No matter where you live, whether you love or loathe the heat, it’s helpful to have a few strategies for cooling down that are not dependent on air

Why I Douse My Whole Body With Cold Water Every Night

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2021-06-29 00:00:05

No matter where you live, whether you love or loathe the heat, it’s helpful to have a few strategies for cooling down that are not dependent on air conditioning—they can be literal life-savers. And they can be especially helpful in areas that don’t normally rely on air conditioning, like the Pacific Northwest, which is currently experiencing a record-breaking heat wave. Extreme heat can be physically dangerous, and it affects our minds and moods, too. I’m one of the heat loathers, but I’ve lived most of my life without central air. I now live in Southern California, where summer blackouts due to an overburdened electrical grid are a constant worry. Because of all this, I’ve developed a nightly ritual of dousing myself in cold water, with the aid of a bath pail that I keep by my shower solely for this purpose.

There is no more effective way to bring down your body temperature than with cold water. Submerging your body in ice water works the fastest, but cold showers also help. I’ve tried becoming a cold-shower person, but I always come back to my bucket. It may not be as effective as full immersion, but it takes less time and defies my sluggishness. I can get my limbs cool first before shocking my torso, which always makes me flinch. It’s all over more quickly than I can talk myself out of it, and it’s instant relief. Sometimes, since I work from home, I douse myself throughout the day to chill myself out. It especially helped last summer in the midst of a heat wave that registered 120 degrees Fahrenheit on my thermostat, despite my window AC blasting valiantly. And I could almost see the radiant heat shimmering off of my skin.

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