Monday 15 July 2013

Staying Cool On Hot Summer Nights

As Britain has officially become as hot as the surface of the Sun, it has become difficult to get a decent nights sleep but luckily there are lots of people willing to give tips on how to cool down and not just lay there flipping around the pillow trying to find a cool spot. 
A fan would keep you cool but you then have the drone of the fan keeping you awake and if you throw open the windows you wake up with an insect party in your bedroom.
Something i was told a while ago was putting your pillow in the fridge an hour before you go to bed (or just the pillowcase if the fridge isn't big enough) and that works fine if you drop off in the first 30 minutes or so.
Other helpful tips from around the internet is to not strip off but wear loose-fitting cotton or silk nightclothes as natural fibres wick away moisture from your skin.
Leaving blinds down or curtains closed during the day will keep the sun out and not heat up the bedroom and running your wrists and hands or feet under the cold tap for a few minutes will bring down the bodies temperature as will hugging a hot water bottle filled with cold water.
Putting the mattress on the floor supposedly helps as that is where the coolest air is as the warm air is lighter and will rise leaving all the cold stuff lower down.
Standing under a freezing shower might sound like the quickest way to bring your temperature down but apparently your body will react to a dramatic change like this by trying to preserve heat by shutting down the blood flow to the skin and trap the heat inside rather than let it escape. A tip is wring out a flannel with cold water and sleep with it on exposed skin or go to bed with damp socks on
Finally sleeping on your side exposes more body surface and gives off more heat.
All good tips for keeping cool in the summer heat and i have been told that a human can go two nights with broken sleep without it impairing your abilities and by the third night you will be so tired you will sleep through anything.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

you're funny. what was it 81F? my sister spend a summer in Paris and she said they thought 80F was hot... surely it was hotter than Paris. Don't be a wimp. Get nearly naked and drink margaritas!

q

Anonymous said...

frozen margaritas of course...

q

Lucy said...

It was 32C during the day yesterday and 23C overnight which works out at approx (double and add 30) 94F and 76F. That's hot!!

Anonymous said...

if you say so...

I was in Philly one afternoon playing golf. it was 88F and 90% humidity. Some guy that played the round with us said "it doesn't get hotter than this."

I laughed to myself because the night before I was at the airport in Houston at 10 PM and it was 95F and 95%...

q