6 Effective Ways to Stay Cool During a Heatwave, Even Without AC

You don’t need AC to survive (or even stay reasonably comfortable) during a heatwave. By combining these cool hacks, you can stay safe when the temperature climbs.

1. Cool your pulse points.

Your pulse points (like your wrists, neck, temples, and behind your knees) are the body’s natural cooling zones. Applying a cold washcloth or ice pack to these areas can quickly lower your core temperature, offering fast, targeted relief.

It could even be more effective than simply sitting in front of a fan, since it helps cool the body from the inside out.

2. Hack your fan with frozen socks.

A regular fan alone can sometimes just push hot air around, but the ingenious ice-sock trick totally changes the game:

• Fill a clean sock with ice cubes or frozen rice, then tie it shut.
• Hang it over the back of your fan, or position it so the air blows directly across the frozen sock. As the air moves over the icy sock, it cools down significantly, potentially lowering the temperature in your room fast.

3. Use the fan and ice bottle hack.

A quick way to cool down a room is to place a frozen bottle or bowl of ice in front of a fan. This easy hack turns your regular fan into a DIY air cooler, as the breeze picks up the cool air from the ice and spreads it around the room.

4. Upgrade your pillow for cooler nights.

Nighttime can be brutal without AC, but you can invest in a cooling pillow with gel or breathable materials that wick away heat.

These pillows are designed to stay cool longer than traditional ones, preventing overheating that disrupts sleep.

5. Cool your home by creating a cross-breeze.

When it’s hotter inside than outside, especially during cooler evenings or early mornings, you can use this simple trick to flush hot air out and bring fresh air in, even without AC:

• You need 2 fans (window or box fans work best) and open windows on opposite sides of your room or home. Place one fan in a window facing outward on the hottest side of your home. This fan’s job is to push hot air out.
• Then open a window on the opposite, cooler side of your home. Optional: Place a second fan facing inward at this window to pull cooler outdoor air in even faster.
• Turn both fans on high. The outward-facing fan sucks hot, stale air outside, while the inward-facing fan (if you use it) draws fresh, cooler air in.

Note from Bright Side: One of our colleagues tried this tip during a heatwave in Portugal. Here’s what she has to say: “My husband saw that putting the fan facing the window could work better than putting it in the middle of the room like we usually do. It was so, so hot during that day that I said, ’Sure, let’s try it, why not?’. To my surprise, when I entered the room to go to sleep, the temperature was much more pleasant than the temperature in the other rooms in the house. We slept like babies.”

6. Cool the body naturally.

Here are two key tips inspired by yoga teacher Sadhguru:

• Apply a few drops of castor oil on points like the navel, center of the chest, throat, and behind your ears. This old Ayurvedic remedy is thought to lower body heat.
• Avoid caffeine, which raises cortisol levels and dehydrates you further; these two things you don’t need when it’s already scorching.

High temperatures can make even simple tasks unbearable, especially if you don’t have air conditioning. But don’t sweat it; just give a try to these proven, easy-to-implement ways to beat the heat.