9 Tips to Beat the Heat With No A/C

We’re finally breaking away from the chilly Minnesota weather and moving into the blistering heat of summer. For those of us living in the dorms or off campus with no air conditioning, we are not looking forward to this.

If you are like me and struggle with the heat, here are a few tricks that can be used in any living situation to help you make it through the long days and nights with no A/C:

1. Put your sheets in the freezer before bed

Do this at least 30 minutes before you go to bed. Obviously this won’t keep you cool all night but it will provide you some relief. This also works with a shirt. When I lived in the dorm my bed was lofted and I was too lazy to take my sheets off and then bring them back to bed with me so I used a shirt instead.

2. Sleep lower

Heat rises, so if you have a lofted bed try sleeping lower or on the ground if possible. This actually helps more than you think! Freshman year my roommate and I moved our mattresses to the floor for like a week because it got so hot.

3. Use Freeze Pops / Fla-Vor-Ice

You can eat these childhood-favorite popsicles or lay a bunch of them across your pillow or mattress to work as a bigger ice pack. I started doing this in the dorms and still do it today. Pro tip: it works best if you leave them connected so you don’t accidently drop a few between your wall and mattress.

4. Cold showers

This is one of the quickest ways to bring your body temperature down. Plus, you are also washing off all your nasty sweat from the day.

5. DIY air conditioner

I actually did not know about this until my friend told me to look into it for this blog. Basically, all you have to do is put a shallow bowl or pan full of ice in front of a fan. The breeze from the fan will pick up the coldness to create a cooler draft! Pretty neat, huh?

6. Drink a bottle of water before bed

Water will help you stay hydrated throughout the night versus waking up dehydrated at three in the morning. No one wants to get out of bed in the middle of the night, especially when you are hot and sweaty.

7. Keep curtains and blinds closed

This will help block the sun from shining into your room and keep it a little cooler.

8. Cool down your pulse points first

Do this to cool down quickly. Your pulse points are your neck, elbows, wrists, behind your knees and at your ankles.

9. Literally do nothing

Weird concept in college, right? If I take a break longer than five minutes suddenly I’m like two weeks behind. However, if you take a few minutes to just lay on your bed all sprawled out, then your body will cool down faster. You probably need a break from all your studying anyways.