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7 Ways to Stay Cool on Summer Nights

7 Ways to Stay Cool on Summer Nights

We are officially in the dog days of summer. Hot days are one thing, but the hardest part for me is sleeping at night. If you aren’t one of those lucky people with an air conditioner or central air, don’t just lie there sweating! Try some of these tips for staying cool(er) at night.

Supercharge your fan. A fan can definitely help cool your room down, but you can supercharge it with a bowl of ice set right in front of your fan to create an extra cool blast of air.

Shower. Take a cool shower just before bed to lower your skin temperature and rinse off the day’s stickiness. Leave your hair damp to keep the cool feeling going a little longer.

Take a cool shower just before bed.

Wet curtains. Try tacking a cold, damp sheet across your open window to catch and cool any night breezes coming in.

Cool mist. Keep a misting bottle on your bedside table. Spray a light mist of cool water all over yourself and let your fan cool you off through the magic of evaporation.

Ice water bottles. Instead of a hot water bottle, make ice water bottles! Keep some water bottles in the fridge or the freezer (make sure you leave a little extra space at the top so they don’t burst). Just before bed, wrap them in a towel to absorb condensation and tuck them into bed with you. This is a great way to repurpose some of those pesky plastic water bottles you might have lying around and keep them out of the landfill!

Sleep with ice water bottles

Sleep on a buckwheat pillow. Buckwheat hulls allow air to flow through them, meaning your buckwheat pillow will feel cooler all night and won’t hold body heat the way a regular pillow does. You can even chill your pillow in the freezer (in a sealed plastic bag to keep moisture and odours out).

Switch to bamboo sheets. I’ve been sleeping in my Shoreline Gray Cariloha Resort Bamboo Sheets (without the blanket of course) made from 100% viscose from bamboo, and they are heavenly. Twice as soft and three degrees cooler than cotton, these sheets are thin, breathable, naturally hypoallergenic, and they wick moisture away from your body. In other words, they’re perfect for hot, muggy summer nights.

Stay cool with Cariloha bamboo resort sheets

These are the silkiest, most luxurious set of sheets we’ve ever had. The pillowcases feel so cool and smooth on my face, and the extra deep sheets stay tucked, despite having a restless toddler still sleeping with us. For a little extra shot of coolness, I like to pop the pillowcases in the freezer for a few minutes before bed.

While bamboo is one of the most renewable and sustainable resources out there, the processing required to turn it into fabric isn’t always. As a green family, it’s important to me that Cariloha’s rayon from bamboo is manufactured in a closed-loop process that keeps pollutants out of the environment and makes the process as environmentally friendly as the bamboo itself.

How do you keep cool in the summer? Share your tips and tricks in the comments!

Disclosure: I received sample items to facilitate this post. All opinions expressed are completely honest and my own, based on my personal experience. Your experience may differ. This post contains affiliate links. This West Coast Mommy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. I will receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no additional cost to you. This income helps pay for the operating costs of my website – thank you for your support!

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89 Comments

  • We have central air, but on those hot nights before we get the system running for the summer, I will wear thinner more breathable pyjamas (or skip them altogether) :o.

  • Back in the day when we had no air conditioning growing up, we would wet a washcloth and wring it out real good and put it around our necks. Our mom wouldn’t let us go out and play during the worst part of the heat and we would all lie down in front of an oscillating fan with our washcloths around our necks and it did help!

  • Hm I don’t have air conditioning or even fans and I don’t do anything special except for pushing back the comforter and sleeping with just one sheet … Well… No pajamas also, but that’s all the time.

  • I sleep with a fan blowing on me every night, I am going to have to try setting a bowl of ice in front of it.

  • It is really sticky and humid in SC so these are some great tips.We have ceiling fans and I keep them running year round.It helps.

  • having a screen door on your front door allows you to have more air flow and you catch more breezes

  • I use rubbing alcohol on my face and neck as an astringent for my skin and I found that this has an awesome cooling effect for getting me to sleep! I love your tips, especially the ice in front of the fan1 I can’t wait to try this!

  • Make sure you have windows on opposite sides open to allow a breeze to blow through the room. Love the idea of supercharging a fan, my son will want to try that one out 🙂

  • I stay cool by wearing cotton clothing that is light weight and I drink lots of water and avoid sodas and alcohol.

  • I am lucky we do have central air. Growing up it was not the case. We would use fans. Ceiling fans now are a great way to keep the room cool.

  • lightly spray your bed with water before going to bed. It really cools down the sheets for a while.

  • To help keep my 3 Galz and myself Cooler during these Hotter evening, I tend to use them frozen smaller sized Ice-Paks,and what I’ll do is either wrap them up with a t-shirt or a smaller dish-towel..I’ll then have my gals place the wrapped ice-paks either on the opposite of their elbow..Or I’ll have them place the ice-paks behind their knees , and I kid you not that doing them few things Definitely helps to keep us cooler thru them otter evenings that we have been trying to get thru 🙂 Well that and ice cold H20 and some Yummy homemade fruit-sicles..So these few things we’ve been doing in rotation Really works wonders for us LOL..I want to stop and Wish Everyone GOOD-LUCK on this GROOVY Draw-Contest to WIN a Lovely Set of Bamboo sheet’s..I’d absolutely feel super LUCKY if I were to Win them, that’s for sure LOL..So with that being said I want to wish you all GOOD-LUCK on this particular contest…TaTa for now 🙂

  • I really have no tips as I have central air, and would die without it, I can’t stand or take the heat

  • If it’s not the heat that is making me hot, it is hot flashes. lol. I like many of your ideas. I also wear light cotton loose clothing to sleep in. And a cool pack around my neck helps immensely. Haven’t tried bamboo sheets, but that might be next. Thanks for the tips.

  • we have a small air conditioner in our kitchen window, I use fans to distribute the cool air through the house. This way I can actually stand and cook in the kitchen! We do the blocks of ice in front of fans! I freeze ice in ice cream buckets and put the blocks in a big flat container..keeping the freezer filled with the ice buckets also keeps the freezer full and not running so much!

  • We do not have air conditioning but are blessed to live in an area that does not get too hot during the summer. I always take a cool shower before bed and sleep only with a sheet. I get hot when I sleep, so I am always looking for other ideas.

  • We do not have air conditioning upstairs were the bedrooms are. I can’t have a fan because of allergies. I open all the window upstairs at night. I wear a light nightgown and no blanket.

  • My father-in-law gets in the hot tub to raise his body temperature, then gets in bed under their ceiling fan. The breeze on his hot skin seems to make him feel cool. He says its the best way for him to fall asleep on a hot night.

  • We have central air and our room is in the basement so Im actually always freezing! But on cool nights we turn the central air off and open the windows. The cool summer wind smells and feels good !

  • On very hot days, as much as I hate to be cut off from fresh air, we close all the windows to keep out the hot air. If the weather cools off in the late evening, that’s the time when we can open them up for some fresh air.

  • To stay cool on hot nights I wear very lightweight pajamas and leave the windows open. On really hot nights, I leave a large basin with ice water on my beside table so that I can feel the cool air next to my head.

  • We have a fan going in the bedroom and an air conditioner in the living room. Our daughters also have an air conditioner upstairs and a fan.

  • We keep our curtains shut so that sun does not get into our house in the afternoon. We keep an AC on upstairs to keep our bedrooms cooler and a nice shower or bath to cool down your body heat before bed.

  • Prob doesn’t count, but my boyfriend and i like to take the kids outside and have a night water balloon fight! glow sticks in the balloons make for a blast!

    But, at night I always sleep with a fan on. I hate being too hot!

  • We have central air and it runs basically year round because we live in the desert, so that’s how WE stay cool. Staying properly hydrated during the day helps your body regulate your temperature better!

  • We sleep with all of the windows wide open, since that side of the house faces the water, we get a breeze.

  • No clothes on helps a lot a night. If you are leaving your windows open you might be in for a night-time surprise from a burglar or one of the kids might just happen to pop out of the window and fall 8 stories or 2 stories. Bad stuff happens when you don’t exercise proper care with open windows

  • My tip to stay cool, shower before bed, and sleep in your birthday suit. Have a fan running in your bedroom.

  • I’m diabetic & take meds that require me to not get overheated, so I try my best to stay cool. Fans definitely keep the air circulating which keeps that stuffy feeling away, & dark curtains that block sunlight can help, too, if you don’t mind a dark room, lol.

  • At night I put a fan in the window to pull the cooler air into the house. The next morning I close all the windows to keep it cool until it heats up again and then I have to open the windows.

  • When hot rub a piece of ice over the pulse point at the radial artery between hand and forearm and it will cool your body temperature down, very helpful and is relaxing.

  • I try to only run the airconditioner overnight and then turn it off when I get up in the morning. I also keep the drapes closed in rooms that aren’t being used or have plants in them.

  • We live above a restaurant and our place is SO hot. We have never even turned on heat in the winter. I wet facecloths and freeze them… then take them out and use them to cool off all day, not just at night. For bedtime I get a couple and put one behind my neck and another across my chest.

  • You have so many great tips! The only thing I could really add would be wearing a lightweight cotton (or bamboo) nightgown for breathability.

  • I love the idea of freezing water bottles. My mom is not as keen on the A/C so it can get quite warm when we are visiting her.