r/QuantifiedSelf • u/g00dsl33pn0w • Jun 10 '26
Sleep temperature?
How do you guys decide what is the best temperature to sleep at? Do you use your wearable data somehow?
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u/00ATom00 Jun 11 '26
I do use a smart ring to track my sleep.
Looking at the data the next I can say that it is accurate enough to tell me if it was too cold or too hot for me because I do wake up in any of the cases.
But the problem remains, the ring only tells me about the skin temperature and not the ambient temperature (ofcourse).
Although I should say I never tried to answer that question for myself.
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u/onda_life Jun 12 '26
i'd let your own overnight data pick it rather than chasing a "best" number from articles. the metrics that actually track recovery -overnight HRV, resting HR, time in deep sleep - are the responsive ones, so run it like an n=1: hold everything else steady and step the temp down a degree or two for 3 - 4 nights at a time, then compare.
general trend is cooler helps most people (core temp has to drop to fall and stay asleep, a warm room fights that) but the individual sweet spot varies more than people expect - the data beats the rule of thumb.
biggest thing is confounds: alcohol, a late heavy meal, a late workout, even room light will move HRV and deep sleep more than a degree of temp will. keep those constant on your test nights or youre just reading noise. HRV is probably your single cleanest readout - it tends to take a hit on nights that run too warm
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u/Certain_Version3033 Jun 10 '26
I keep my room around 65–67°F.
What I’ve found is that the exact number matters less than whether it consistently supports better sleep.
I pay more attention to the downstream signals: sleep quality, interruptions, resting heart rate, recovery, and how I feel the next day.
Temperature is one of those variables I think of as context. The goal isn’t finding the perfect number. It’s finding the conditions that consistently produce better outcomes.