TikToker shares ancient 'Egyptian Method' sleep hack to keep you cool during a heatwave
If it's good enough for the pharaohs, it's good enough for us
We don't know how lucky we have it in 2025, and with the sun shining, some of us are fortunate enough to have the air conditioning blasting to keep us cool during those hot summer months.
It's a far cry from Ancient Egypt, where pharaohs were constantly fanned by slaves and Cleopatra would bathe in milk.
Despite climate change deniers being up there with Flat Earthers as some of the most passionate out there, it seems pretty obvious to most that the world is getting hotter.
Experts claim that global warming is accelerating beyond our control, with up to 30 million people potentially falling victim to climate change by 2100.
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Even for those of us who won't be ravaged by wildfires or choke on our own fumes, extreme weather is due to hit 70% of the world's population in the next 20 years.
Those who regularly try to catch those all-important Zs during a hot summer will know the agony of getting to sleep in the heat, but here comes TikTok with another supposedly brilliant life hack.
While we've heard plenty about the Military Method or the Navy SEAL Technique helping us nod off in minutes, that won't help in the sweltering heat.
If you haven't heard of the Egyptian Method, we're taking a (palm) leaf out of the history books.
The Egyptians had plenty of clever methods to keep cool, including melting perfume cones on the head to release freshness, using wind catchers to funnel breezes into buildings, and covering windows or doors with matting that could be dampened to cool the air.
The Egyptian Method works in a similar way, using a damp towel or sheet to cool yourself. At its core, the Egyptian Method aims to reduce your temperature or the room around you through evaporation.
In one viral TikTok video, someone's mom explains how the Egyptian Method involves spraying a thin sheet with water and then lying underneath it.
She goes on to say that doing this and leaving your fan on rotate all evening should cool the room. While not everyone can afford a fan or stomach the electricity bill of leaving it running all night, the same idea can apparently still work with just the wet sheet.
Others suggest wrapping your feet in a damp towel. This part presumably comes from scientists suggesting that one of the best ways to reduce your body temperature is to put your feet in a bowl of cold water.
Responding to the TikTok, one troubled sleeper wrote: "I wet my PJ top and wear it, keeps me cool all night."
Another joked: "Do you mean that we're not all just pacing around the house all night and occasionally finding a cold patch of ground to 'sleep' on?"
A third said: "I sleep with a wet towel around my neck and a fan pointed at me, I sleep like a baby 👶."
Ironically, while some sources attribute the method to Ancient Egypt, others claim there's no concrete evidence they actually used it.