The heatwave and sleeping

• Posted by Pauline Smith July 17, 2013 2,142 views
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  Sleep soundly and beat the heat - put your pillow in the fridge, advised a Guardianista lady blogger this week.  I am not sure if she meant that we should sleep with our heads in the fridge or if we would face the dilemma that one person faced....

   

  Had to take the beer out to get the pillow in, now I can't sleep worrying about warm beer.

   

  Which is more critical - lack of sleep because the bedroom is too hot, or lack of sleep because the beer is too warm?  As many of us recover from the Sparkle weekend and all of us start to suffer from sleep deprivation caused by living and working in homes and work places that are too hot, here are a few light hearted solutions. When you think that most of us try to escape Britain to go "somewhere sunny" it's ironic that now we are in week 2 of the heatwave (visions of Martha and the Vandellas dancing down the street) many of us have started complaining about the heat.

   

  Some potential solutions to getting some sleep ....

   

  1. Make sure your home is properly insulated and install blinds on the outside of windows. Unfortunately by the time all this is done it will be cold - but the bonus is that you will have a snug home for the winter and lower heating bills.

   

  2. Install airconditioning at home - you can buy portable machines that keep a room cool, but they use a lot of electricity.  Fans look good - but they are noisy and just blow warm air round the room.

   

  3. Close the windows and curtains when the sun is shining and open the windows when the sun is no longer on that side of your flat or house.  The key is to get some kind of airflow.  Its tough to leave windows open if no one is at home - as then Bert the Burglar and his mates may come round and steal that airconditioner that you have just bought.  I have found that since I found a key to unlock the windows on one side of my house and have an airflow through the house that now its only 23C at 11pm in my bedroom instead of 28C.

   

  4. Use cotton bed linen (or at least use sheets with some cotton in them) - they absorb the perspiration (us Tgirls just glow ...after all we dont sweat like blokes).  And of course wear a cotton nightie or PJs.

   

  5. Before you go to bed pay a visit to your local Asda or Tesco (whichever supermarket is nearby) and walk around in the airconditioned hall....and if its later it may actually be cooler outside when you come back home.

   

  6. If you have a car with airconditioning you could sleep in that - but its expensive to run and not very comfortable for sleeping.

   

  7. If you have a downstairs in your home - sleep down there its cooler.

   

  8. Try having a shower before you go to bed and then having a cold water bottle or one of those things that keeps food cool between the pillow case and the pillow.  And try just putting the pillow case in the fridge - that way the beer and wine stays cool and there is less chance of your pillow smelling of cheese.

   

  9. If you cannot get to sleep well you could always boot up the ipad or laptop and watch some porn.  Or if you have a partner - they might be in the mood for some "fun".

   

   

  10.  Failing all of the above sleep when you can - so a daytime "power nap" may help.

   

   

  There are of course other options, and I am sure many of you have better solutions.  And yes most of us live in a country that is not designed for hot weather - but when its here surely we should try and enjoy it and be creative in finding ways to stay cool.

   

   

  hugs

   

   

  Pauline xxxx