{"id":117708,"date":"2026-10-13T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=import-25497-20261013-2"},"modified":"2026-10-13T08:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T12:36:25","slug":"the-department-of-energy-says-68f-is-the-ideal-thermostat-setting-this-fall-but-your-bedroom-needs-a-different-number-25497-g01","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/the-department-of-energy-says-68f-is-the-ideal-thermostat-setting-this-fall-but-your-bedroom-needs-a-different-number-25497-g01\/","title":{"rendered":"The Department of Energy Says 68\u00b0F Is the Ideal Thermostat Setting This Fall, but Your Bedroom Needs a Different Number"},"content":{"rendered":"
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iStock @eyecrave productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It happens in almost every home around mid-October. The first truly cold morning arrives, someone reaches for the thermostat, and the annual negotiation begins: too warm, too cold, too expensive. There is, in fact, an official answer to that argument. But it comes with a twist that most households miss, and it concerns the one room where you spend a third of your life.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The number the Department of Energy recommends<\/b><\/h2>\n

For the heating season, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Saver guidance<\/a> recommends setting your thermostat to 68\u00b0F while you are awake and at home, and lowering it while you are asleep or away.<\/span><\/p>\n

The savings are concrete. Turning the thermostat back by 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours a day can cut heating costs by as much as 10% a year, a figure the agency’s recommendation is regularly cited for, including by New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services<\/a>. The reason is simple physics: a cooler house loses heat to the outside more slowly, so the furnace burns less fuel overall, even after warming the house back up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why your bedroom should be cooler<\/b><\/h2>\n

At night, the logic changes, and not only for your wallet. To fall asleep, the body naturally lowers its core temperature, and a room that is too warm works against that process. According to the Sleep Foundation<\/a>, most doctors recommend keeping the bedroom between 65\u00b0F and 68\u00b0F, guidance reviewed by sleep medicine physician Dr. David Rosen.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, the ideal number for your living room is the top of the ideal range for your bedroom. If your home runs at 68\u00b0F all day, dropping just a few degrees overnight puts you in the sleep sweet spot, and starts the savings at the same time. Sleep is also where small changes add up, as we saw with Scarlett Johansson’s sleep supplement<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Does the rule change after 65?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Here is the twist. A study led by Amir Baniassadi, PhD, of the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research<\/a> at Hebrew SeniorLife and Harvard Medical School, followed 50 older adults over nearly 11,000 nights of sleep. Published in Science of The Total Environment<\/em>, it found that their sleep was most efficient when the bedroom stayed between 68\u00b0F and 77\u00b0F, and that efficiency fell by 5% to 10% as the room warmed from 77\u00b0F to 86\u00b0F.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers also stressed that the ideal temperature varied a lot from one person to another. For older sleepers who often feel cold at night, 65\u00b0F may simply be too chilly, and the lower end of 68\u00b0F can be a better starting point.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to set yours tonight<\/b><\/h2>\n

Put together, the recommendations give you a simple plan for the season:<\/span><\/p>\n