In a new study, researchers found a new way for people to get better sleep at night.
They found that bathing 1-2 hours before bedtime in the water of about 104-109 degrees Fahrenheit can significantly improve night sleep.
The research was conducted by biomedical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin and other institutes.
Previous research has supported links between water-based body heating and better sleep.
It has shown both sleep and the body’s core temperature are regulated by a circadian clock located within the brain’s hypothalamus that drives the 24-hour patterns of many biological processes, including sleep and wakefulness.
The average person’s circadian cycle is characterized by a reduction in core body temperature of about 0.5 to 1 F around an hour before usual sleep time, dropping to its lowest level between the middle and later span of nighttime sleep.
It then begins to rise, acting as a kind of a biological alarm clock wake-up signal.
This temperature cycle leads to the sleep cycle and is an essential factor in having rapid and high-efficiency sleep.
In the study, the team did a review of published studies that linked water-based passive body heating, or bathing and showering with warm/hot water with better sleep.
They reviewed 5,322 studies in total.
The results showed that an optimum bath temperature of between 104 and 109 degrees Fahrenheit improved overall sleep quality.
In addition, the optimal timing of bathing for cooling down of core body temperature in order to improve sleep quality is about 90 minutes before going to bed.
When scheduled 90 minutes before bedtime, bathing can also hasten the speed of falling asleep by an average of 10 minutes.
The team suggests that if baths are taken at the right biological time—1-2 hours before bedtime—they will help with the natural circadian process and help people fall asleep quickly and have better quality sleep.
The team now is designing a commercially viable bed system with UT-patented Selective Thermal Stimulation technology.
It can help people control their body temperature and maintain one’s optimum temperatures throughout the night.
The lead author of the study is Shahab Haghayegh, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
The study is published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews.
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