🔥 Manage Heat for MS so You can Sleep Best
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SUMMARY
Jen DeTracey shares 5 key methods plus bonus tips on how to manage heat for MS so you can fall asleep at night. These are methods she using during the summer months. Jen also shares research on how heat causes brain inflammation.
🔥Manage Heat for MS so You Can Sleep Best
Let's talk about managing heat for MS, so that you can sleep your best. I'm going to share a five methods, but before I do, let's look at the concept that managing heat for MS is an inside job. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, I'm talking about the penthouse suite, your head, keeping it cool and the first floor, your feet, keeping them cool.
Read this post all the way until the end because I'm going to share bonus tips!
I have a feeling that heat can cause inflammation of the brain so I did a little digging and here's what I found. This information is from Discovery Magazine in July 2021 so it only on year old from the time of this blog post.
Neuroscientist, Lav Varshney says at high temperatures. (Now, I don't know how high he means.) The blood brain barrier breaks down. So the unwanted proteins and ions are built up in the brain causing inflammation and messing up normal functioning.
Very interesting. So inflammation is something that all people experience when heat happens at a certain level. We want to get the inflammation down in the brain because as MSers, we already live with inflammation.
We also want to talk about feet. If you're sitting for long periods of time, it's very common to have swollen feet. Especially, if you're not moving around and getting that blood circulation happening (I have a blog post on how to get the blood circulating in your feet).
You want to cool down your feet so that you're not dealing with swelling during time when the weather is hot so we are going to address this too.
If you have heat intolerances as a person that lives with MS, you might also have cold intolerance. That's not the case for me, but if you do, when I go through these five methods with you, try them out and see what might work for you and what might not.
We know that with heat and cold there can be temporary MS symptoms cropping up. I certainly don't want you to go through that. The five methods I'm sharing with you are methods that I personally use. I'm not an expert scientist or doctor. I'm a woman that lives with MS. I've been living with MS for over 11 years. I'm talking about this from my own personal experience.
You may have air conditioning in your home. You might put it on all day and night, and you know that it's expensive to do this. Or you may be a person that can't afford air conditioning to be on all the time, or you don't have an air conditioner depending on where you live and what your finances are.
The five methods that I'm going to share with you are going to be very helpful because they don't involve an air conditioning. Although I must admit that it is nice to have AC. I do have one in my home. It blows down the hallway from the kitchen to the living room. However, the rooms off of the hallway, the bedroom and the office do not necessarily get much of this cold air.
So for me, as someone who heats up very quickly, I really had to strategize, what are the techniques that I could use that would help me most? Here are the five methods:
#1 Sunset Walks
You're going to think this is strange. I'm telling you right now, sunset walks. Why? Why would I recommend sunset walks? Well, if you've been inside all day, because you're hot, then you haven't gotten any fresh air and you haven't gotten your body moving outside. When the sun goes down and it's cooler, it's so much nicer to go for a walk and get that blood circulation happening in the body.
Whether it's five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes or half an hour, I like to do it after dinner. You don't want to do too late, but you do want to do it when things cool down. If you are unable to walk, you can certain enjoy getting out in the fresh air if possible and move your body in the the best way that you can.
#2 Head and Feet Cool Down
Cool down your head and your feet. You're going to do it with cold water. Now, hopefully even in the summertime, when it gets hot, you have cold water coming out of your taps. This can be a problem for me at a certain point in the summer when it gets very hot. Then, I have to look at other options like water and ice to cool down my body parts.
When there is still cold water, I like to sit on the edge of the tub. I don't know what your situation is with your home and how it's set up and your mobility. So you know what's going to work best for you.
I sit on the edge of the tub and I will put my feet under the tap one foot at a time and cool down my feet to get any swelling down. I like to do my knees too. When you get cold water on the knees, then you really feel the cooling down happening.
It's actually easier for me to just hop in the shower and get your head wet under cold water, and then do my feet and body. I need to feel extremely over heated to do this. It's fast and effective.
Basically it's about cooling your head and your feet. Penthouse suite and the first floor!
#3 Soft Ice Pack to Cool Down Your Bedding
I use a soft one. You need to use a dish towel or a tea towel and wrap it in it to protect yourself so that you don't get frost burn on your precious skin. What I'd like to do is I like to put the ice pack on top of my pillow and let it sit there for five minutes so that my pillows nice and cold before I go to sleep.
Then I move the ice pack to the sheets where my body will rest and leave it there there for five minutes. And when I come to bed, I like to crawl in and put it around my neck to cool it down. Having a soft ice pack is a cost effective way to cool down your body and make your sleeping environment more comfortable.
#4 Light this Covers at Night
Make sure that you don't have a lot of covers on when you go to sleep at night. I recommend either covering yourself with a sheet or having a light comforter cover without the duvet inside. The reason for that is that when you sleep with just a thin layer on top of you, you still feel like you psychologically have something on top of you.
I prefer to be covered with a sheet when it's hot in the house. It's more comforting. You can always add extra layers in the night if necessary. If you go into bed with all these layers on, and then you get hot after you've done all these cooling techniques, it defeats the purpose. The key that we're looking is to be cool enough to be able to fall asleep.
In fact all of these methods that I'm sharing with you are there to help you fall asleep. Once you fall asleep, if you wake up in the night, you can always come back to putting the ice pack behind your neck to cool you down again.
#5 Fans set up for cooling
You may already use fans. So let me just share with you the techniques that I use that have worked for me. If you have a ceiling fan, that can be helpful. Sometimes when I haven't vertigo, I do not like to have that ceiling fan on. Maybe you can relate.
But most of the time I'll have a ceiling fan on low when I go to sleep at night. Having the air push downward towards you can make a big difference. I also have a smaller fan that I put on my nightstand that's blowing near by my face.
I don't like cool air blowing directly against my face. It disrupts my sleep. So you have to find that comfort level for you. However, I don't mind it shooting down my neck or closer to my body. Now, if you don't have two fans, at least get a little fan that you can have near you to blow close by because that can make a big difference.
Bonus Tips
#1 Use a Dehumidifier
If you live in a humid environment as I do, I like to put on the dehumidifier in the house a couple of hours before going to sleep to suck out that moisture.
I really believe that can make a big difference to remove the humidity in the house. If it's really humid, I put dehumidifier on for the entire night. I leave my bedroom door open and so that I can pull out that humidity from the AC machine in the kitchen. You may live in a dry climate and that may not be relevant to you. I live in Montreal, Canada. It's extremely humid in the summertime, and that can be pretty tough for me.
#2 Best Temperature to Sleep
You want to keep your temperature while you're sleeping between 17 and 20 degrees Celsius that works out between 63 to 67 Fahrenheit.
#3 Keep Your Curtain/Blinds Closed
Make sure that your blinds or curtains are closed so that no sunlight can get in during the day. Now, if it's really cool in the morning and you want to have fresh air in your house, you can open up the bedroom window until the temperature gets to about that 17/65 degrees and then close your window and curtains to keep the coolness in your bedroom. You may even want to close the door.
Jen DeTracey is the founder of Women Thriving with MS and a certified coach. Women Thriving with MS is an online community for women living with MS. You can join the private Women Thriving with MS Facebook group it's free and YouTube channel. Jen offers online courses, a membership and coaching.
Jen's been living with multiple sclerosis for over 11 years. She went through this process of surviving with MS to striving MS to thriving MS. She is a guide, coach and teacher who helps you move forward on your journey from surviving to thriving with MS.
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