To not want DH putting the heating on at night?

[strawberrycake]

After years without DH has suddenly decided we mst have the heating on low at night, claims it's for the baby (ie him).

I find the heating on at night causes me to wakes up with runny nose/ sore throat and headaches and really disturbs my sleep. I have compromised and agreed to close the window. DS is so wrapped up in his cot we could probably leave him outside and he'd be ok and it's me that actually gets up in the night generally.

Is it normal to not heat the house at night? Everyone has plenty of bedding.

[ilovehens]

Heating on during the night is bad for you. There's absolutely no need for it unless you're about 85 and in poor health.

Tell him to just put extra layers on.

The baby will be fine. We had ds2 in with us in a cold attic conversion. We just had him sleep on a sheepskin fleece and put a little cotton hat on him. He was fine and didn't have any sniffles that winter.

It's also dangerous to muffle the baby up in his cot then put the heating on as well. Tell your dh to pull himself together.

[ilovehens]

You can get sheepskins from Ikea for about £22 and they help the baby sleep better as well. Both my ds' had them. They do a non fluffy version now as well.

[RJRabbit]

Although, they are lush and gorgeous, sheepskins have been associated with cot death. Please don't go there.

From thecauseofsids.org website:
The New Zealand Cot Death Study (1987-1990) found that of the 393 cot deaths investigated in the study, 42% of those deaths occurred on sheepskins.

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Sorry - I am with your DH. We have the heating on constant at the moment.

I hate being cold!

However, we turn the thermostat down at night, so the house isn't hot, just warm. Could you compromise by keeping it on but at a slightly lower temperature?

[GypsyMoth]

good lord!! heating on ALL night!!

this is why people arebloody ill all the time....bugs love warmth!!

its bad for you. well,you know that op.

perhaps have the heating come on low at around 4 am? it will take a while to make a difference to house temp if its low. just take the chill off for when you all get up

[Gooftroop]

Hate, hate, hate heating on overnight BUT nextdoor neighbours pipes froze a couple of nights ago - created a lot of damage. So I am leaving heat on very low at night just during this super-cold patch. (I leave my bedroom window open though )

[blowninonabreeze]

I was about the say the same about the pipes.
I hate having the heating on at night. Our bedrooms are cold (10-11 degrees overnight in the winter) and like it like that.

BUT on Monday the pipes into our house froze. Severn trent say they are having similar problems all over the county. They advised me to heat the stopcock (which comes into the house in our ensuite) with a fan heater and mercifully it worked. The alternative would have been to wait until the thaw

So at the moment we have our heating on low 24 hours, not worth the risk (for us)

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

I'm with strawberrycake and Gooftroop (love that nickname) - I absolutely hate being too hot at night. The antidepressants that I am on have a side effect of night sweats, and these are worse if the bedroom is too warm. I am still using a summer weight duvet, and have the window open except on the really windy nights, and I can still wake up drenched in sweat, with the bedding clammy and unpleasant around me - and when I sleep badly, my mood drops.

I also find it stifling if the air in the bedroom is too warm - I don't want it frigid, but cool.

[MangoTango]

What temp does the heating need to be on to prevent pipes from freezing and what's the best way to stop small kids from kicking off their duvets at night and getting cold? Should I buy a double duvet to tuck into a single bed so it stays in better? Thanks.

[Niceguy2]

I'm with your DH. Turn it on low but not off.

Reasons as others have mentioned. Pipes. But also kids have a tendancy to kick their covers off and I'd rather they didnt freeze or wake up (thereby waking me up!)

Plus it means you don't wake up in an igloo. Temps are dropping to -7 to -20. Mine's on constant!

[backwardpossom]

I had the heating on overnight last night - it was -14˚ where I am though. Despite the heating being on all night, the temp was 14.6˚ in DS's room this morning...

I don't normally leave the heating on all night, but last night was exceptionally cold! Shouldn't be so bad tonight, so the heating will be off again. :)

[backwardpossom]

Why didn't the degree symbol work?!

[FindingMyMojo]

I couldn't sleep if the heating was on all night - I even have the radiator off in the bedroom as I can't stand hot rooms to sleep in and we have heating on until about 11pm & it comes on again a 6am. It's not a big room and it's always warm in the morning from our body heat anyway.

[DuelingFanio]

YANBU, DH has suggested that we should have the heating on all night when our baby arrives! I really don't think it's necessary and like you it gives me a terrible throat, makes me dehydrated and irritable.

I suspect it's for him not the baby. I am still sleeping nude with a duvet and quilt and I am fine despite not having double glazing.

[ShanahansRevenge]

Were the sheepskin SIDS cases investigated in Australia and NZ or UK too?

Doesn't almost EVERYONE in Oz and NZ use sheepskins? So would those statistics not be rather skewed?

[stressheaderic]

I must be a wimp. We had the heating on (low) all night last night, I had fleecey PJs on, bedsocks, a hot water bottle, a quilt and fleecey throw inside the quilt. Toasty

[hmmSleep]

I've got a 6 week old and heating is on overnight. Not for the baby, for me! I'm up half the night feeding, settling, changing her etc. and would freeze. I'm already sleeping in long pajamas and a cardi, any more layers would be a bit impractical for breastfeeding. My Dh wants me to turn it off, well he would all snuggled up under the duvet!

[ilovehens]

info about cot death

Says here that research has found that sheepskins are only a risk once the baby has started rolling over onto their fronts.

[Onetoomanycornettos]

Why not just heat the baby's room? I think the ideal temperature for a baby's room is 16-20c and not near 10/11, that's bloody freezing. Plus you risk your pipes bursting, I have a friend whose pipes have just done that, with a toilet pipe bursting and dripping into the kitchen. No thanks. I would keep the heating on quite low, but still on unless I literally couldn't afford the bill or was going to go without food or something.

As for what's 'normal', these temperatures aren't that typical, there's a big difference between an overnight of say 5 and -10. My husband thinks people are really strange in this country in letting children sleep in very cold rooms, in their culture, people have their babies in their beds or sleep in the same room as the fire/wood burner all night, especially the older people as they would risk hypothermia not to do so. I don't think it's odd to sleep without heating myself if you like it, and don't think you need full central heating on whatsoever, but I wouldn't make my children sleep below 15/16 if I had a choice.

In colder winters, you have to adjust!

[coatgate]

No no no to heating at night. I am always nagging my DH to make sure he has turned it off constant before he comes to bed. We always have the windown open, and since the cat was PTS last week we can now have the door open as well, so we have a lovely through breeze. I love to be snug in bed with my hotty, but with a cool breeze blowing round my ears. Keeps those germs away.

[Onetoomanycornettos]

If you are worried about humidity with a gentle heat on (and I don't mean full central heating, just on low), then you can put a bowl of water in the room. Personally I prefer using an oil filled radiator at night to give a gentle and not drying heat, but then your pipes are a little at risk whilst it really is freezing.

[TheMeow]

At the moment our heating is on all day but it gets turned off at about 9pm, this keeps the house reasonably warm until about 12am and then the heating will go on automatically if it gets below 18 degrees, then go off again once it's above 18.

I hate the heating on overnight because I always wake up with a headache if it is, especially since I sleep in between dh and ds who are like radiators all night!