Ice, Ice, Baby! This is how to keep your kid’s room cool in heat waves
24-6-2023
Translation: Elicia Payne
There’s really only one place where summer should never go and that’s the children's bedroom. Because if your child can’t sleep due to the heat, you won’t either. Here are seven tips for cooler nights.
I do love summer. Most likely because of the hot temperatures. But I could go without the sweaty nights. Not necessarily because my own sleep suffers – but my children’s does. And in return, mine too.
Our two daughters sleep in the attic. Their rooms easily reach temperatures of 28 degrees or more. Our baby monitor, which I just wrote about in a product test, displays the temperature in black on white – or white on purple.
Source: Katja Fischer
So every year we try anew to brave the heat at night. How we do it? I’ll explain that to you now. But let’s be honest, even with these tips, it won’t be really cool in the bedroom, but it’ll be a bit more bearable.
1. Air the room properly
You should air the room early in the morning and properly. We open the windows as wide as they go, let the pent-up air out and, in the best case, new, cooler air in. Then the windows and bedroom doors are closed for the rest of the day. No exceptions. Only in the evening when it’s really cooled down again we open the windows to be able to sleep.
2. Darkness is your friend
Your rooms should be dark. These days our house resembles a dark cave, the sun has to stay outside. Right after airing early in the morning, we shut the blinds on the bedroom floors and draw the curtains. If you don’t have shutters or blinds on the outside of the house, you can switch to interior films, blinds or blackout curtains.
3. Damp cloths and a fan on the window ledge
If you have the windows open at night, you can additionally craft a DIY air conditioner. Hang damp towels and sheets in front of the window, and the draught will further cool the room. You can enhance the effect by circulating the air around the towels with the help of a fan. However, you should turn off the fan in the children’s room when they go to sleep.
4. Cool foot bath
I call it black-feet-time or the time in summer our children only come inside to sleep and otherwise spend the rest of the day outside. Barefooted obviously. So every time, before they go to bed, we give their dirty feet a good scrub. We combine this with a lukewarm footbath in the bathtub, which also cools them down nicely. Win-win.
5. Turn a hot water bottle into a cold water bottle
When the temperatures get hot, you can fill a hot water bottle with ice-cold water. You can also keep it in the fridge for some time before it’s time for bed.
6: Get rid of the covers
If your child already sleeps with pillows and blankets, you can leave them out in summer. Or swap them for a thin sheet. Or you can do like we do and get rid of the duvet. We only sleep under the cover. For babies, it’s best to choose a thin summer sleeping bag.
7: Turn off any hidden heat sources
You probably have almost no electrical appliances in the kids’ room anyway. If you do, they shouldn’t just be switched off, but completely disconnected from the power supply, at least during hot periods. This is because they emit heat even in standby mode. Also, use LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs, they create less heat. As a bonus you save electricity at the same time!
Header image: Shutterstock/polya_olya
Katja Fischer
Senior Editor
Katja.Fischer@digitecgalaxus.chMom of Anna and Elsa, aperitif expert, group fitness fanatic, aspiring dancer and gossip lover. Often a multitasker and a person who wants it all, sometimes a chocolate chef and queen of the couch.