Temperatures are set to soar across the UK this week with some places expecting a scorching 34C on Friday. Areas in the south of England may even see an official heatwave between Wednesday and Saturday if the blistering heat sticks around for long enough.
While many will be embracing the sunshine, it's important not to overdo it. Sunbathers and open water swimmers have been warned to be wary of the high UV levels.
But with temperatures set to remain high even after the sun goes in, you may find that staying cool enough to sleep this week is a challenge. There are plenty of tips and tricks out there for a comfortable kip - but which ones actually work?
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James Wilson, aka The Sleep Geek, has warned that one popular tip should definitely be avoided. He claims that however hot you get you should never put your pyjamas or bed sheets in the fridge or freezer. While many people swear by the tip as a way of keeping cool when you first get into bed, James says that the added moisture will eventually make you hotter during the night.
He explained: "When hot weather comes around there are some tips given out that may sound like they would work when actually they really really don’t. An example of this may be put your bedding/pyjamas in the fridge or freezer or to wear wet socks to bed, but they both have the same problem.
"These approaches will add more moisture to your sleep environment and that moisture will heat up during the night. This means that although it may cool you down as you go to bed during the night this moisture will heat up and is likely to wake you as you come out of your sleep cycle."
When it comes to staying cool, James has plenty of alternative tricks that he claims will do the job much more successfully. For one, if you're using a fan, you can easily increase its cooling capabilities with just a bowl of water. Placing a bowl of chilled or iced water just in front of it will cool the stream of air it's pushing around the room, he says.
If you don't like to sleep with a fan on, a lukewarm bath or shower before bedtime, or a hot water bottle filled with lukewarm water to rest the soles of your feet on, will also cool you down. "This helps raise your core temperature slightly which will then lead to a drop in core temperature," James said. "A drop in core temperature is an important part of the process to your body falling asleep and this approach is basically tricking your body into thinking it is cooler than it is."
Other tips include ensuring there is good airflow through the whole house by opening windows on each side it and closing blinds and curtains in rooms that are exposed to direct sunlight. But his best piece of advice is to try not to worry.
"The biggest thing that prevents us sleeping in hot weather is the thought of 'I am too hot to sleep'," he says. "My advice would be to suck it up, accept that you might not sleep quite as well, but that it will probably be over in a couple of days and your body will more than likely make up for the poor sleep by giving you better quality sleep once the temperature drops."
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