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 Vallarta Living | July 2006 
How to Sleep Comfortably on a Hot Night (in Vallarta!)
 wikihow.com
| | Warning: A bath or shower that is very cold might not be suitable for people who have various medical conditions. To be safe, take a cool or slightly warm shower. |
When it's extremely hot out and you do not have air conditioning, it's difficult to fall asleep. You can toss and turn to no avail. All this movement will make you even hotter than you already are. There are ways to get cool - and remain cool - long enough for you to fall asleep.
A Fan is a Good Choice
Plug in your fan and turn it towards you. Purchase a commercial bag of ice cubes. Empty the entire bag into a wide, shallow container (to contain the water as the ice melts) such as a roasting pan. Place the container of ice right in front of the fan (between the fan and you), at the level of the top of the bed. The ice-cooled air will be noticeably cooler than the room air for the amount of time it takes for the ice to melt - which is as long as it should take for you to fall asleep!
The Towel Method
Alternatively, try the towel method. Hang a wet towel from two chairs to hold the ice. The melting ice will wet and chill the towel and the fan will blow that cold air on you. Place a container under the towel to catch the melting ice water. You can use a thread to connect the bottom of the towel with the container to avoid the annoying dripping sound.
A Cool Shower Will Do Wonders
Take a cool shower or wipe your body down with a cool wash cloth. Without fully drying yourself, hop back into bed, and let the air slowly dry you. This will keep you cool for a long time allowing you to fall asleep.
Consider using the "Egyptian Method:" Wet a sheet or bath towel that is large enough to cover you with cool or cold water and then wring it out or run it through the spin cycle on your washing machine until the sheet is just wet, but not sopping, dripping wet. Place the dry towel or sheet on your bed underneath your body and use the wet sheet as your blanket. The damp blanket will keep you cool.
Fill your pillow case with frozen meat. The meat will keep you cool at night, and when you wake up in the morning you can make steak and eggs. Everybody wins!
Take a pair of cotton socks, rinse them in cold water and wring them out to damp and put them on. Cooling your feet lowers the temperature of your skin and body.
Sleep in a 'spread eagle' position, and think cool thoughts.
Use a cold compress or ice bag on the neck or between the thighs to cool the blood in major veins.
Some Cool Tips
When sleeping in a hammock air flows over your whole body. A bed absorbs your body heat and keeps you hot. Get out that hammock you bought off the beach and try sleeping in it with a fan blowing on you.
If you have a waterbed, turn the heater on the waterbed way down. Lay down on the surface of the waterbed. Even if its 85°F (29°C), your body is 98°F (37°C), and the heat transfer rate for direct contact is about 100 times larger than for convection. It could make you so cold you will shiver. Be aware that temperatures set below 85°F can lead to hypothermia with prolonged contact.
Keep the door to your bedroom open, so that there is proper air circulation from other rooms.
Partly fill a plastic bottle with water and then freeze it. Put it in front of the fan, and it'll give the same effect, but is less likely to spill.
Make a Rice Sock and place it in the freezer and leave it there for at least two hours. When you turn in, bring the bag with you use as a cool compress. Try placing it under your pillow so it's nice and cool when you flip it over.
If you have curtains made from a light material, like muslin or net, soak them with water (or put them through the washing machine and rehang them). Any breeze at all that blows through your window will immediately be vastly cooler.
Still another option is to get a large powerful fan, such as one at least 16 inches in diameter and put it facing outward in a window in another room than the one you are sleeping in. Then, close all other windows in the house except the one the fan is in, and where people are sleeping near. The fan will exhaust hot air out of the house or apartment and create a vacuum which will pull in the cooler night air from the outside through the open windows where people are sleeping.
Prop the doors in the bedroom(s) somewhat ajar to create a path for air to migrate. This is much more effective than having a loud fan blowing the same hot room temperature air back over you. This, of course assumes it is night time and that it has gotten significantly cooler outside than during the day when your home warmed up. If you have a lot of people sleeping or want more airflow get a more powerful fan, or put another exaust fan outfacing in another window.
If you have a hatch to the loft or attic, leave it open at night. That will give the heat trapped in the house somewhere to escape to.
If you live in a less humid climate, you can usually find small, portable swamp coolers at hardware stores for about $100. These need air flow. Place one in front of a window, and place a fan in the doorway, blowing air out of the room.
Lightly mist a top sheet, and place it in a plastic bag in the freezer. Pull it out just before you're ready to sleep. It'll keep you cool enough to fall asleep.
Sleep with your feet out from under the sheets, body heat will escape via your feet.
Use a smaller, firmer pillow, to allow more air circulation around your head, which is the hottest part of your body. An extreme option would be one of those African "pillows" that are unpadded carved wood braces that holds the head. A more comfortable choice is a cool and relaxing smelling Japanese style Jasmine and Buckwheat pillow.
Try sleeping on your side to help keep your body cooler.
For the first and second mentioned method you might try pouring salt on the ice and using a combination of ice and salt water to begin with. Brine freezes at much lower temperatures then sweet water and this will mean the temperature difference will be greater, thus taking more time to even out and melt the water. |
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