Solutions for sleeping in this humidity?

CBear1993 · 24-06-2020 12:57am #1

I haven’t slept well in over a fortnight with this sticky, humid weather at night time.

Last summer I tried the Electric fans. They’re alright but very noisy and end up blowing hot air in your face eventually.

Have tried those diffusers with lavender oil to help me sleep, they’re hit and miss. Windows in the apartment in Dublin only open so far, and there’s virtually no breeze comes into the courtyard anyway.

I’ve the lowest TOG of duvet I could find. I’d be naturally a very warm person.

Head is wrecked at this stage so much that I dread bed time every night and it’s affecting my working from home / at the office.
I’m exercising later in the evening and getting my daily steps in but it’s no good despite being fairly shattered after a gym/run session.

CBear1993 · 24-06-2020 12:58am

Before someone says put away your phone / no screens one hour before bed. I’ve tried that too.

John Doe1 · 24-06-2020 1:02am

Eh sleep in the nip?

or

Hire someone to fan your face while you are in bed?

Username here · 24-06-2020 1:06am

Try using just a duvet cover (or a sheet), rather than an actual duvet? That's what we do, and it makes a huge difference....

Leg End Reject · 24-06-2020 1:06am

Cotton sheet or light blanket instead of a duvet.

Carawaystick · 24-06-2020 1:14am

linen sheet, under, and over if needed

ronivek · 24-06-2020 1:15am

You might want to invest in a dehumidifier or even better a portable air conditioner.

Personally I’d go for the air conditioner; it’s not cheap but you’ll never have to sleep in a muggy hot and humid room again. The downside is that you need to vent it somewhere; so at a minimum you’d need an open window to hang the exhaust pipe out. Also they’re not the smallest of contraptions.

Strumms · 24-06-2020 1:19am

This is what I do, wouldn’t work so well in an apartment but...Leave ALL the windows and doors upstairs open until right before you jump into bed. I have a big fan too in my bedroom that I stick on about an hour before I hit the bed just to cool a degree or whatever more...

NIMAN · 24-06-2020 1:37am

What tog is your duvet?

Many folk use one duvet all year round, and most are 13.5 tog.

No need for that this time of year, I switch to a 4.5 in the summer months.

KungPao · 24-06-2020 1:46am

An air conditioner in Ireland, I’ve heard it all now. Most people in tropical places just switch on a fan ( cheap to run) and sleep with a sheet, no duvet. Maybe a fan on the ceiling too. Job done.

Pointless talking about this anyway, it’s not even hot.

Just go to sleep and forget about it.

kowloon · 24-06-2020 1:49am

NIMAN wrote: »

What tog is your duvet?

Many folk use one duvet all year round, and most are 13.5 tog.

No need for that this time of year, I switch to a 4.5 in the summer months.

Yeah, a nice light duvet makes all the difference.

Kaybaykwah · 24-06-2020 1:55am

John Doe1 wrote: »

Eh sleep in the nip?

or

Hire someone to fan your face while you are in bed?

Yes, I found that works fine. My wife does the Fanning, not Joe, of course. I am a big fan of hers, she fans me all night, and although she is knackered, she is also knickered, so, provides two kinds of relief.

No seriously, it is very warm where I am, 23C and 30C felt, with 94% humidity. We just had a short rain and the grass is totally burnt out. It was all green a coupla weeks ago, but the heat has been intense in Montreal region. For the past week; 33C, daytime with extremely high humidity.

The best is if you have a SFH, to install a heat pump to heat the house in the winter. Here, the thermometer in the winter goes down to 25, 30C below zero in Jan, Feb. The heat pump is good to minus twelve celsius, and then the other systems kick in. In Ireland, this system would be very efficient since your climate is very temperate. In the summertime on days where it is fairly warm, you could close your windows, and enjoy the air conditioning from the same unit, doing reverse function.

ronivek · 24-06-2020 2:10am

KungPao wrote: »

An air conditioner in Ireland, I’ve heard it all now. Most people in tropical places just switch on a fan ( cheap to run) and sleep with a sheet, no duvet. Maybe a fan on the ceiling too. Job done.

Pointless talking about this anyway, it’s not even hot.

Just go to sleep and forget about it.

The OP has tried fans and keeping windows open and low tog duvets and it’s still negatively impacting him. But sure since you have decreed it’s not hot I’m sure he will immediately be able to sleep without issue.

I also struggle to sleep in hot and humid weather and tried literally everything; the only thing that worked for me was a portable air conditioner. In Ireland; imagine?

JupiterKid · 24-06-2020 2:35am

Use a sheet instead of a duvet and sleep naked.

Works a treat!

zerosugarbuzz · 24-06-2020 3:44am

Freeze a bottle of water and place it on your bed. It works just like a hot water bottle but in the opposite way. Has to be tried to be believed.

ILoveYourVibes · 24-06-2020 4:34am

Take a tepid shower just before?

I like the cold water bottle idea.

spookwoman · 24-06-2020 4:51am

If you need the bit for weight over you for sleeping get a bedspread far better than a duvet.
Keep windows and curtains closed till it cools down in the evening then open the windows if cool enough. Another trick is if you have 2 big windows that open in the room point the fan out one so it causes air to be sucked into the room from outside through the other.
You can get a large 6l cooler for under 100 from amazon, it does fan and water air cooling with remote, also come with 2 bottles that can be filled and put in the freezer for cooling the water down further. This one does not need hoses to run outside. Due to get hot and muggy here in the next few day do mine will get a better testing.
The mini personal coolers, just be aware they might be cheap but when it comes to replacing the filters that's where they make their money and they can cost as much as the cooler itself.

irishguitarlad · 24-06-2020 6:31am

I live in Seville, went to bed the last night at 20 to 12, 32 degrees still outside. I had to put the fan on but then the gf complained so I now leave the bedroom window open and the sitting room window open to form a current. The mosquitos are eating me alive at night, they seem to love my Irish flesh. Anyways, next week it is going to hit forty to forty one degrees a few days, Seville is a great city but during July and August it is hell.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater · 24-06-2020 6:33am

KungPao wrote: »

Just go to sleep and forget about it.

That's sort of the point of the thread; OP can't do that.

zerosugarbuzz · 24-06-2020 6:43am

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Take a tepid shower just before?

I like the cold water bottle idea.

It works, I had to go get it out of the freezer to get back to sleep myself ðŸ˜…

cj maxx · 24-06-2020 7:18am

It may sound counter intuitive but 6 or 7 strong hot whiskeys and sleep will come

That or your GP

California Dreamer · 24-06-2020 7:24am

I think some of these suggestions should be in the Celtic Tiger era thread!

CBear1993 · 24-06-2020 7:43am

KungPao wrote: »

An air conditioner in Ireland, I’ve heard it all now. Most people in tropical places just switch on a fan ( cheap to run) and sleep with a sheet, no duvet. Maybe a fan on the ceiling too. Job done.

Pointless talking about this anyway, it’s not even hot.

Just go to sleep and forget about it.

I’ve lived in places of high humidity and know what it’s like. Yes it’s a lot worse abroad, but at the moment it is humid here. A quick search of the weather at the moment in Dublin will give you stats of high humidity at night .

Thanks for the input though, really sorry it annoyed you so much!

RunRoryRun · 24-06-2020 7:48am

Stick a leg out

Day Lewin · 24-06-2020 7:55am

Take a smallish clean towel, wring it out in cold water until damp, not wet.

Leave this beside your bed, (on a plate so it doesn't make damp spots)

Whenever you wake at night with heat and humidity, wipe yourself over with the damp towel: face, neck, chest, a limb or two (as needed)
It cools you almost immediately. Try it and see!

Learnt this trick from a New Yorker. It really works!

Rodin · 24-06-2020 7:59am

irishguitarlad wrote: »

I live in Seville, went to bed the last night at 20 to 12, 32 degrees still outside. I had to put the fan on but then the gf complained so I now leave the bedroom window open and the sitting room window open to form a current. The mosquitos are eating me alive at night, they seem to love my Irish flesh. Anyways, next week it is going to hit forty to forty one degrees a few days, Seville is a great city but during July and August it is hell.

2nd only to Cordoba

Thelonious Monk · 24-06-2020 8:36am

I think you must have issues with body temperature or you're not well or something if you're struggling tbh it's only been about 10c at night most of the time or lower some nights.
At least we don't have mozzies in Ireland, nothing worse than trying to sleep in a hot country when those absolute bastards are whizzing by your ear freaking you out.

sydthebeat · 24-06-2020 8:42am

What humidity??

Can't say I've noticed any significant level in the last couple of weeks

Flickerfusion · 24-06-2020 8:49am

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I think you must have issues with body temperature or you're not well or something if you're struggling tbh it's only been about 10c at night most of the time or lower some nights.
At least we don't have mozzies in Ireland, nothing worse than trying to sleep in a hot country when those absolute bastards are whizzing by your ear freaking you out.

We do have mozzies in Ireland!

Got bitten by one on my foot in Cork City a few days ago and had a really bad reaction to it. Foot swelled up and have like big flat blisters on the top of it for 4 days now

Regularly catch them around the house and have the classic high pitched sound. Definitely mosquitos.

Thelonious Monk · 24-06-2020 8:55am

Flickerfusion wrote: »

We do have mozzies in Ireland!

Got bitten by one on my foot in Cork City a few days ago and had a really bad reaction to it. Foot swelled up and have like big flat blisters on the top of it for 4 days now

Regularly catch them around the house and have the classic high pitched sound. Definitely mosquitos.

I know there's something that bites you here in Ireland, but I've never heard that bone chilling whizz while lying in bed here. If we do have them they must be rare thank god, and you must be unlucky!

s1ippy · 24-06-2020 9:02am

Instead of using a duvet use the duvet cover on its own. Leave the duvet at the end of the bed to pull up if it's cold in the morning.

You have my sympathies, not being able to sleep is awful. Every morning (including some weekends) for the last month we're woken up from 7am by builders either drilling or moving earth with a machine that beeps next door. I'm actually not right because of it, so I 100% empathise.

is_that_so · 24-06-2020 9:04am

Get a draught going with all the windows open and cool down the bedroom as much as you can. Agree on the dehumidifier - very good in winter too. Run cold water on wrists, ankles or if you're feeling brave, the neck.

Flickerfusion · 24-06-2020 9:07am

Plenty of them in the south of the country and in parts of the east.

https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/vectorborne/mosquitoes/factsheet/

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/malaria-mosquito-species-found-in-ireland-36279494.html

The HSE found 53 species here. We’ve had many of them for a very long time (going back to the last ice age) but there are new species appearing, including some potentially nasty ones.

Good old climate change.

The lack of regular hard frost along the south coast in particular means they survive.

We’ve had to use mosquito plugs for the last few years as everyone in the house has had fairly regular encounters with them at dusk especially.

I react extremely badly to mosquito bites so it’s becoming very annoying. I’ve been bitten 4 times already this year.

I have had to start using Jungle Formula insect repellant when I’m out and about. It seems or be only narrow areas of Ireland but they’re populated ones on the coasts.

Seems to be about as common an issue as it is in NW France. Not extreme but they are around the place.

kneemos · 24-06-2020 9:26am

Got a pedastil fan a few years ago,they're pretty good at creating a cool breeze. Bit of a hum from it,but not so you'd notice once you're used to it.

murpho999 · 24-06-2020 9:52am

What humidity and heat are people talking about?

It's roughly 18 degrees today and cooler at night.

I do not understand how people cannot sleep, just lie in bed, close your eyes and let your body take over.
Have appropriate clothing and bed linens and it will be fine.

Ireland is just not hot enough to require air conditioning or dehumidifiers.

spookwoman · 24-06-2020 10:24am

Get some fly screen mesh and do a diy job on the windows. Just done that myself yesterday to stop the biters getting in.

Bobblehats · 24-06-2020 10:24am

No problem here? There was an initial bad spell in may, as tends to happen but since then weather’s been good

Flickerfusion · 24-06-2020 10:25am

spookwoman wrote: »

Get some fly screen mesh and do a diy job on the windows. Just done that myself yesterday to stop the biters getting in.

They are almost impossible to fit to tilt and turn ultra energy efficient windows.

Only solution I could find is to screen the entire inside or the window around the frame / wall.

Wanderer78 · 24-06-2020 10:29am

murpho999 wrote:

I do not understand how people cannot sleep, just lie in bed, close your eyes and let your body take over. Have appropriate clothing and bed linens and it will be fine.

Its not that simple for some unfortunately, I've always had sleep issues, joys of autism

spookwoman · 24-06-2020 10:34am

Flickerfusion wrote: »

They are almost impossible to fit to tilt and turn ultra energy efficient windows.

Only solution I could find is to screen the entire inside or the window around the frame / wall.

That's what I had to do put velcro around the inside as mine open out and then I can just pull the mesh off to get at the handles.

charlietheminxx · 24-06-2020 10:48am

I moved into a new build in October and have really struggled with the heat for a few nights over the last while. I am a warm person anyway but I've never struggled like this before! What I'm doing is keeping the windows open all day, then an hour before bed putting a fan at the window pointing into the room and closing the bedroom door. It helps a little bit.

The rooms in our house are going up to 26/27 degrees in the evening of a sunny day, it's just not what we are used to.

jimgoose · 24-06-2020 10:50am

charlietheminxx wrote: »

I moved into a new build in October and have really struggled with the heat for a few nights over the last while. I am a warm person anyway but I've never struggled like this before! What I'm doing is keeping the windows open all day, then an hour before bed putting a fan at the window pointing into the room and closing the bedroom door. It helps a little bit.

The rooms in our house are going up to 26/27 degrees in the evening of a sunny day, it's just not what we are used to.

Seriously? Is there any insulation at all in the place?

jimgoose · 24-06-2020 10:52am

murpho999 wrote: »

What humidity and heat are people talking about?

It's roughly 18 degrees today and cooler at night.

I do not understand how people cannot sleep, just lie in bed, close your eyes and let your body take over.
Have appropriate clothing and bed linens and it will be fine.

Ireland is just not hot enough to require air conditioning or dehumidifiers.

Well, I don't personally think it's uncomfortable hot or humid at this point either, and that from someone who is usually among the first to complain about overly sticky weather.

Flickerfusion · 24-06-2020 11:02am

It’s quite cold at night at 10-13°C at the moment and 16-17°C during the day with about 80-87% humidity. If you’re warm it’s definitely not the climate.

It’s not hot enough for a lot of vapour in the air. So the relative humidity is fairly high but in terms of feeling it should feel quite cool as you’ve got basically cold damp air, not hot steamy weather.

If your room is too stuffy, open a window and out a fan near by.

A lot of modern buildings are very heavily insulated to minimise heat loss so can feel stuffy if warm.

murpho999 · 24-06-2020 11:02am

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Its not that simple for some unfortunately, I've always had sleep issues, joys of autism

I understand but that's not really related to the "heat" that people claim is there now which it isn't really.

Wanderer78 · 24-06-2020 11:05am

murpho999 wrote:

I understand but that's not really related to the "heat" that people claim is there now which it isn't really.

Some people are just very temperature sensitive, it's actually common enough, tis in the world of autism

spookwoman · 24-06-2020 11:16am

Temp sensitive here as well and usually have the top windows open during the winter as well. It's also well know fact that you sleep better if it's cool rather than warm.
Some tips for trying to sleep when it's too hot
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/sleeping-when-it-blistering-hot

https://sleepcouncil.org.uk/how-to-keep-cool-on-hot-summer-nights-2/

Kaybaykwah · 24-06-2020 11:49am

Flickerfusion wrote: »

Plenty of them in the south of the country and in parts of the east.

https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/vectorborne/mosquitoes/factsheet/

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/malaria-mosquito-species-found-in-ireland-36279494.html

The HSE found 53 species here. We’ve had many of them for a very long time (going back to the last ice age) but there are new species appearing, including some potentially nasty ones.

Good old climate change.

The lack of regular hard frost along the south coast in particular means they survive.

We’ve had to use mosquito plugs for the last few years as everyone in the house has had fairly regular encounters with them at dusk especially.

I react extremely badly to mosquito bites so it’s becoming very annoying. I’ve been bitten 4 times already this year.

I have had to start using Jungle Formula insect repellant when I’m out and about. It seems or be only narrow areas of Ireland but they’re populated ones on the coasts.

Seems to be about as common an issue as it is in NW France. Not extreme but they are around the place.

I'm afraid frost has nothing to do with it. Mosquitos are a big item in Canada, but they are active in the morning or evening after sundown. I went up to my mother in law's place last week in Abitibi, a Northern region of Quebec, where I got bitten by midges, or as some call them "no-see-ums". In French, we call them brulots, they are almost invisible, and bite much worse than mosquitos, the bother lasted a good five days, on my neck, scalp, and arms.

chrissb8 · 24-06-2020 11:55am

irishguitarlad wrote: »

I live in Seville, went to bed the last night at 20 to 12, 32 degrees still outside. I had to put the fan on but then the gf complained so I now leave the bedroom window open and the sitting room window open to form a current. The mosquitos are eating me alive at night, they seem to love my Irish flesh. Anyways, next week it is going to hit forty to forty one degrees a few days, Seville is a great city but during July and August it is hell.

I was there in October and it was pretty hot, still 24/25 degrees and all I could think was this place must be a cauldron in the summer. I feel for ya man.

Thelonious Monk · 24-06-2020 12:30pm

Kaybaykwah wrote: »

I'm afraid frost has nothing to do with it. Mosquitos are a big item in Canada, but they are active in the morning or evening after sundown. I went up to my mother in law's place last week in Abitibi, a Northern region of Quebec, where I got bitten by midges, or as some call them "no-see-ums". In French, we call them brulots, they are almost invisible, and bite much worse than mosquitos, the bother lasted a good five days, on my neck, scalp, and arms.

Yes they are supposed to be really huge and awful in Finland too, a chilly place

Sheep Shagger · 24-06-2020 12:37pm

Dyson fans are the business- very quiet without the blade.

Thinking about getting one of these that are better suited to small spaces than the other ones we have.

Pricey but they last for years.

https://powercity.ie/product/275898

Or the desk fan is a bit cheaper and can be used

https://www.dyson.ie/fans-and-heaters/dyson-cool-desk-12-inch-white-silver.html?utm_campaign=ie_en_cc_cc-range_always-on_cc-range_cc-range_do_purchase_shopping_brand_pla_pure-brand&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=PRODUCT_GROUP&utm_content=ds_na&gclid=CjwKCAjw88v3BRBFEiwApwLevf38IRku-uHh_K32PXStc1GR-I_BETSBsTjFdlZQzVsHDlgWSfB6xBoCl7oQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Solutions for sleeping in this humidity?

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