A red warning of extreme temperatures was issued for the UK, with parts set to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) by Thursday. Lindsay Browning, a sleep expert with a doctorate in insomnia from the University of Oxford, has shared the hot weather sleep mistakes most people make and advice on how to sleep through the night amid soaring temperatures.

Five biggest sleep mistakes people make during a heatwave:

1. Opening bedroom windows: Many people open their windows during the daytime when it’s hot outside, but if the air outside is warmer than inside, you’re actually letting this heat into the room. Instead, keep your blinds, curtains and windows closed during the day and open your windows later in the evening once the outside temperatures have started to fall and the sun is no longer heating the room.

2. Eating spicy foods for dinner: Heavy meals and spicy foods too close to bedtime can make you feel hotter at night. It’s a good idea to deliberately try to cool yourself down before bed with a cool shower and washing away any sweat that might have built up from a hot day.

3. Sleeping naked: While sleeping naked might seem like the best way to keep cool at night, wearing the right pajamas can actually be more effective. Many people find lightweight cotton pajamas and cotton bedding more comfortable in hot weather because they can help to wick away moisture.

4. Using your normal bedding: If you haven’t already, you might want to rethink your bedding during a heatwave. Either make sure that you are using a very light tog duvet, or you may not need a duvet at all. A cotton sheet or an empty duvet cover can often feel much more comfortable.

5. Stressing about losing sleep: Lastly, and extremely importantly, try not to panic if you can’t sleep. Heatwaves can make sleep more difficult, but worrying about not sleeping often makes the problem worse. Most people are surprisingly resilient at coping with a few nights of disrupted sleep, and your sleep will usually return to normal once temperatures cool down.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.