I spent a decade in the dark, watching patients struggle through the night while wired to a headbox, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people are far too quick to blame their brains for a bad night’s sleep. I see it every week in the clinic: someone convinced they have chronic insomnia, when in reality, they are just shivering under a duvet because they haven’t figured out how to keep a bedroom warm enough in winter. We’ve been sold this idea that sleep hygiene requires expensive smart mattresses or complex breathing rituals, but most of the…

I spent ten years in a darkened sleep lab, watching patients struggle through restless nights while tethered to a dozen sensors, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people are being sold a lie. You don’t need a £500 “smart” cooling mattress or a high-tech wearable that tells you your sleep was “suboptimal” just because you woke up sweating. Most of the time, when people ask me how to cool a bedroom in summer, they aren’t suffering from a complex circadian rhythm disorder; they are simply trying to sleep in a room that has become a literal…

I spent a decade in the dark, sitting in clinical observation rooms while patients lay wired to headboxes, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people are far too quick to buy into the “sleep hack” industrial complex. You don’t need a £300 smart ring or a subscription-based app to tell you that you had a restless night; most of the time, you’re just sweating under a duvet that’s far too heavy. We spend so much time obsessing over complex sleep scores that we completely overlook the most basic biological reality of how bedroom temperature affects sleep.…