It has been unbelievably hot over the past week, and I have been suffering. Over the last few days, the temperature has been above 30°C every day, which means I have been nothing short of a miserable, desperate woman. I have essentially been haunting my own home, creeping from room to shadowy room like a Victorian ghost, in an attempt to remain at a somewhat reasonable temperature.
I kept all my curtains closed, had fans blasting and relied heavily on my insulated water bottle filled with ice to try and cool down, but once bedtime came, it became impossible to sleep. I was at my wits’ end, ready to try anything that would allow me a break from the heat.
I remembered a story I had written a few years ago, before this unbelievable heatwave washed across the UK.
In the article, a sleep specialist recommended putting a pair of damp socks in the freezer and wearing them before bed to lower your core body temperature. It sounded bizarre at the time – but with my third sleepless night approaching, I was ready to try anything.
The next morning, I ran a pair of cotton socks under the tap, wrung them out thoroughly and then popped them in the freezer.
In my desperation, I had misremembered the tip, which urges people to leave their socks in the freezer for only 10 minutes before bed, I presume so they don’t freeze completely.
My socks were in there for at least 10 hours, and by the time bedtime rolled around, they were rock solid.
I didn’t let that stop me, though. I peeled the frozen socks apart and stretched the cotton until I could force my boiling hot feet into them.
The relief was immediate – with my fan blowing, my frozen socks on and a bottle of ice water beside me, I was finally close enough to a normal human temperature.
The socks unfroze in seconds and cooled down in minutes – but keeping the damp cotton next to my skin with the fan blowing was enough to allow me to drift off to sleep easily for the first time all week.
Putting your socks in the freezer might sound strange, and look stranger – but if it looks stupid and it works, it ain’t stupid.