UK households urged to put pillows in freezer and ‘make own air conditioning’
It's going to get even hotter this week and people are being urged to take steps to cool down
Sweltering heatwave conditions this week have made for some glorious summer days at long last across England, Wales and even Scotland - but at the cost of some hot, sticky nights.
Everyone across the UK is being given advice on how best to beat the heat tonight, including some rather unusual tips to keep your bedroom cool to attempt some much needed rest and respite from scorching temperatures.
While tips like keeping windows closed in the day and open at night, when air outside is cooler, can definitely help, there’s even more you can try to keep the heat down.
Niamh McMillan, Pharmacy Superintendent at Superdrug, shared her advice on how to keep cool and get a good night’s sleep during a heatwave.
She urged people to shower just before bed, and also put pillowcases in the freezer.
This might sound mad, but it helps give you a crisp, cool bit of bedding to stop you sweating into your sheets.
She said: “A quick, cool shower before bedtime can help lower your body temperature. Use a bedside fan to circulate the air around your room as you sleep. Try putting pillowcases in the freezer and then fitting them on your pillows just before bed. Or fill your hot water bottle with cold water and freeze for 20 minutes, to help keep your bed cool.”
Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, a sleep therapist, backed this up. She said to take the pillow case off your pillows and freeze them before you go to bed.
She also goes one step further, urging households to ‘create their own air conditioning’ using a tray of ice and a fan.
While aircon would no doubt be the coldest solution, proper air conditioning units the likes of which are used in the US and in Spain are expensive to install and even more expensive to run, racking up big electricity bills.
There is, however, a cheap and effective way to make an amateur aircon in your bedroom.
What you need to do is get a tray of ice cubes, as many as you can find, and pop them on a table near you bed, or a bedside table. Then point a fan at the ice and make sure it’s pointing in your direction. The fan will provide relief and also, unlike most fans, will genuinely cool the room as the ice melts into the fan’s airstream.
The heat is set to continue all this week, with hot weather staying in place until at least Friday or Saturday. Temperatures will peak at 32C on Tuesday before dropping to a much more reasonable 23C on Saturday, August 4, the Met Office forecasts.
