7 Cheap Ways to Sleep Cool in a Heatwave UK

You don't need air conditioning or a £300 cooling mattress to sleep well in a heatwave. The cheapest fixes - a silk pillowcase, a 4.5 tog duvet, a damp towel round your neck - cost pocket money next to a portable air cooler, and they work with your body's natural cooling system instead of against it.

UKHSA heat alerts are live across England this week with highs near 35°C forecast, so there's no better moment to make your bedroom cheaper to cool down. Here are seven ways to sleep cool on a budget.

1. Swap Your Duvet for a 4.5 Tog - The Cheapest Bedding Fix

A 10.5 tog winter duvet behaves like a blanket round a hot water bottle: it traps your body heat and holds it against you all night. The Sleep Charity recommends a bedroom temperature of 16-18°C for good sleep, and once the room climbs past 24°C, your REM sleep starts to suffer. The quickest, cheapest fix is to swap the duvet for a summer tog.

The Slumberdown Cool Summer Nights duvet is a 4.5 tog - thin enough to feel like a sheet but with enough cover to stop you waking with a chill at 4am. If you already own a lighter duvet, use that instead. The point isn't the brand, it's the tog rating. For a full breakdown of weights and fillings, see our best summer duvets guide.

2. Put a Silk Pillowcase on Your Pillow

Your head dumps more heat than almost any other part of your body, and cotton pillowcases soak up the sweat that goes with it. Silk is a smooth protein fibre that doesn't hold moisture the way cotton does, so the surface stays cooler against your cheek and you don't wake with a damp patch under your head.

The ZIMASILK 100% mulberry silk pillowcase is a straightforward swap that takes ten seconds to put on and lasts for years. It's also kinder to your hair and skin than cotton, which is a bonus on nights when you're already uncomfortable. If you want to compare silk with bamboo or satin first, our best silk pillowcases guide covers the options.

3. Keep a Gel Eye Mask in the Fridge

Your face is one of the best heat-exchange surfaces you own, and a chilled gel mask puts that to work. Pop a MyHalos gel eye mask in the fridge for twenty minutes before bed, then wear it while you settle. The cool gel pulls heat away from your eyes, forehead and cheeks, which helps your core temperature drop toward the level your body needs for sleep.

It does double duty if you wake up puffy in the morning, and it costs a fraction of the price of a cooling gadget. Just wrap it in a thin cloth if the cold feels too intense at first.

4. Wet a Cooling Towel Instead of Your Sheets

Cooling towels use evaporative cooling, the same principle that makes you feel cold stepping out of a pool. Soak one, wring it out, snap it a few times, and the fabric stays noticeably cooler than the air around it until it dries.

The YQXCC 2 Pack cooling towels give you one for your neck and one for your chest or ankles, and they cost less than a single takeaway. Drape one over your pulse points and you combine the evaporative effect with the heat-loss trick from tip seven. Re-wet them when they dry out and they'll run all night.

5. Slide a Cooling Pad Under Your Pillow

If you wake up with a hot, damp pillow at 2am, the problem isn't just the pillowcase - it's the foam underneath, which holds heat for hours. A Chillow cooling pillow pad sits under your pillow and stays cool without electricity, freezing or a fridge. The water-gel pad draws heat away from your head through the night.

It's the closest thing to a cooling mattress you can buy for the price of a pillow, and it works on any pillow you already own. That makes it a better budget bet than a new pillow if you only want to fix the heat problem.

6. Switch Your Fitted Sheet to Bamboo

Your fitted sheet is the fabric that touches the most skin, so it earns its place on this list. Bamboo viscose is a breathable natural fibre that wicks moisture away from your body instead of trapping it, which keeps you dry and lets heat escape.

The Panda 100% bamboo organic fitted sheet is the priciest item here, but it replaces a sheet you already own rather than adding something new. If you want to weigh bamboo against cotton percale or Tencel before you buy, our bamboo vs cotton sheets comparison runs through the differences.

7. The Cheapest Way to Sleep Cool: Your Pulse Points

This one costs nothing. Your body cools down for sleep by pushing blood to the surface of your hands and feet, where heat can escape. A 1999 study in Nature found that this widening of the blood vessels, called distal vasodilation, is the single best predictor of how quickly you fall asleep. Anything that speeds up heat loss from your extremities speeds up sleep onset.

So run a cold flannel over your neck, wrists and ankles - the pulse points where blood runs close to the skin - or hold your wrists under a cool tap for thirty seconds before bed. The counterintuitive bit: if your feet are cold, your body clamps down on heat loss, so thin socks can actually help you cool down faster. For the room-level version of this, see our guide to cooling a bedroom without AC.

The Bottom Line

A heatwave bedroom doesn't have to cost the earth. Start with the free stuff: cool your pulse points, keep curtains shut through the day, and open the windows once the outside air drops below your indoor temperature, as the NHS advises. Then add a 4.5 tog duvet, a silk pillowcase and one or two of the cheap cooling products above, and you'll sleep cooler than most people who spent ten times as much.

For more sleep guides, visit SleepReview.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cheapest way to sleep cool at night?

Swap your duvet for a 4.5 tog summer duvet and put a silk pillowcase on your pillow. Both cost a fraction of air conditioning, and they work by removing the bedding that traps your body heat. Cooling your pulse points with a damp cloth costs nothing at all.

Do cooling towels actually work in a heatwave?

They do work, up to a point. Cooling towels use evaporative cooling - when the wet fabric dries, it draws heat away from your skin. Soak, wring and snap one and it stays noticeably cooler than the room, then re-wet it when it dries out. They work best draped over your neck or wrists.

Does a silk pillowcase really keep you cooler?

Most hot sleepers notice the difference. Silk is a smooth, breathable protein fibre that doesn't soak up sweat the way cotton does, so the pillow surface stays cooler against your face. It also helps if you wake up with a sweaty forehead or frizzy hair.

What tog duvet should I use in a UK heatwave?

A 4.5 tog summer duvet is the standard choice for warm nights. If the room stays above 24°C even at night, drop to a plain sheet or a cooling blanket instead.

Does cooling your pulse points help you fall asleep?

The research says heat loss drives sleep onset. A 1999 study in Nature found that widening of the blood vessels in your hands and feet, which increases heat loss, is the best predictor of falling asleep quickly. Cooling your neck, wrists and ankles helps that process along.

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Last reviewed: 2026-08-04 · Evidence-based content · Contains affiliate links