Why can we not sleep when we’re too hot in bed, but will nod off by a roaring fire or in a warm lecture theatre?
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You regulate heat by a combination of vascular adjustments and sweating (evaporation is endothermic). Covers make sweating less efficient because it increases the ambient humidity near your body, making the sweat evaporate more slowly. You are also insulated by the bed and covers. This means that when your vasculature constricts, flushing your external capillaries with blood to throw off heat, your skin comes into less contact with circulating air.
Edit: insulated
White noise. It calms us down. We gained this feature during evolution I guess – to sleep when it is raining outside or a campfire is lit – during peaceful times when you can’t go outside for hunting etc.
Well, because in those cases you’re not *too* hot–you don’t have a thick bedcover over you, for a start. I’m sure if you were in a lecture theatre that was *uncomfortably* warm, you wouldn’t nod off.
Another reason you might get tired in a lecture theatre is the CO2 concentration in the room might gradually rise, especially when the room has poor ventilation and lots of people
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