I live in the UK, but our summers are getting hotter, and I’m struggling with profuse sweating and mild dehydration.

If you are or were a student in Australia, Mexico, southern USA, Spain, Portugal, Greece, South Africa, or any other hot parts of the world, how do/did you stay cool during the day?

Note: I am familiar with the idea of a siesta; this is not an option.

If the solution is clothing, I don’t really care about gendered clothing. If it fits and looks good, it’s fine.

Thanks!

EDIT: For context, I am a student who is specifically having trouble during the school day, so AC systems and curtains aren’t viable either. It’s really clothing and strategy that I need to think about.

  • GissaMittJobbEnglish
    3·
    2 years ago

    I don’t live in a hot place, but I am learning to cope with higher temperatures, and these are a few tips:

    • Wear garments in cool fabrics, like Linen

    Linen is one of the better types of garment to keep cool during summer. For a sunny day, long linen pants and a long-sleeved linen shirt will help you beat the heat in the sun. I find that linen helps with the issue of perspiration, as it does not retain moisture in the same way that cotton and some synthetics do. It’s also a pretty decent choice from an environmental perspective.

    • Use fans to reduce perceived temperature

    Wind helps keep body temperature low by aiding in the effectiveness of perspiration, i.e. sweat evaporating and reducing body temperature. This will only be effective if your indoor humidity is not too high, see later tips on that topic.

    • Keep the sun away from the building

    If you can shade the building you are in, it will heat up less. Awnings can be useful in this regard.

    • Create a draft when the outside temperature is lower than the inside

    This relies on the layout of your building being appropriate, but try to keep windows open at times when it’s possible. Bug nets can be useful to keep things open without getting unwanted guests.

    • Keep things closed when the outdoor temperature is higher than indoors

    You’ll want to try to maintain the amount of cool air as much as possible. Manage the climate actively, best as you can.

    • Turn off things that generate heat

    This relies on things like you not working from home and having to keep a computer on, but even under those circumstances, you can still try to switch from high energy devices to lower energy devices (stationary computers vs laptops, TVs vs phones). Higher electricity consumption is generally going to mean higher heat generation.

    • Drink lots of water

    You’ll need it to maintain good hydration, which keeps perspiration working, which is fundamentally what’s going to keep you cool when temperatures are hotter than what keeps you optimally cool.

    • Go for a swim

    If you have access to even mildly cool water, this can help refresh you when you’re feeling the heat. It’s also fun.

    • Buy an AC

    At the end of the day, perceived temperature can be a pretty hard factor to manage. When you’ve exhausted the rest of the list, you may need to get an AC, which will both cool the air and reduce humidity, which in turn decreases perceived temperature and generally increases comfort. If you can get one installed, that’s ideal, but if your country is anything like mine, you might be stuck with a portable one, which is unfortunately pretty inefficient. Try to get a good seal on the outdoor-part of the AC unit to help it work as efficiently as possible.