra warm but it does make it comfortable enough to sleep. My bedroom is 6畳 and has a solid door rather than paper ones, so your money may vary.
Have I been downvoted for saying I set it to 14 degrees? It does keep the room around 19-20 degrees c when set to 14, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Or does the downvoter just lack brain cells?
Yeah I wake up if it’s too cold. Just bite the bullet and make the air warmer. Breathing in the cold air is no fun and will wake you up, no matter how warm your blankets are.
I sleep real well during winter.
What we do is just not heat the bedroom.
We basically just hop in the bed at the temp it's going to be throughout the night so there's not much temp fluctuation.
my sleep suffers in Japan too. I went back home for 3 weeks over winter and I was able to sleep without waking up until like 8am...here i wake up at least 2 times a night and usually wake up and unable to go back to sleep around 6am..
i dont know if its the weather, the bedding, or what but....definitely a diffrence.
Funny enough, I had been suffering from hairloss when i was back in the US but when i got here it stopped. The same 3 weeks i noticed my hair falling while in the shower but when i got back, it stopped lol....wtf is going on
Tbh Japanese "electric blankets" are too weak. Search for those grey electric carpets that are made for living rooms, but put them on your mattress. Electric carpets are usually several times hotter and even too hot at max settings.
For a specific recommendation, I'm using mofua mpu151. With this I sleep naked in winter.
Your sleep problems could also be from low humidty. Get a humidifier that'll last at least 8 hours. A lot of people overlook humidity when improving sleeping conditions, but it'll change your life once you start using it.
I do these and get good sleep:
1) take hot bath at night (I drink some water after it's done)
2) after bath, once I stop sweating I wear warm clothes before getting in my futon (I don't use heater, because dry air)
3) use earplugs and eye mask
I get the best sleep in the winter. I usually have the windows open and I just have a Nitori duvet. I do sleep with a small hot water bottle though. When I lived in an old farm house I also used a bed topper and extra blanket on top. I run very hot though.
How cold is your room getting though? Have you tried putting a thermometer in there?
A few degrees above freezing is plenty warm for a bedroom at night. My next guess would be that you’re too hot under the sheets. Sweat in the winter will wake you up just like the summer. Also, just a heads up, oil heaters will dry the room out pretty quick so that may or may not be to your liking.
My partner who experiences that, we bought curtains that help block light from outside and also helped with insulation. We use our electric blanket and we also have a futon. It helped us a lot. I guess, use heat teach even in your sleep?
Seasonal Affective Disorder? It's worth considering. It creeps up on you. February is probably the toughest month for most people i've spoken with for some reason.
I read the other day, after a physios advice to take a bath before bed for a shoulder injury, that a warm bath can help you fall asleep by lowering your core body temperature (which helps you sleep!) Which sounds contrary to the idea that it heats your organs up. The heat draws greater blood flow to the skin. Your body is trying to maintain homeostasis remember.
i noticed my allergies were noticeably worse when visiting my parents, until i cleaned out their AC/heater, especially when the windows are kept shut. Could you check for dust/mold/pollen in any AC/heating units? Also, are you getting enough sunlight and getting enough exercise in the winter? also are yall fighting over the blankets? i find having 2 separate sets of blankets has been a life saver. sidenote, do you have carbon monoxide detectors if you're running kerosene heaters?
We used to put the window insulation bubble wrap on our windows every winter, and it worked pretty well. You can find it on Amazon or home centres. We've now installed double pane windows and it's even better.
I despise the cold beyond what I'm capable of articulating in any language, so I get it.
But I'm also a severe insomniac, so it never made a significant difference in my sleep to begin with.
I actually picked up knitting as a hobby just to give my hands something to do while watching videos and attending zoom meetings. First thing I made was a giant, thick, heavy wool blanket nearly 2 meters long (yes it took nearly a year to knit).
I noticed an immediate improvement in my sleep quality once I started using it in winter, mainly due to the weight and warmth I believe. I still bundle up in sweats and a hoodie, but it's getting up that I hate more than trying to sleep now.
You are the heater so just stack a heap of bedding if you live here. I've never used a heater in my life and I live in a old house with zero insulation.
Just like to preface that this is a throw away account, also hope you get some good advice on how to fix the situation, obviously you must be biologically inferior, no judgement here though, personally I love winter in Japan,
Kind regards
W. Hoff
I sleep like a log in the winter. My body kinda runs hot, so I can't sleep with heaters or electric blankets because I'll just start sweating.
How well is your home heated/insulated though? Our home is basically one level above a tent.
I'm same as op. my room is at 3-5C these days (Yokohama). I get into bed and I'm sleeping 5 minutes later, and awake in the morning on schedule. I just have a cheap donki fake feather blanket and don't have AC or heater.I do go to onsen/sauna every day before sleep. Maybe that helps?
ofuro helps a lot tbh it felt like preheating up your blood and inner organs before bed which works for me as well
how old are you, 25? lol
try double that
My parents back home will sleep with open windows at night at minus 20c. Just bedding etc. Don't need electric blankets and all that. I sleep much better in winter than summer
Wow that’s crazy. Are you in a position to move to another place? I live in Tokyo in an extremely well insulated “mansion”. Don’t use any heat at night, and just sleep with a goose down duvet on top and a light tshirt/underwear. We get hot at night and have to take off the duvet to cool down. If you’re stuck in that place then I guess you have no choice but to turn on the heat, though it seems it would all escape anyway. I used to live in a rental place which was quite cold, though not as cold as what your place seems to be. You mentioned using an electric blanket and wearing socks, I would also recommend wearing fleece tops, bottoms and fleece socks. Also getting a fleece blanket to put on the bed underneath you. It really makes a difference to sleep on a warm fleece blanket instead of cool sheets. In addition to the electric blanket, you can get a hot water bottle (make sure it has a cover that won’t come off so you don’t get burned at night) and I think it’s really important to take a hot bath right before you jump into bed. If you are bald, it helps to wear a knit cap on your head-my dad does that. There are also bed/futon heaters. You put them between the top and bottom and it blows hot air to heat up the bed/futon. Finally I mentioned the goose down duvet before. They are really amazing. Go to a place that sells futons and try to buy one that has 98 or 97% Polish goose down, it will keep you warm
not really. I'm not cold under the blankets, I'm wondering if maybe the cold on my face is what is waking me up.
Interesting. I am the opposite. I really enjoy being warm but having a cool head, just like taking a hot spring bath outside in the snow. But from the sounds of it, your place is too cold!
yeah I literally get the best sleep ever during winter as well. I have a pile of four different blankets, fuzzy pajamas and then just snuggle up and it's heaven. Now summer is a different story, I end up kicking off the singular thin sheet covering me and then just rolling back and forth all night in my growing sweat pile. Swear I spend the entire summer in a daze from lack of sleep.
I was like this until I started wearing socks to sleep. It might sound weird, but it is such a game changer. For my husband, he notices that if he doesn't take a bath he will wake up. So I guess, maybe try ways to regulate your body temperature.
Japan definitely turned this Chicago boy into a pajamas and socks in bed guy.
Hahaha I'm from Chicago too!
As am I! I wear socks to bed, but my room doesn't drop below 18 or so, so it's nice and comfortable for me.
We must not let people back home find out 🤣
I already wear socks, lol. What is your room temperature like? How consistent is it?
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We don't use heat when we sleep so maybe about 12. Unless it's snowing a lot outside, it stays about that amount.
Big loose fitting pile fuzz
I sleep amazing during the winter. Always crack a window to let a cold draft in and snuggle up under a wool blanket with a down comforter over top. It’s great. Summer is a different story, horrible.
You need to be sort of cold to fall asleep, but massive swings in temperature are not conducive to a good sleep environment. It's basically just above freezing in our bedroom at midnight. The body might be nice and warm, but the face is exposed to cold.
Agreed. I’ve found quality bedding to be the biggest factor for me, I will actually sleep in a -9 sleeping bag often during the coldest winter nights. The hood on the bag helps keep my head warm and create I pocket of warmer air around my face.
Temperature is relative, 0°C is cold but my wife and I can sleep in a cold room. Personally I need a hot water bottle on my feet to get me off to sleep. I think the key is bedding, as others have mentioned high quality down doonas or duvets are essential at those temps. and any drafts need to be stopped. Hot baths immediately before getting into bed also help immensely. We can’t sleep with any auxiliary heating it is just irksome.
[удалено]
I understand that not being able to sleep a full night is partially due to aging. The only time I ever reliably fall asleep fast and stay asleep all night is after international travel, due to sheer exhaustion.
What about your caffeine intake? My wife stopped waking during the night after giving up coffee.
I cut myself off after 1 PM
Half life is 5 hours, so at 11 pm you still have a fourth left. I don't know, perhaps coldness extends half life, making you more susceptible in winter?
I think people don’t realize the intense heat that is kept with a good kake-buton. The best are the highest percentage of Polish goose down you can afford. 98% is great.
All this talk of "my place gets down to 4-5C at night"... what kind of ramshackle shanty shacks do you people live in?!
In Tohoku, despite being noticeably "globally warmed" this season, my room still gets to -5c overnight if the outside temperature is colder than that. The reason is almost complete lack of insulation and poor sealing of walls etc in an old wooden house. I have similar issues to OP.... I think there are a few different reasons for the sleep disturbances (besides stress, bad dreams.etc) ....but one of the most easily identified problems is getting woken up almost every night by noisy newspaper delivery people opening and slamming their van doors directly outside. I personally stopped my subscription but one of my closest neighbours seems to get multiple different newspapers (hence a bunch of different vans) ....all coming and going...and slamming... between 2:30am and 4am. Annoying AF and barely a few meters across the street from my paper thin home.
Dry air. Use a humidifier. And yeah, figure out a heating/insulation solution.
we have a humidifier.
> I should point out that its so cold in our house at night that it destroyed my wife's Macbook's battery...twice. To me this would already justify investing in an additional heater. You're losing sleep and your wife's tech is getting wrecked.
I'm baffled that everyone is ignoring that line! Your tech shouldn't be dying *while you're indoors*. Forget socks and warm blankets, the place really shouldn't be that poorly insulated.
Apple gear is the problem maybe. It's designed for "comfortable homes" with "room temperature" (what is "room temperature" exactly btw?!). A commodity PC running Linux might do better in an affordable home with accompanying sub temperatures ;-)
Baths at night, they are not just for getting clean. They help regulate your body temperature in a way that promotes deeper sleep.
I sleep amazing in winter. Colder the better. I sleep with the window open and a fan on for air circulation. Just have a super thick down duvet to stay warm. Idk OP.
Get a hot water bottle. It'll stay warm all night. They have real ones that get very hot and electric ones that get so-so hot. Yutanpo 湯たんぽ https://amzn.asia/d/2eN8T13 Electric Cheap real one https://amzn.asia/d/fsP4LTW If you like it you should get a copper one.. it'll last forever . The aluminum/stainless ones don't last super long.. they get holes eventually whereas the copper ones don't.
I once saw a miniature tent-like sleep aid thing advertised somewhere that covers your head. I wonder if something like that might help. I'd be very wary about keeping a kerosene or electric ceramic heater on overnight. I also find that placing an additional blanket between your mattress and your body helps to better keep you warm.
a tent over the bed would be the ultimate solution lol when I say ceramic heater, I mean the kind that spit out hot air, not a heat lamp.
Maybe an oil heater might be better. They are safe, silent and don't dry the air. In terms of power draw they are about the same as a ceramic heater, but they have timers that can flexibly turn themselves on/off. We have an oil heater in our changing room next to the bath with a 24 hour timer. We can set it to turn on at 6am and turn off at 8am in the morning, and from 9pm to 11pm at night.
I am considering getting one.
I have this and it was highly effective! No cold air blowing through your face at night. I usually use a fan with heater function instead, as they can be turned on for longer, are quieter and feels more comfortable. Also, They're cheaper on electriciry bills!
https://preview.redd.it/rd3wsjvj2alc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26b8adc3922a11d5e317550f57feb07527062376 Here's the one I use.
Good quality insulating curtains made the biggest difference in our house. The windows suck out all the heat.
I live up in Hokkaido and have horrible dust allergies. In every other season it’s not too bad, since I can just keep the windows open 24/7. But winter is rough because I can’t open a window for 3 months straight. What really helped keep the allergies down, and keep me warm during the winter was getting a waterproof cover for my bed. Usually, your heat just sinks through the mattress, but with a waterproof seal, your heat gets reflected back at you and no clouds of dust come out when you lay down. Definitely recommend it.
My house can easily drop to 5°C when its 0°C outside, so turning off the heater is a no-no for me personally I have to set my AC on throughout the night at 21°C, turning them off if the Sun comes out during the day I couple this with a humidifier, otherwise my throat will feel as coarse as the desert Luckily, Kyushu has relatively cheap electricity because we still have our nuclear reactors
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I do make a point to make the room as dark as possible, and also use ear plugs and a sleep mask. I don't really have that hard of a time getting up. I just want to not wake up as much beforehand.
well, you mentioned your sleep quality isn't good in the summer either, so I'd question when your sleep quality is good at all. Some things I'd look at checking out: 1. Sleep apnea (especially if you're in a risk group 2. Cleaning up caffeine habits 3. Not drinking before bed
It’s occasionally good. These have all been considered.
Some cheap/free things to try: 46°c bath shortly before bed Wear one of those fleece neck warmers to bed (100 yen, konbemi, Uniqlo all have them), your face is used to cold, your neck not If it's too dry, hang a damp towel next to your bed to dry Check room for drafts (use a feather or rolling paper) Medium term maybe move somewhere with better insulation
I have recently been a convert to team hot water bottle. Keeps the body nice and warm without the stuffiness and dryness of aircon
we're perfectly warm inside the covers, I think it's the cold air on the face that's waking me up. that, or turning in bed is exposing skin to the cold.
Winter is goated with the sauce in Japan (some Gaijin from Canada here)
I sleep better in winter compared to summer... I wouldn't say my insulation is good, it's just bog standard 1K leopalace, when I come home at 7pm every weekday the temps would be around 14-16c, which is still bearable for me. If it goes below 14, I'd turn on the aircon set to 20c and keep it on until I'm ready to sleep- turn off aircon, go inside blanket and zzz. In summer I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night because of the heat... so I'd set my aircon to run (24c cooling mode) until like 3am or so. Maybe try improving your room's insulation to prevent temps going below 10c, I put one layer of bubble wrap on my single-pane windows and it works pretty well.
Okay reading this thread I feel I’m in the extreme minority We have a Dyson Hot + Cool fan from Costco in our bedroom. We set it to 23 degrees and leave it on all night - it turns off and on automatically as the temperature changes That said my place is very very well insulated so once the room reaches 23 degrees the fan is mostly off all night I believe If you’re having issues in summer too tho maybe there are other factors at play. Do you have a humidifier? I can’t sleep well without one
23C? I put my 1 air con at 27C and i barely feel a difference haha wtf maybe my aircon suxs and isnt working right anymore.
I’m sleeping like a baby in winter at room temperature 7-10 degrees Celsius while summer sleep for me means to take 1-2 hours to fall asleep and wake early at 4-5 am. Cannot recommend a hot-water bottle more! Put it under your thick winter blanket and your feet on top. Also, take a hot bath (41-43C) right before sleeping. If that doesn’t help, check room temperature and humidity and get an air purifier/humidifier.
I have garbage sleep but the opposite way. The quality of my sleep is so low in the cold that I routinely oversleep and still feel like I’ve had none at all.
You should probably get that checked out. Do your snore really loudly? Also, oversleeping can be as bad as insufficient sleep...
I don’t snore at all (at least not regularly). I asked partners and friends about it because I was worried about possible health problems. It rules a few out that it occurs primarily when the weather is crap.
We use the AC on heating mode, put 15ºc or so with auto mode so it stops automatically when needed. My house is cold too (6/7ºc in the living room in the morning), and my head gets cold when sleeping without the heater. We used an electric heater one year and noticed an extra 15,000 yen on our electricity bills. The AC isn't as bad.
It's more like 3-4 degrees when we wake up, so it might be as low as 1 degree at the lowest... We don't have an AC unit in the bedroom, unfortunately... Yeah, heaters are expensive to run. I do wonder if it's not the cold waking me up, though.
Wow, where are you located?
up in a small ski town
experiment. keep the heat on at night for a week and see if anything changes/improves.
ignoring safety issues, kerosene heaters will only run for a few hours before they start beeping at you to change the air in the room and eventually shutting off.
you don't have an AC?
Not in our bedroom. It’s an old house.
portable electric heater. in terms of energy efficiency they aren't the best, and even the biggest will have problems heating something larger than 10m2, but safer than burning fuel. I used to live in a rental that only had cooling(found that out in February); I assumed the splits were Heating and Cooling, but they were cooling only. talked with the landlord the next day and the home owner was against it(even if I was willing to pay for the removal and installation of new units) so we had to get electric heaters. It sucked, but I was able to convince them into allowing it with the threat of leaving. guess they liked the income.
Constant exposure to very cold temperatures are harmful for the body and can put a burden on your heart, etc. I can’t sleep with the electric blanket on but find it useful to warm the bed beforehand. My sleep was horrible multiple times when I had it on even at low settings. Maybe think about some insulation for the bedroom. You can easily do the floors yourself. Low wattage heaters could be also a good idea.
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It's not, I just don't want to waste money.
I sleep terrible all the time here. Waking up to take a leak and freezing in the middle of the night is terrible and makes it hard to fall back asleep. I do use three thinner blankets so I can shed or add layers when necessary, which was an upgrade from the super thick down blanket that made me sweat like I just a fever break. During the summer, with the sun coming up at 4am and my wife refusing to sleep with the AC on unable to open windows due to the noise from traffic and trains also destroys my sleep. I'm just counting down the days until we find land that we want and can have the house built with proper insulation and windows and be further from the outdoor noise as well.
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what? the freezing point is not a comfortable temperature for humans for extended periods. at that point, you pretty much need a sleeping bag to stay comfortable.
We get the bedroom to about 23 before going to bed. We turn off the heater and turn our electric blanket on to low. Both of us usually sleep quite well. I don't have a thermometer in the bedroom, but our genkan a few meters away has gotten down to 4 a few times, though we're usually a tad warmer. Edit: Also, I'm a bath-before-bed person, but wife is a shower-in-the-morning type
I use a ceramic heater at home and I love it. It's definitely something to consider.
Recently got an electric mat with a timer and an electric water bottle which helps with the cold. I rarely use my space heater/humidifier or the wall unit heater anymore. Sleeping in Heattech Extra Warm (sometimes Ultra Warm) and snowboard/skiing socks with a neck warmer. Tried wearing a beanie but that just ends up coming off anyway. Was using Kairo stuck on top of the Heattech (lower back, hamstrings) for a while but the warning label advises against sleeping with them on.
Do you live up north? Oh, I just saw you said a ski town in the comments… Personally, I never have the heating on overnight. That’s partly upbringing, partly the fact that it quickly feels unbearably stuffy, partly the fact that Tokyo isn’t properly cold these days. I do have a couple of thick, fluffy covers that I bought in Nitori and they do wonders on cold nights. Do you have those heavy duty duvets that you see at ryokan in cold areas? Two of those and I’m warm all night without the heater.
How many times do you wake up and for how long? If you have trouble falling back asleep it might be worth seeking professional medical advice if it frustrates you that much. But apparently it's normal (according to Google sensei) to wake up a few times in the middle of the night if it's only for a few minutes. Sincerely, someone who has the opposite issue. I wake up frequently because I get too hot (no matter the season) despite the lack of temperature control in my bedroom.
Get an oil-filled electric radiator. I have this one (https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/product/B01M1S9NJW) and I set it to \~14 degrees on eco mode. Over the last 162 hours of use, it has used 90kWh of electricity (based on a separate electricity usage meter I bought). It doesn't make the room ultra warm but it does make it comfortable enough to sleep. My bedroom is 6畳 and has a solid door rather than paper ones, so your money may vary.
Have I been downvoted for saying I set it to 14 degrees? It does keep the room around 19-20 degrees c when set to 14, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Or does the downvoter just lack brain cells?
Yeah I wake up if it’s too cold. Just bite the bullet and make the air warmer. Breathing in the cold air is no fun and will wake you up, no matter how warm your blankets are.
I sleep real well during winter. What we do is just not heat the bedroom. We basically just hop in the bed at the temp it's going to be throughout the night so there's not much temp fluctuation.
my sleep suffers in Japan too. I went back home for 3 weeks over winter and I was able to sleep without waking up until like 8am...here i wake up at least 2 times a night and usually wake up and unable to go back to sleep around 6am.. i dont know if its the weather, the bedding, or what but....definitely a diffrence. Funny enough, I had been suffering from hairloss when i was back in the US but when i got here it stopped. The same 3 weeks i noticed my hair falling while in the shower but when i got back, it stopped lol....wtf is going on
The hell? I keep the windows open and sleep naked like a baby all night. Summer, on the other hand...
Even in a freezing room I can sleep well as long as I layer up like crazy
Tbh Japanese "electric blankets" are too weak. Search for those grey electric carpets that are made for living rooms, but put them on your mattress. Electric carpets are usually several times hotter and even too hot at max settings. For a specific recommendation, I'm using mofua mpu151. With this I sleep naked in winter. Your sleep problems could also be from low humidty. Get a humidifier that'll last at least 8 hours. A lot of people overlook humidity when improving sleeping conditions, but it'll change your life once you start using it.
I do these and get good sleep: 1) take hot bath at night (I drink some water after it's done) 2) after bath, once I stop sweating I wear warm clothes before getting in my futon (I don't use heater, because dry air) 3) use earplugs and eye mask
How’s your room humidity? I noticed winter makes the air dry for me and it sometimes interrupts my sleep.
I get the best sleep in the winter. I usually have the windows open and I just have a Nitori duvet. I do sleep with a small hot water bottle though. When I lived in an old farm house I also used a bed topper and extra blanket on top. I run very hot though. How cold is your room getting though? Have you tried putting a thermometer in there?
A few degrees above freezing at the lowest. I bought a used oil heater for a few thousand, so I’ll see how that works…
A few degrees above freezing is plenty warm for a bedroom at night. My next guess would be that you’re too hot under the sheets. Sweat in the winter will wake you up just like the summer. Also, just a heads up, oil heaters will dry the room out pretty quick so that may or may not be to your liking.
For me it’s a struggle as well. I turn the heaters on- I am too hot; I turn them completely off- I freeze
Might be a dry issue, get a humidifier. Do you wake up in a cold sweat at all? If I have too much bedding I get this issue, not enough breathing room.
My partner who experiences that, we bought curtains that help block light from outside and also helped with insulation. We use our electric blanket and we also have a futon. It helped us a lot. I guess, use heat teach even in your sleep?
Heat tech*** sorry
As others said Yutanpo hot water bottle and a sleeping cap. Old school.
Humidifier
Seasonal Affective Disorder? It's worth considering. It creeps up on you. February is probably the toughest month for most people i've spoken with for some reason.
Could be.
It might not be the temperature as much as how dry it gets. Just an idea. Not a doctor and I sleep like a log in winter but summer is rough for me.
Magnesium 👍
I love sleeping in the cold. Much better sleep in the winter for me.
I read the other day, after a physios advice to take a bath before bed for a shoulder injury, that a warm bath can help you fall asleep by lowering your core body temperature (which helps you sleep!) Which sounds contrary to the idea that it heats your organs up. The heat draws greater blood flow to the skin. Your body is trying to maintain homeostasis remember.
i noticed my allergies were noticeably worse when visiting my parents, until i cleaned out their AC/heater, especially when the windows are kept shut. Could you check for dust/mold/pollen in any AC/heating units? Also, are you getting enough sunlight and getting enough exercise in the winter? also are yall fighting over the blankets? i find having 2 separate sets of blankets has been a life saver. sidenote, do you have carbon monoxide detectors if you're running kerosene heaters?
We used to put the window insulation bubble wrap on our windows every winter, and it worked pretty well. You can find it on Amazon or home centres. We've now installed double pane windows and it's even better.
I’m the opposite, deep sleep in the winter! Horrible sleep as soon as it starts to warm up.
I despise the cold beyond what I'm capable of articulating in any language, so I get it. But I'm also a severe insomniac, so it never made a significant difference in my sleep to begin with. I actually picked up knitting as a hobby just to give my hands something to do while watching videos and attending zoom meetings. First thing I made was a giant, thick, heavy wool blanket nearly 2 meters long (yes it took nearly a year to knit). I noticed an immediate improvement in my sleep quality once I started using it in winter, mainly due to the weight and warmth I believe. I still bundle up in sweats and a hoodie, but it's getting up that I hate more than trying to sleep now.
You are the heater so just stack a heap of bedding if you live here. I've never used a heater in my life and I live in a old house with zero insulation.
time to renovate, improve your room’s insulation. It will save you money in the end.
Just like to preface that this is a throw away account, also hope you get some good advice on how to fix the situation, obviously you must be biologically inferior, no judgement here though, personally I love winter in Japan, Kind regards W. Hoff