Jo Hemmings on Heatwaves, Sleep and Why We All Get Grumpier After a Bad Night

When the temperature rises, it's not just our bedrooms that become uncomfortable. A poor night's sleep can have a ripple effect on almost every part of our lives.

In the latest episode of The MarshyCast, I caught up with behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings to explore how hot weather is impacting our sleep, our mood and even our relationships.

Jo explained that one restless night doesn't simply leave us feeling tired. It can affect our concentration, patience and decision-making, making us more likely to become short-tempered with family, friends and colleagues without even realising it.

Thankfully, we also discussed some simple ways to improve sleep during warmer nights. From making small changes to your evening routine to practical ideas that help you stay cool without keeping your partner awake, Jo shared advice that's easy to put into practice.

If you've found yourself feeling a little more irritable during the recent hot weather, this conversation might explain why.

🎧 You can hear the full conversation now on The MarshyCast, available on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

Find me on all social media @paulswampymarsh

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Ever noticed how one bad night's sleep can ruin your entire day? On this episode of the Marticast, I'm joined by behavioural psychologist Joe Hemmings to talk about how soaring temperatures are affecting far more than just our sleep. We discussed why a restless night can leave us feeling irritable, less productive, and even more likely to snap at family or colleagues. And perhaps most importantly, Joe shares some practical tips to help you stay cool, sleep better, and avoid disturbing your partner in the process. It's Paul Marsh, and I'm delighted to say that I've been joined by behavioural psychologist Joe Hemmings. Joe, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

I'm good, thank you, Paul. It's lovely to be back.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Are you are you a summer person? Are you a hot person? Are you a sunny person? Are you enjoying this weather we're having, or is it not for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

I am a summer person, but I have my limitations. So I'm a 24-25 degree maximum summer person when it starts hitting 30 plus, yeah, I'll kind of opt out that one. That's not my taste at all.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

I think the other thing is, and I was thinking about this, because obviously when we all go to Spain and Italy and Turkey and wherever else we go on holiday and it and it's 35 degrees, and it's lovely, but then we're sat by a pool with a glass of something in our hand. We're not working and doing all the usual things that we would usually be doing every day. And I think it's when you have to do the normality alongside the heat that's when it's really hard, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:51

It is. So this was research by leading home technology brand Dreo, who were looking at not just the physical discomfort that we get from the heat, but all the other psychological aspects, such as bad moods and sleep being impacted, productivity, our relationships, how much we enjoy being at home. I mean, that whole ripple effect of the heat is not just saying I'm too hot, it's as you say, getting on with your life. It's everything from having to catch public transport, trains that don't work, the infrastructure here, just trying to lead a normal everyday working or whatever life that you have in intense heat is is kind of brutal. And the sleep, I think, is the worst. Because you know what it's like after one night's bad sleep, you feel grumpy and not at your best. So when you get a sustained period of three, four nights or longer where you're not getting that quality sleep, you may be falling off to sleep, but you're waking up regular, you're not getting that really deep sleep. That has a huge impact on our moods, on what how tetra we are with our families, our colleagues, our kids, whatever it may be. And that is just that's just miserable for people, it really is.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I think over the last couple of months we've all had to deal with a grumpy partner or a grumpy family member or something like that who's woke up in a bit of a mood because they've had a terrible night. So I'll tell you about my situation here, because me and my partner, same as most, we're very, very different in the fact that she will have the covers on no matter what. Me, I'm covers off, I'm far, far too hot. I bought one of those portable air conditioner units, which is really good and it takes it down about five or six degrees, but it is quite noisy. So we tend to have it on from like 5 till about 10 pm to try and cool the room down before we go to sleep. Before you go to bed. But this has been far too hot over the last couple of months, and even when like we go to sleep, we then have to make that decision of do we leave it on all night and you have the noise all night, or do we turn it off and it's just too hot for me? So basically, one of us is grumpy in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Okay, so what I do is I have a fan on at night, but on a low setting, and I have it on all night. Um, they're not particularly expensive to run, but I think what you have to do is you have to direct the airflow into the face of the person who is particularly hot, not distress the one who finds it absolutely fine without it. But the the key is to keep just try and keep our environments, working or living environments, as cool, as shaded as possible all the time because it's the heat that builds up in our homes. I thought actually during the first heat wave, I thought this is not too bad, my home's quite cool, but I think that heat gets absorbed by the building, and now because it's so sustained for so long and it's never really dropped in temperature. Um, I'm now sort of in a home that just feels hot all the time, unless I do have a fan on um or some way of cooling, cooling down. It's not it's not pleasant to be working in or or sleeping in, but um you know, I'm getting there. A few of my own tips.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Over the last two months, I have become somewhat of an expert, and all of these hints and tips online that you see, I am using them all. So, like you say, the main thing is during the day when it's at the hottest, you keep all of the windows closed, you keep all of your blinds closed, keep all of the heat out, and then when it gets cooler, which should be around about eight o'clock or something, then you get everything open, let uh literally as many windows and doors as you can, try and get a bit of a breeze going through the house. But the other thing is certainly with my house, is we've got a loft conversion, so our bedroom is literally on the third floor. And I was watching something about an Italian woman, she was talking about how hot it is here, because of course all of our houses are made from red brick, and she said in red brick in Italy we use that for a pizza oven.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

But I think that's the problem. Our homes are built for insulation, they're for cold northern Europe climates, so they're not even I know they're talking now about house building and making sure that there's some sort of facilities for them to be kept cool as well. But for most of us, we're never gonna enjoy that experience. We are we are stuck with what we've got, and if you're stuck, say with rented accommodation, you don't want to be paying out a fortune on air conditioning units or any of those things because this is not your permanent home, and you're adding value to somewhere that that's not yours. So I do think the answer has got to be well, first we've just got to acclimatise. Fans are a good idea. I mean, a decent quality one, not one that fits. So I think that's the thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 6:43

It's it's making sure that you have a decent quality one because let's face it, we've all seen those fans down the pound shop that are not the best fans in the world. Yeah, but I think it's about investing in something that is actually gonna work.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

It is, and you can use it year after year after year. And in the Stray research, 85% of people said they think very likely these are gonna carry on these hot summers, and they are probably right. I think we've got another two heat waves, you know, scheduled deep joy for August. Um, so to have something you just bring it out each year, and it's the good quality one because otherwise the cheap fans will just barely circulate the warm air around. So you could be making yourself hotter because you're just spreading that warm air around. And as you say, evenings when they're cool and not humid, that's the only time really to let that air in. If you let it in during the day, it's just gonna heat your house up. So keep the curtains closed, keep the blinds down. I know it's a bit gloomy, yeah, but for those rooms, particular living room you might use in the evening, keep I do, I keep my blinds down in the day. So that when I do go in there in the evening, it doesn't feel like I'm going into an oven.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

And like you say, this just affects so much more because we're we you know what we're like when we haven't slept properly. Because I think this is the same for everybody. I don't I think during the day it's it's generally not too bad. But when you have a bad night's sleep because of this, it affects everything the next day. Everything. I mean, you you don't want to exercise, you don't want to spend time with people, you're just grumpy all the time, and that's just me.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Yes, that's just you. Well, it's not just you. I think it uh many will identify with that. Yeah, it does, it affects our mood. It really, really does because without decent quality sleep, we don't have that motivation, we don't have the energy, we don't have the inclination to do any of the things that we do in our normal day, and we get irritable. And you can see on the roads, people drive like crazy. You see people snapping at each other, um, in you know, just when they're I don't know, shopping or with families or kids, partners. It's we're all going through it, and I we can't change the weather, but we can change how we acclimatise or how we adapt to what's going on. I don't think it's going anywhere. So the the sooner we realise invest in not necessarily financially, but invest in keeping our homes cool and our work environments cool. You don't cook big hot meals in an oven in the middle of a heat wave. You know, opening and closing an oven, your kitchen will get hot, boiling things on home. Forget it. Maybe an opportunity for some people to eat more healthily, but yeah, don't stick to what you've always done just because you've always done it. Yeah, because it's just not working.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Time to learn a few new routines. Yeah, I cooked something the other day for 45 minutes in the oven, it was just 45 minutes of it churning out heat into our kitchen. It's like, oh my god, what am I doing? Um, Joe, I could talk to you all day, as always. Other than maybe a glass of wine or a margarita, what would be your top tips for trying to stay cool this summer?

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Headed to my top tip. Um, look, yeah, I mean, really keeping hydrated is absolutely key, obviously. We know all that. Getting a decent night's sleep is the second one, and if that needs a fan in the bedroom or whatever it takes, do it. Accept that this is how it is, and we've got to adapt to it. And even if the infrastructure in the country's not brilliant, the trains don't always run properly because of heat, the buses maybe not be air conditioned. This is all a pain, but we can do whatever we can to keep our homes as cool as possible and just get into those good habits so that you don't feel that you're overwhelmed by by this heat. It's exhausting. So do whatever you can for you and your family to make sure you know your mood and your sleep stays on track. That's what I'd say.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Um, if people want to find out a little bit more about this research, where can they do that?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Uh the website is Dreo, that's D-R-E-O.com.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Okay, Joe, thank you so much for talking to me. Try and enjoy the rest of your summer, try and stay nice and cool. Maybe that wine and margarita is not a bad idea.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Yes, I know that sounds like a bit early for me, but yeah, I look into that later on. Thank you. Cheers, Paul.