How a Ceiling Fan Keeps You Healthy

Summer days are filled with fun and adventure. But those hot summer nights can be fairly miserable when you’re trying to get to sleep. Even sleeping with only a sheet can leave you tossing and turning in discomfort. We don’t want to blast our air conditioning on high every night– it’s a waste of energy and money. What can we do to stay cool without harming the planet or paying a fortune?

We Need Our Sleep!

As you already know, we all need a good night’s sleep to lead happy, healthy and active lifestyles. The amount of sleep we need, however, varies by age. According to the National Sleep Foundation, here are the recommended hours of sleep we should be getting depending on our age range:

• Newborns (0-3 months): 14-17 hours (really!)
• Infants (4-11 months): 12-15 hours
• Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours
• Preschoolers (3-5): 10-13 hours
• Adolescents (6-13): 9-11 hours
• Teenagers (14-17): 8-10 hours
• Young Adults (18-25): 7-9 hours
• Adults (26-64): 7-9 hours
• Senior Citizens (65+): 7-8 hours

As it turns out, 40 percent of Americans average less than seven hours of sleep every night. What happens to us if we don’t get the sleep our bodies need? Web MD reports that sleep loss can lead to seven physical problems in our health:

• Diabetes
• Stroke
• High Blood Pressure
• Irregular Heartbeat
• Heart Disease
• Heart Attack
• Heart Failure

Of course, there are other contributors to the health effects listed above, including diet and lack of exercise, but lack of sleep factors in just as much. Without enough sleep, our mental faculties are bogged down and we become sluggish, even accident prone. Our decision-making skills go to the wayside and we become more subdued. If we miss too much sleep, suffering from depression becomes more likely a possibility, and for people with sleep disorders like insomnia, depression is an expected side effect.

There are a lot of things that keep us up at night: the temperature, stress, back pain, our partner’s incessant snoring – the list goes on. There’s a way to combat your sleep problems, and that starts with getting your room at a comfortable temperature.

The Benefits of the Ceiling Fan

There is a fixture in the house that can be installed in every room and used daily, all while saving you money. It’s called the ceiling fan. Ceiling fans help keep you cool on those hot summer days and nights when it seems like there’s no reprieve from the heat.

A common misconception people have about ceiling fans is that they are loud, rickety contraptions that are the poor man’s substitute for air conditioning. This just isn’t true. Ceiling fans are finely crafted, expertly designed machines that provide a wind-chill effect to satisfy even your most sweaty of nighttime guests. Not only do ceiling fans help cool your body down, they also drown out noise. The soft, low hum of a circulating ceiling fan offers ambient sound for light sleepers who stir and wake up at every sound.

And if that still wasn’t good enough, they save you money on your energy bill too! A website dedicated to providing homeowners with advice on home management and solutions, House Logic reports that the ceiling fan uses less energy than a 100-watt light bulb. If you get an Energy Star-rated fan, you can save at least $165 on your electricity bills.

Let’s just refresh ourselves on what the ceiling fan offers: wind chill, energy savings and better sleep. Is there really anything more to ask for?