Sleeping in a heatwave is never easy. We sweat, we writhe, we whimper – we end up lying awake all night, watching the hours tick by. By the morning, we’re zombified and resentful that we went to bed at all. Sound familiar?
There’s another heatwave coming up for many of us this week, so we’re getting ready for round five of sleepless nights. But before you give up and axe your bedtime entirely, there is a method that can take the edge off the heat and help you to finally get some zzzs. It takes minutes to do and can be a saviour if you’re already anticipating restless nights. Here’s everything you need to know about the pulse point method.
What is the pulse point method?
The pulse point method involves chilling your pulse points to lower your body’s core temperature. It’s essentially applying a cooling effect to your wrists, ankles, the back of your neck, your temples, inner elbows and the backs of the knees.
At these points, your blood vessels are closest to the surface, so more easily chilled, after which the blood pumped throughout the body. This lowers the body’s overall temperature and prompts its natural cooling process, which helps you to fall asleep.
According to Dr Amanda Mwale, clinical psychologist at The Good Sleep Clinic: ‘Creating good conditions for sleep isn’t just about the practical tools we use, but also helping our body and brain to feel safe enough and ready to switch off. The practice of cooling pulse points can create an immediate sensory cue that signals comfort and relief. This redirects our attention and helps interrupt the cycle of feeling hot, uncomfortable and frustrated about not sleeping. When there’s a heatwave, simple rituals like these can offer us a gentle sense of agency over our environment. This can help reduce the mental struggle that can make it harder to drift off to sleep.’
How to do the pulse point method
There’s a couple of options you can try. The easiest involves running your wrists under cool running water for around 60 seconds before you go to bed. If you’d prefer not to waste water (especially in a drought), you could soak your wrists in the sink instead for a similar effect. To reach every pulse point, including the backs of your knees and your ankles, you can use the shower, as we’l get to further down.
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Rather than drying off straight away, leave your wrists damp to keep cooling – the water will evaporate and remove the heat from your body with it, a bit like sweating does. You could even use a fan to speed up the process.
Watch the temperature of the water, though. Washing yourself under freezing cold water can cause your blood vessels to constrict and can even make you feel hotter afterwards by unintentionally locking the heat in your body.
Another option is to apply a wrapped cold compress directly to the pulse points. If you don’t have one, a similar-sized item from the freezer would also work – an ice pack, some frozen peas or a damp microfibre cloth you froze earlier. Just press it to your pulse points for up to 10 minutes before bed.
Make sure to wrap frozen items, including cold compresses, in a towel so you don’t apply them directly to your bare skin, otherwise it can lead to ice burn or frost bite. Applying frozen items to the skin isn’t recommended for those with poor blood circulation.
You could also try spritzing yourself with cool water to wet your pulse points, then directing a fan at them (but not your face) to encourage evaporation. Your body heat should evaporate with the water, as mentioned above. This process can help you to wind down and comes in useful if you want to chill yourself in the night.
Lastly, there’s the option of wrapping damp cloths and towels around your pulse points before you put yourself to bed. Cool water is best to help bring down your temperature, and you should hold them in place for 15-20 minutes. It’s a good idea to lay a dry towel under you while you cool so the moisture doesn’t transfer over to the bed.
Again, you don’t need to cover every pulse point in damp towels to achieve the goal; something as simple as wearing a pair of damp socks or damp wrist warmers can have the same effect – but remember to take them off before you turn in.
Verdict
Chilling your pulse points is an effective way to give you instant relief from the heat, and it can help you to drift off to sleep. But keep in mind that the effects are only temporary, so you need to pair it with cooling the room as much as you can, such as by keeping the curtains closed during the day and windows open at night. Aiming your fan out of the window at night can also help to ventilate the stuffy air and circulate fresh air.
When it comes to showering, running lukewarm water over your pulse points is best because it gradually lowers the body’s temperature and helps the muscles to relax. But a short spritz of cool water for 30 seconds at the end can prompt your body’s cooling process.
