I’ve found the cure for a sleepless night in a heatwave – but it can have its drawbacks … | Adrian Chiles

Right here’s a tip for maintaining cool in a single day because the world heats up. It’s a tip you shouldn’t take until you’re extra competent than I’m in sensible issues. Whereas this can be a low bar, admittedly, it’s a well being warning I have to share.My mum’s place in Croatia could be very previous. Its partitions are a metre thick. When she wished a door knocked by means of certainly one of them, the noise was super. The mud and particles rose in what may need been mistaken for a mushroom cloud. There could have been dynamite concerned. Having partitions this thick is reassuring – any calamity critical sufficient to deliver them down wouldn’t be value surviving anyway.A problem with partitions this thick is that, once they get chilly, they keep chilly, lengthy after the surface temperature is cracking the flags and fraying nerves. For the primary half of summer season that is good – pure cooling. For the second half of the summer season, much less so. The home turns into scorching, maybe hotter than it’s exterior. And it stays scorching.A number of summers in the past, for my mum’s eightieth birthday, my household have been there in numbers, and I used to be banished to sleep within the smallest, hottest room within the roof of the home. I didn’t dare enter it till nicely after midnight, however I would as nicely have waited till Christmas for it to chill down. It was like a bloody tandoor in there. The one little fan I had sweeping my sweaty physique like a dim searchlight had no impression. Somebody instructed I put some ice in a bowl beneath the fan. It helped a bit, however not a lot.On the second evening, I went massive on the ice – very massive. I discovered the most important, deepest oven tray I might match within the freezer, crammed it with water, and left it there all day. Come bedtime, I hauled this iceberg of mine up the steps and balanced it on a chair just under the fan. It began to crack alarmingly, like a glacier within the spring, however the air was quickly deliciously cool and I fell into the deepest, smuggest sleep.It was a slumber so deep that, once I awoke at midnight hour earlier than daybreak in want of a wee, I fairly overlook the place I used to be, stumbled, fell and upended the tray, soaking the mattress and ground, and completely breaking the fan. However God, it was good whereas it lasted. Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, author and Guardian columnist