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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 live in Arkansas and it is HOT!
    One of the best tips I can give is to eat watermelon…and I mean like it’s going out of style. Not only is it healthy, but it’s basically water in a shell, so it helps to keep you hydrated. Staying hydrated is the #1 way to keep cool.
    I know there are times when I get so hot that the only way to get myself to cool down is from the inside out, like with ice water.

  • We live in Arkansas and it is HOT!
    One of the best tips I can give is to eat watermelon…and I mean like it’s going out of style. Not only is it healthy, but it’s basically water in a shell, so it helps to keep you hydrated. Staying hydrated is the #1 way to keep cool.
    I know there are times when I get so hot that the only way to get myself to cool down is from the inside out, like with ice water!

  • Cool shower at night always does the trick…..and a good cross breeze, we’re lucky enough to have lots of windows in all the right places!

  • An ice pack behind the knees while laying in bed. Plus, I always give a little one to my kids as well during hot nights to place where they want.

  • on really hot night I keep a damp washcloth on the nightstand. Somehow it stays cool. if I wake up due to being overheated, I put the cloth on my neck for a few minutes.

  • I have lots of trees around my house, so it seldom gets super hot. If I turn on the A/C briefly before bed time it usually stays cool enough for me to get a good night’s sleep.

  • When going for a bike ride on a hot day I put an ice pack in my backpack so it keeps me cool against my back

  • I sleep wearing only a an oversized tank top, made of cotton. It’s cool and I like it, but I bet a bamboo one would keep me even cooler. Never use synthetics in the summer, they keep you hotter.

  • I live in Colorado where the temps go down at night. I also have bamboo sheets from Cariloha that I love.

  • I have an air conditioner here in hot, sticky Chicago. But before I got it, I used my overhead ceiling fan on High. And sleep naked.

  • Sleeping in the nude with a light sheet and a fan blowing on you while sleeping, the sound of the fan also helps me fall asleep, I can’t stand the silence….

  • Normally taking a warm shower before bed, helps keep me cool on hot summer nights. Another thing I do is use a low-grade fan to blow air under the sheets/blankets.

  • I have made myself 3 thin jelly packs that I freeze and use across my shoulders,under my arms and the soles of y feet. I use them one at a time and it has made this heat wave more bearable.

  • I make a lot of infused water, it’s fun to create different flavors and so refreshing. I also take a spray bottle and fill it with spring water, add cucumber slices and mint. It’s an amazing cooling mist and great for your skin too!

  • As I am always too warm, I sleep with my ceiling fan going – higher speed when it is hotter. Also my A/C – don’t know how I survived when I was younger with no A/C! When we were camping, I have slept with a damp tee shirt – helps sunburn too!

  • I forgot to mention that taking a warm shower will actually help you more as the air will feel cooler on your skin than if you take a cold shower.

  • I sleep right underneath the ceiling fan with the fan on high. I also sleep in a ponytail and light weight pj’s.

  • My tip is to invest in a cooling pillow! I don’t have one but I hear they work wonders!

  • Thankfully I have air conditioning now, but about 10 years ago I didn’t and it was almost impossible to sleep during the hot Chicago nights! I would wear a loose cotton tee and spread a wet towel over my whole body, and I always had a fan pointed directly at me. And I sucked on ice and let it drip down my neck!

  • I use a gel pillow to keep my head cool during the warm summer nights as I cannot take the heat and we do not have A/C where I live.

  • Reuseable ice cubes to save on costs, keeping all the curtains drawn, using light blocking curtains in the bedroom not only keeps it night as dark but cooler as well!

  • Even though we have central air, we keep a fan going in our bedroom. It helps circulate the air and we do sleep more comfortable 🙂

  • My tips on staying cool is staying inside with the AC..lol. It has been in the 100’s here in Texas so we don’t go out as much. We make sure to drink plenty of water.