Britain braces itself for a record breaking heatwave
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Beating the heat can feel impossible when you’re unprepared for the hot weather, especially when cold drinks and freezing showers don’t work to cool you down. While iced water is one of the go-to remedies for staying comfortable during a heatwave, it turns out that turning the tap hot could actually be more effective than you think. Here’s why you should switch a cold flannel for a hot bath to keep yourself cool in the heat through the day and night.
Sleeping in the heat can be a struggle when you’re not used to the hot weather, and it can feel even worse when you run out of ways to keep yourself cool.
Keeping the windows open is often useless at night, while fans can be a nuisance to listen to as you try to drift off.
These common remedies may seem like the only way to beat the heat as you sleep, but the experts at Drench.co.uk think they have an even better solution.
Why you should take a hot bath during a heatwave
According to Science, a hot bath could be the best remedy to keep you cool at night – and there’s a good reason why.
Dominic Lees-Bell at Drench.co.uk said: “Taking a cold shower or bath can actually be counterproductive as when our body is submerged in extremely cold conditions it tries to regulate our core temperature.
“This means you could actually feel hotter than you did before you tried to cool down.”
While it may sound odd to hop into a hot bath while battling heat and humidity, there is good reason to give it a go.
Dominic explained: “By taking a hot bath we are able to drop our body temperature as it stimulates our body’s thermoregulatory system.
“This increases the circulation of blood throughout our body and results in the removal of body heat and therefore a decreased body temperature.”
The strange method wasn’t discovered as a heatwave remedy, though. But, previous research from the National Sleep Foundation suggested that it does work as a coping mechanism for the warm weather.
In fact, its online guide claimed that many people “do better taking hot showers and hot baths when the room temperature is very high”.
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When is the best time to have a hot bath?
If you struggle to sleep in the humidity and heat of summer, this relaxing hack could be the perfect solution.
According to the US National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute, a hot soak will make you sleepier as well as keeping you comfortable through the night.
This is because our body temperature is lowest while we are sleeping, so dropping it before you get under the sheets can speed up the time it takes for you to drift off.
It’s not just soaking in hot water that can work either, in fact, drinking a hot beverage can also have a similar effect.
According to Ollie Jay, a researcher at University of Ottawa’s School of Human Kinetics, ingesting a hot drink can cause a “disproportionate increase in the amount you sweat”.
He said: “If you drink a hot drink, it does result in a lower amount of heat stored inside your body, provided the additional sweat that’s produced when you drink the hot drink can evaporate.
“Yes, the hot drink is hotter than your body temperature, so you are adding heat to the body, but the amount that you increase your sweating by – if that can all evaporate – more than compensates for the added heat to the body from the fluid.”
While the sweat may seem like a nuisance, the body perspires for a very good reason; when sweat evaporates from the skin, energy is absorbed into the air as part of the reaction, thereby cooling the body.
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