How to cool the body while sleeping in the heat?

The long-await­ed sum­mer brings with it sun­ny days, which are some­times so sul­try that even at night it is hot and stuffy. The high tem­per­a­ture out­side heats up the air in the room and inter­feres with healthy sleep, which neg­a­tive­ly affects the pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and well-being of a per­son through­out the day. What habits will help to prop­er­ly cool the body and sleep peace­ful­ly in the heat?

Cooling air temperature in the bedroom

The best method for good sleep is the cir­cu­la­tion of air in the room. Even if the house does not have air con­di­tion­ing, you can keep the air fresh by cre­at­ing small drafts: for exam­ple, open win­dows or doors on oppo­site sides of the room. But you need to be care­ful, because drafts can great­ly cool the body and cause colds, espe­cial­ly in chil­dren.

The most obvi­ous solu­tion for a rest­ful and deep sleep is the pres­ence of an air con­di­tion­er. This device main­tains the ide­al tem­per­a­ture for sleep­ing in the room (between 16 and 21 ºC), and addi­tion­al­ly, it emits soft sooth­ing sounds to help you fall asleep. At the same time, it is impor­tant to close win­dows and doors so that hot air does not pen­e­trate from the street. How­ev­er, even small such devices require a lot of elec­tric­i­ty and mon­ey for their main­te­nance and care.

If the use of an air con­di­tion­er seems expen­sive, it is eas­i­er to use a con­ven­tion­al fan. Unlike the air con­di­tion­er, it is much less like­ly to pro­voke colds, even if left on all night. But the fan should not be direct­ed to the face and for­get to adjust the inten­si­ty of its work. In extreme heat, you can put a bowl of cold water or ice in front of the fan. The liq­uid will evap­o­rate and cool the air, and at the same time the body dur­ing sleep.

There is anoth­er trick with two fans, when one is placed near an open win­dow to blow the heat­ed air into the room, and the sec­ond is placed on the oppo­site side of the room to bring air to the first. It is desir­able that both devices stand even­ly on the chairs. The blades must be direct­ed so that the air is blown into the upper part of the win­dow. The ceil­ing fan is best adjust­ed so that it rotates coun­ter­clock­wise, allow­ing hot air to be sucked in. But you should not use too pow­er­ful fans, so as not to pro­voke a cold.

Body hydration

Reg­u­lar and abun­dant hydra­tion is a key way to com­bat over­heat­ing in the heat. Before going to bed, it is advis­able to put a glass or a bot­tle of water on the night­stand next to the bed in order to quench your thirst at night if nec­es­sary. Before going to bed, you should take a warm show­er so that the body cools down quick­ly and effec­tive­ly. You can com­plete the water pro­ce­dures by dous­ing with cold water, or at least rins­ing your legs with it, which tend to swell due to the heat.

You do not need to dry your­self too thor­ough­ly with a tow­el. Keep your body slight­ly damp to bet­ter con­trol your ther­moreg­u­la­tion in hot con­di­tions. If nec­es­sary, you can spray your face and body with water from a spray bot­tle. If you need to cool down quick­ly, then it is most effec­tive to put cold com­press­es on pulse points: in the wrist, neck, elbows, groin, ankles and on the back of the knees.

Compliance with the drinking regime

Dur­ing the day, you need to observe the drink­ing reg­i­men. In hot weath­er, the body needs more flu­id than usu­al (at least 1.5 liters of water), because the body often sweats and los­es a lot of mois­ture. Cool drinks will keep the tem­per­a­ture at 36.6–37°C. Instead of cof­fee, soda and tea, it is bet­ter to pre­fer com­potes, fruit drinks, clar­i­fied juices and plain water. If insom­nia often wor­ries, then you should aban­don the habit of drink­ing ton­ic drinks before bed­time or even after 4:00 pm. Alco­hol in the heat should be com­plete­ly exclud­ed.

Proper bedding

Bed­ding made from mate­ri­als such as satin, silk or poly­ester should be left for cool­er nights. In hot weath­er, you need to cov­er the bed with acces­sories made of nat­ur­al breath­able cot­ton in light col­ors. It will per­fect­ly sup­port air cir­cu­la­tion, will not allow the body to sweat a lot and will make sleep more com­fort­able. Cot­ton sheets stick to the skin less than poly­ester under­wear, because air bub­bles form between the body and the fab­ric, which pro­vides good ven­ti­la­tion.

Minimum heat sources

Sum­mer is not the best time for dish­es from the oven and microwave. It is nec­es­sary to cook as lit­tle as pos­si­ble on the stove and use a min­i­mum of elec­tri­cal appli­ances, since each of them emits heat, which fills the already heat­ed air in the room. At the peak of the heat, it is bet­ter to choose dish­es from fresh veg­eta­bles and fruits, or cooked at room tem­per­a­ture: sal­ads will be per­fect. Even a refrig­er­a­tor that gen­er­ates cold from the out­side exudes heat into the room. It is advis­able to use a grill or bar­be­cue instead of an oven. It is use­ful to include light snacks in the diet and eat small por­tions sev­er­al times a day. It is worth remem­ber­ing that the body con­sumes more heat after eat­ing a huge steak than after a tray of fruits or veg­eta­bles.

The habit of sleeping in loose clothing

Sleep­ing habits in paja­mas or com­plete­ly naked are not suit­able for hot weath­er, experts say. It is bet­ter to choose a loose T‑shirt and shorts made of soft, breath­able cot­ton. Full expo­sure of the body does not save well from the heat. Sleep­ing in sim­ple, loose-fit­ting cloth­ing made from nat­ur­al fab­ric keeps sweat on the body and fights heat bet­ter. Thick blan­kets should be replaced with light cot­ton or linen sheets, or no cov­er at all. For peo­ple with long hair, it is advis­able to tie them at the top of the head so that they do not cre­ate excess heat and do not cause sweat­ing in the back and neck.

Light food

Food in the heat should not be too heavy and dense, espe­cial­ly before bed­time. Oth­er­wise, the body will spend a lot of ener­gy on digest­ing food, which means it will release excess heat, pro­vok­ing over­heat­ing. Due to the heav­i­ness in the stom­ach and the increase in body tem­per­a­ture, it is not easy to fall asleep. The lighter the food and the more abun­dant the drink, the eas­i­er it is to endure the heat. Veg­etable sal­ads with greens, fresh fruits, dietary meat and seafood are a good choice for a menu in hot weath­er. Prod­ucts con­tain­ing caf­feine and alco­hol quick­ly dehy­drate the body, so they should be min­i­mized or com­plete­ly elim­i­nat­ed from the diet.