Ideas The World Needs That I’ll Never Do #3: Temperature-Controlled Sleep
I sleep hot. And from what I can tell, I’m not alone. My wife recently bought us a big, fluffy down comforter, and while I love slipping into it every night, within about 2 hours it’s basically a wet sauna — blazingly hot and humid. I prefer to wear t-shirts to bed, but waking up drenched around 2am is both entirely unromantic and isn’t good for sleep quality.
Pretty much everyone I’ve ever talked to suffers the same fate. Sheets (even nice ones) aren’t particularly breathable and comforters / blankets are amazingly good at collecting and retaining the heat put out by one or two 98.6-degree humans.
We give short shrift to something we spend 1/3 of every day doing. I’ve seen a rise in fancy mattress purveyors, but nobody seems to have a great answer to just getting a comfortable night’s sleep.
So I’ve Googled a bit. I’ve learned a ton, and I’ve found all sorts of strange contraptions that are trying (poorly) to address the problem. The issue seems to be a combination of the heat and the humidity given off by a sentient human being, so the ideal solution provides circulation, dehumidification and heat removal.
The solutions so far are weak. The Chilipad and Bedjet are prime examples. I haven’t actually tried either because I’m disappointed with any solution that involves a super-unsightly mechanical device, pumps, maintenance and noise. Both of them require specific sheets or mattress pads. They’re all energy hogs. And they’re both expensive (i.e. $400–1,000 or more.) My wife simply wouldn’t allow any of these devices into our bedroom.
I don’t have the perfect solution, but I’d love for someone to try some basic (and ideally passive) stuff first . How about comforters with reinforced slats or holes in them to allow heat and moisture to escape up? How about risers at the edges of the bed that allow the passage of air (and possibly a low-energy circulating fan)? How about mattresses that have gaps a few inches under the top layer to disperse heat? Heat and moisture-absorbing mattress pads that pull the heat away (and maybe even store energy)? I’m confident any mid-level NASA scientist could solve this problem with materials that typically aren’t associated with mattresses.
I could do more research on this topic, but the point of this blog post is to accept that I don’t really have the time or motivation to solve this challenge. So I’m hoping someone else can take the lead, so that my days of awaking in a pool of sweat can come to an end. :)
