Others changed where they slept to escape the stifling heat.
During May’s heatwave, Anabelle Holschuh, found it so hard to sleep in her attic bedroom that she picked up a blanket and cushion and slept on the floor in the hallway.
When temperatures soared again the next month, the 30-year-old, who lives in London, slept on the sofa in her living room, with an electric fan switched on. The room is north-facing and has tall ceilings.
“I slept fairly well on the sofa, so no need to wander further downstairs to the hallway,” she said.
For Clare McDermott, 52, getting out of the house was essential. After setting a gazebo up in her garden in West Sussex, she decided to spend two nights in June sleeping under it on a rattan sofa with a blanket. “It was so much cooler and I slept really well.”
Tahlia David, 28, took it even further. She and her partner drove their campervan to a wild camping spot by a lake near where they live in Carmarthenshire, Wales. They read books, played with their dog and then slept on a mattress in the van.
“We were comfortable with blankets on too, which would be unthinkable at home,” Tahlia said. “It was a lovely break from the heat of the house.”
