This simple DIY air conditioner helped me fall asleep fast during a heatwave — here's how to try it
Beside sleeping on one of this year's best cooling mattresses, this week I've been on the hunt for cooling sleep hacks that won't break the bank.
One that keeps cropping up on my radar (ie my TikTok For You page) is the DIY air conditioning hack. The premise behind it is placing ice in front of a fan to circulate chilled air around your bedroom, helping to lower the room's temperature. Questionable, but we'll give it a go.
From mouth tape to sleepy mocktails, TikTok is awash with questionable sleep hacks and my team of beady-eyed sleep experts and I are always keen to put them to the test to see if they have any legs to stand on. Here's what happened when I put the homemade air con through its paces...
To be transparent, I usually sleep on the Eight Sleep Pod 4 mattress cover which does a grand job of regulating my temperature through warm nights.
But to get an accurate gauge of how effective the homemade air con method is I turned it off last night and instead set up my fan and ice contraption next to my bed.
Sitting up close to the fan I could certainly feel a cool breeze, so I was hopeful it would help me keep cool through the night. After some simple stretches, a bedtime tea and reading a couples of pages (my tried-and-test cooling nighttime routine) in the cool breeze brought by my DIY air con, I fell asleep quickly.
But I'm not entirely praiseworthy. While it helped to lower my body temperature at bedtime to initiate sleep onset, the ice soon melted and I found myself waking up slight sweaty and flustered during the night as the fan reverted back to circulating the stuffy attic air.
Honestly, in the current UK climes, I'm not certain any TikTok hack will secure totally uninterrupted sleep.
Rest assured, there's no tools or flat packs required. Building a DIY air conditioner is actually a simple process with just two components: a fan and a bowl of ice (or frozen bottle).
If you've opted for the frozen bottle fill a large (at least one litre) plastic bottle with water, filling it about 75% of the way to ensure there's room for the ice to expand without the bottle exploding. Otherwise, make sure your freezer is loaded with ice ahead of the evening.
When it comes to setting up, place your fan on a stable surface near your bed and fill a large, low bowl with ice, be that ice cubes or your frozen bottle. For best results, aim to have the ice level with the airway of the fan, and in line with where you'll be sleeping.
Turn on the fan when you start winding down for the night to allow time for your room to cool down before you hit the hay.
I can't say I'll be swapping my Eight Sleep Pod for a DIY air con again. But if you're looking for a cheap cooling hack, it does the job.
While it isn't completely free (fans, of course, take up electricity to run), it'll certainly save you bucks compared to running a full-home AC unit, or splurging on cooling sleep tech.
(However, if you do have the budget, there are plenty of great cooling Prime Day sleep deals like up to $480 off the BedJet 3 Climate Comfort Sleep System).
It turns out I was right to be sceptical about the DIY air con cooling hack. Yes, it can help cool your room down at bedtime, but it's inevitable the ice will eventually melt.
So, I wouldn't recommend as a night-long cooling method, especially if, like me, you don't like the humming sound of a fan running at night.
Instead, I recommend following the caveman method to block out warm air and sunlight from your home during the day, keeping it a cool haven rather having to work to cool it down at bedtime.
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