Latest news with #bedroomtips
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
I Tried the 'Freeze' Method to Stay Cool at Night Without AC — Here's How It Went
I'm originally from Sydney, Australia, and I sometimes struggle with insomnia, so I've dealt with sleepless nights caused by the heat all my life. These days I live in Los Angeles in a top-floor west-facing studio apartment, which means it catches the brunt of the afternoon sun and holds onto that heat long after the sun goes down. Add in the fact that it's a walk-up with no central air conditioning, and it's not unusual for my place to feel like a sauna well into the night. I do have a fan, but I hate the feeling of air blowing on me, so I don't generally sleep with it. To combat the heat, I used to bring frozen water bottles and gel ice packs into bed to keep me cool through the night. While they did work, I'd wake up each morning with wet water rings and condensation marks on my sheets that would seep into my mattress — meaning more hassle, more laundry, and less sleep. I had to get creative if I wanted to clock in my eight hours of beauty sleep, which led me to one of the most bizarre hacks I've ever tried: freezing my bed sheets. The idea is very simple: Pop your sheets into the freezer, at least two hours before bedtime, then pull them out right before you hit the sack. I fold my sheets up to fit into a gallon-size freezer bag, squeeze out all the air, and give it its own shelf between an ice cube tray or ice packs to really encourage the cold air to seep into the fabric. The result? A delightfully cool bed that feels like a refreshing oasis against the heat. It was my grandma who first suggested this trick to me in passing as a joke when I mentioned how hot it was getting, but my curiosity was piqued enough to look it up online where I saw people were really putting their sheets in the freezer. This is now my second season using this method, and I've learned some important lessons along the way. For starters, when I first tried it I didn't have a proper freezer bag, so I used a garbage bag instead. Although it was clean and sanitary, it was scented, and that smell clung to my sheets all night and made it very hard to fall asleep. On that note, always put your sheets into some sort of unscented protective covering to ward off any food and freezer smells (and to keep things sanitary). Cozy Earth $315 (was $450) Buy Now I also learned that the material of your bedding truly matters. When I started I was using a brushed microfiber polyester set which, while breathable and comfortable, didn't seem to retain the initial cool for longer than five minutes. By the time I got into the bed after making it up, the coolness had gone. After talking to my grandma, who used to work with fabrics, I learned that natural fibers like linen, cotton percale, and bamboo viscose hold the chill longer and breathe better. Switching my linens to those types of fibers made a noticeable difference, with the cool lasting closer to 15 to 20 minutes — just long enough to help me drift off comfortably. One thing to keep in mind: I like to sleep with a duvet year-round, even in summer, which inevitably traps heat and shortens the cooling effect. Consider ditching the duvet and throwing your top sheet, pillowcases, and even your pajamas into the freezer for a longer stretch of cool comfort. In my early freezer-sheet days I'd strip the bed each morning, freeze the sheet, then put it back on at night. These days I keep a few different sets on rotation so I can freeze one and wash another without having to do a full sheet change every day. And yes, I know the thought of having to make your bed when all you want to do is crawl into it after a long day feels like a punishment, but trust me — the payoff is worth it. This is not a perfect all-night fix, especially if you tend to wake up often and run hot throughout the night, but it absolutely helps take the edge off those sticky, hard-to-settle evenings. This method is especially ideal for people who tend to fall asleep quickly once they're comfortable. For those, like me, who sometimes struggle with insomnia, the method still works — it settles the body and brings a calm, cooling sensation that makes it possible to ease into sleep, even if the chill doesn't last all night. If you want to boost the freezer sheet hack with some other cooling bedroom tricks, try using blackout blinds during the day to let in less radiant heat, getting a standing fan, and swapping out heavy sleepwear for lightweight cotton or bamboo pajamas. Together, these little habits make summer nights bearable — even without the luxury of AC. Home: Where Your Story Starts How a Cheerful DIY 'Drop Zone' Made This Whole Space Work Smarter 3 DIY Paint Projects with Pro Results
Daily Mail
27-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mail
Expert reveals four easy steps to stay cool this summer - and one involves placing an everyday item in your freezer for 10 minutes
With temperatures on the rise and summer heatwaves setting in, staying cool is more important than ever. Thankfully, an expert at EarthKind, a sustainable bedding company, has revealed four 'easy steps' to beat the heat this summer on @earthkinduk TikTok. The footage - which racked up over 120,000 views - was captioned: 'How to cool down in bed.' The sleep expert advised that the best way to stay cool at night is to take a cold shower before going to bed. She said: 'Take a cold shower 15-20 minutes before you go to sleep to cool down your body temperature.' Next, she shared how a wet flannel could be the answer to sleepless summer nights this year. The expert explained : 'Take a flannel and run it under some cold water - this can be used to dab your face throughout the night to cool you down or as a cold compress on your head.' Another tip was to close your blinds during the day to ensure sunlight stays out of your home. 'Make sure all your blinds are down so the sunlight does not warm up your bedroom,' the expert stressed. Finally, the EarthKind employee shared her 'favourite' piece of advice for keeping cool this summer. 'Take your pillowcase and put them in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes and trust me, you will have the best night sleep with these hacks.' Many took to the comments to share that they plan to try the hacks themselves - but others were sceptical. One person said: 'I'll try it!' Another added: 'Showering before bed with cold water is bad as it makes u feel energised and increases adrenaline.' If you can't sleep in the heat, scientists may have a counterintuitive solution. Although it might seem bizarre, putting on a pair of socks before you head to bed could be the key to drifting off peacefully. Studies have shown that this simple hack can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and get a better night of rest. Wearing socks has even been proven to be effective at bedroom temperatures up to 23°C. This strange trick works because our bodies' sleep and temperature regulation systems are deeply linked. Professor Eus van Someren, head of the Department of Sleep and Cognition at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, told MailOnline: 'The brain not only regulates body temperature, but also reads out skin temperature. It may interpret warm feet as the right moment to fall asleep.' Our core body temperature has a day-night rhythm, starting to drop in the evening to reach its lowest point around four in the morning. That means the best time to sleep is when the core body temperature is on its way down. Normally, your body would cool itself close to bedtime by sending blood to the skin in a process called distal vasodilation, which makes the skin hot. Professor van Someren says this is like 'opening the radiator in the heating system in your home.' When you put on socks, this increases the temperature of your skin and creates signals that your brain mistakes for the warming caused by vasodilation. Your brain will then believe that it is time to fall asleep, and you will find it easier to drift off. But wearing socks also helps you get to sleep in a more counterintuitive way. When our skin becomes hot, the brain's temperature control system sends a signal to the body telling it to start venting heat by sending hot blood into veins near the surface. This causes an increase in vasodilation, sending blood rushing to the skin and dropping the core body temperature down to safe levels. Dr Michael Gradisar, head of sleep science and clinical psychologist and Sleep Cycle, says that wearing socks can trick the body into triggering vasodilation. This, in turn, causes the core body temperature to drop and helps you drift off to sleep. Dr Gradisar says: 'For people who need extra help warming their feet to assist their natural thermoregulation, socks can be helpful.' That might be especially useful if you suffer from Raynaud's phenomenon, poor circulation, or other conditions that interfere with blood flow to the extremities. A study published in 2018 by researchers from Seoul National University found that wearing bed socks significantly improved sleep even when the room was a toasty 23°C. Those who wore socks to bed fell asleep 7.5 minutes faster on average and woke up more than seven times less frequently during the night.
