Thermostat wars

Over the last few months my housemate and I have been fighting over the temperature at night. I tried to put up with it but I would only sleep a couple of hours a night cause I was so hot and it was so loud. We talked it over and she agreed to get a space heater.

However, when her boyfriend comes over they decide to turn the heat on after I have gone to bed. Then I wake up for hours at night due to sweat and noise and turn it back down and have to wait to get comfy again. Then they just turn it right back up.

I really don’t appreciate them trying to be sneaky about it and deciding that their sleep is more important. I would like to fix the problem but don’t feel I can talk to them cause I offered solutions last night and they just became hostile.

We are in grad school. This shouldn’t be such a hard topic to discuss. Please help.

She should get a space heater. It’s unreasonable to expect people to sleep comfortably when it’s too hot in the room. Science has shown that people sleep better in cooler rooms. Ask her boyfriend to help pay utilities, as he is fine with turning up the heat. I also suggest that you discuss one of you leaving because this is clearly not going to go away on its own. Perhaps they should get their own place. Meanwhile, get earplugs and put layers on the bed so you can throw some off in the night.

Who gets up first in the morning? If it’s you, offer to turn the heat up when you get out of bed if she lets you keep it lower overnight.

I’d be totally passive aggressive and open the window ; )

  • middle aged, hot flash mom

How different are the temperature preferences?

Seems like they need to get more or warmer blankets, and you need to use fewer or less warm blankets.

Of course, since this is winter, turning the heat up raises the heating bill, so that can be more of an argument for them getting more or warmer blankets (that may cost less than the amount saved by lowering the heat).

Can’t she just get an electric blanket? Problem solved. It may be that her room may be colder than yours. Another option is switching bedrooms to see if that helps. The temps in our home varies a lot depending on the room. My daughter’s room is always cold in winter and hot in summer.

Is the vent to your room closed? Start with that if you haven’t already,

Does your bedroom have a window? Judicious use of a closed vent, closed door and a window cracked open should solve this problem.

I’m guessing that this is an issue now because they are sleeping (and doing other stuff ?) together, naked, in her room. They don’t want the space heater because they’d have to remember to turn it off right when they want to cuddle and fall asleep together. How about they spend more time at his place instead?