About Rebecca Eckler
Since becoming pregnant with her daughter Rowan, Canadian journalist and author Rebecca Eckler has penned three hilarious books, including the best-selling Knocked Up. Catch Rebecca’s weekly unique perspective on motherhood and single parenthood.
In the Heat of the Night
eckler plus one: sleeping arrangements canada
(Aug.12.11)
I’m sure I can easily Google this issue, but I’m just a little too lazy for that. I’m just fascinated about why kids get so hot at night. I have my air conditioning on, I have a fan blowing in the room, and yet my daughter still has to sleep naked on top of the covers.
“Mommy, why are you always so cold and I’m always so hot?” she asks, every night we sleep together, and I have the WINTER comforter up to my chin, wearing pyjamas. And I’m shivering!
I know it’s a fact people sleep better when it’s cooler, so I do cool down the house at night. But while I’m shivering under the covers, my daughter is on top of the covers, having taking off her pyjamas because she’s “too hot.”
There is a bit of scrambling on these nights. My daughter wants to cuddle me and feel my body next to hers, but that’s kind of hard to do, when she’s on top of the comforter and I’m underneath it.
And then she’ll try to come under the comforter and within minutes she’ll be kicking it off and I’ll be screaming, “I’m freezing. I need the comforter!”
And she’ll be screaming, “But I’m hot!”
So we’ve come to some sort of compromise. I get to sleep UNDER the comforter and she sleeps beside me with just a sheet covering her. Wait, maybe I will Google why kids get so hot at night. Hold on…
OK, that was a mistake. What came up were diagnoses like “diabetes” and “thyroid” problems and that’s when I stopped looking (I looked for less than 30 seconds).
I know a lot of other parents whose children sweat and get hot in their sleep. Most of us don’t think there’s any sort of medical problem and just that it’s cute. I think they are hot because they run around all day and it takes them a lot of time to calm down. It’s like doing a spin class and sweating for the next hour.
My daughter doesn’t sweat excessively so I don’t think there’s a medical problem; I just think she has a different body make up than adults. So what if she needs/wants to sleep naked (and she wants too)? So what if we have to have two different types of blankets covering us, so we can sleep together?
In any case, does your child get hot when they go to sleep? I don’t want to Google it again. I just want to know it’s normal! Share!
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