Coping with heat

You can get quite large gel packs which take longer to defrost and to warm up. I have one about A4 size and some smaller ones and that’s what got me through our heatwaves a couple of years ago. I think even larger ones exist.
Cool Pak I got the “luxury” ones that are dark blue from some kind of nylon material rather than plastic. I’ve had them nearly 10 years.
 
Apologies if this has been addressed before. Has anyone had success with a cool mattress or mattress topper?

Does it help to not overheat?
Is the material breathable?

Are there any other options to keep your bed cool, that are not noisey?
 
Saw this post, by The Disabled Ginger, that has some tips for coping with heat:

Heat Waves, Wet Bulb Temps and Wildfires

A quick comment - the colors on the website were a bit too low contrast for me. Hard to read what looks like dark gray on light gray.

But I switched to reader mode (I think most browsers have this option?) and that worked fine. You can change a lot of display options, like font size and theme (dark/light/sepia/etc), in reader mode.
 
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Let's talk about Cooling Centers and why they're always empty during heat waves and heat domes. They haven't figured it out. The most vulnerable, persons with disabilities, pwchronic illnesses, and seniors who are heat intolerant can not afford A/C and living on lower incomes can NOT afford to take a cab to these cooling centers and get back home, people with chronic illnesses can not walk or go outside when it's blistering hot/humid to even walk there.

I live near City Hall where they have a cooling center, they talk about how it's always empty, it's a 6 minute walk from my place but I wouldn't be able to get there if I needed to- I would collapse on the sidewalk.

Air conditioning should be a human right. Everyone should be provided one in their unit.
 
Chestnut tree said:
Apologies if this has been addressed before. Has anyone had success with a cool mattress or mattress topper?
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I haven't, but I know others have. Cool mats for large dogs are a particular favourite with menopausal women; they're the same as the human version, just twice the size and two thirds of the price.

They don't work for me because my thermometer's too twitchy. They make me feel cold, so I move away and then four seconds later I'm too hot again.

The best solution so far is keeping both blinds and curtains shut during the day, then opening all the windows and doors once it's gone dark to try and get a draught through. I also leave a powerful fan running in my bedroom whilst I'm still up. When I go to bed I use an almost silent battery powered fan, which will run all day and all night on one charge.

The other strategy—sleep outside—only really works if you have a sunbed and a garden. I've done it many a time, though, I often sleep better than I can indoors.

Somebody near my house was once having an all-night party and I'd already missed a couple of nights' sleep. Out of sheer desperation I drove to a nature reserve for which I have the gate key code, and slept in the back of the van with the tailgate window open. It was lovely, so quiet and still that I could hear the noctules' echolocation calls.
 
Mij said:
Let's talk about Cooling Centers
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My guess is that the people responsible for those projects drove to their meetings and ribbon-cutting ceremonies, etc, in their expensive cars with AC. They're also healthy, and clueless about the limitations of the people the project is intended for. "Let them eat cake!"

It's been a cool summer here so far. I still wear a fleece jacket every morning. On Friday, I wore a fleece jacket, a fleece vest, and then wrapped a sleeping bag around me, because I was chilled (oral temp 36.1 C). That was the morning after cataract surgery, so maybe the "chill pill" they gave me was too powerful. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a pill that would suck heat out of you?
 
There is a mention of a man with 'CFS' in this article about overheating London flats. It's towards the end and the para starts with 'Chris Brown ....'

www.theguardian.com

‘Do not buy these flats’: residents warn about unbearable heat inside London new-builds

Experts say many new homes being built in the UK not designed to withstand extreme summer temperatures
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

It's going to be 33c where i live in England today. I am finding this heat really hard to live with. We have a portable air con unit though.
 
Same. I have a portable air con which helps me avoid some of the impacts I used to get but summers still break me. Every year.
While before I had ME/CFS I used to love weather like this.

We’ve had a few discussions about it on here but like many factors it seems to very with some affected and others less so. Like a lot of things I do think the seriousness of it seems to be ignored by responsible authorities/bodies when considering how we’re supported and cared for though.
 
Being at the top of a high-rise block will only make matters worse, of course. When we were living in a first-floor flat (and even now we're in a house) the temperature difference between the ground floor and first floor (note to US readers: UK usage here!) was very noticeable. If you're on the top floors of a high-rise, with nothing around to provide shading or otherwise mitigate the sun's heat, it must be hellish in weather like this.
 
That's interesting @Yann04 about the concrete effect. When we lived in London it was on floor 2 of a new build with concrete floors. It could reach 40c inside during heatwaves.

I don't know how hot it got on other floors but the flats had large windows and patio doors which (even with good blackout curtains) let in a lot of light and heat.

I noticed that neighbours were installing air con as we left. I think shutters may have helped but how these could be retrofitted onto the flats I don't know.

My current house is too hot even with good blackout blinds. All the simple measures to control the heat in the house are failing. I've got good fans, ice packs, cool mats.

It's the nights which are worse. Even at midnight the house doesn't cool down. I read recently that it is the type of insulation in new build houses that are causing this problem.
 
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