There's nothing quite like waking up in the morning feeling fully rested and refreshed. That kind of feeling only comes from getting a full, restful night’s sleep, usually, the doctor-recommended eight hours for most people. It’s an important way to start your day feeling focused, alert and ready.

This means the opposite can happen if you don’t get a night of proper sleep. You can wake up still tired, lack the ability to concentrate, with dull reflexes and slow awareness. If you want to avoid that terrible feeling, you need to make sure your home conditions are conducive to getting to sleep quickly. Hot summers can actually get in the way of this, but your air conditioning can save you!

Take the Time to Settle on an Ideal Temperature

This may not be as simple as you envisioned since there are often many more factors this than just physical comfort. Of course, staying cool during the summer is the primary factor in lowering your temperature for your air conditioning, but for many people, there are also financial conditions.

The lower you set your air conditioning temperature to, the longer and more frequently your HVAC system will need to work, especially during heatwaves. That can result in some uncomfortable spikes in your electrical bill when you get it at the end of the month.

If you want to make sure that you’re still able to function in relative comfort, without raising your electricity bill too high from AC overuse, try setting the temperature to about 78°. Experts peg that temperature to be the ideal balance between cool enough to feel comfortable, and not overworking your air conditioning.

Use Fans to Help Your AC

Even if you have air conditioning in your home, that doesn’t mean that fans are redundant. They can actually help your AC to attain greater efficiency, especially if the fans you have are ceiling fans!

When ceiling fans are set to a counterclockwise rotation, they cycle air downwards. They also help to circulate air within a room more effectively than air conditioning thanks to the size of the blades. They take that cool air, more evenly distribute it, and create a pleasant breeze that makes sleeping more comfortable. They can even increase AC efficiency by up to 40%.

Keep Humidity Under Control

Humidity is often the worst factor in keeping a person up at night. That’s for multiple reasons. Humidity itself can often magnify the feeling of heat in the air, as well as make the air itself feel damp, uncomfortable and muggy thanks to the added moisture.

But humidity also disables your natural cooling defense mechanism, sweating. Normally, your perspiration evaporates, and that process cools your body down. When humidity is high, sweat forms on your skin, but no longer evaporate because the air is already filled with moisture.

If you’re in bed, sweating into your sheets and mattress, this can make sleeping very difficult. But good air conditioning can keep this at bay. It’s hard to predict when the heat and humidity of summer will affect Durham, NC but by smartly using your air conditioning, you can still stay cool at night, and get a full, restful sleep.