When you live in the UK, you spend approximately 10 months of the year waiting for the summer.
It's that rare moment in the calendar when you can unashamedly tuck into a Fab lolly for breakfast and sunbathe topless in the garden before the inevitable sprint inside at the sound of the postman.
For Brits more accustomed to rain showers than sunshine, we love nothing more than welcoming the slightest hint of Mediterranean heat that so rarely comes our way.
However, over the weekend the Met Office issued a new weather warning for thunderstorms and rain. According to the organisation, almost a month’s rain could fall over parts of the UK in the next 12 hours. However, the country will still be hotter than Monaco.
Temperatures fell just short of 2023's record high of 32.2C, which was reached on Saturday. And let's just say that we are not prepared for this heat just yet.
After just five minutes of outdoor heat, our SPF50-smothered skin turns rouge and a sweaty upper lip becomes a permanent fixture.
Basically, we think we like heat but in reality, we're miserable people who survive better in the winter. Winter, we can do. Summer, we try, fail and sweat at.
As this week and countless Twitter memes suggests, what we're really bad at doing is sleeping in the heat. Is there anything worse than lying in a bed drenched with sweat as you fan yourself with a bank statement while sucking on an ice cube?
As a result, we've rounded up the 27 stages of a night's sleep in British summertime.*
1. Enjoy an ice-cold shower before bedtime
2. Ditch the fleece pyjamas for the summery satin alternatives
3. Climb into bed and throw the duvet on the floor in a huff
4. Strip out of pyjamas horizontally – there's no way you're risking getting hotter by standing up
5. Turn on lamp. Immediately Turn off lamp. The last thing you want to see a river of sweat trickling down your stomach
6. Get up to open the window
7. Face-plant back onto the bed
8. Hear the faint buzz of an insect
9. Frantically dart your eyes the dark room in search of the bug
10. Silence
11. Close eyes but convince yourself the insect is deadly and on a mission to kill you
12. Google 'can a fly kill you?'
13. Hear buzzing again and climb out of the bed to open window wider
14. Furiously climb back into bed
15. Lie awake, staring at the ceiling. Grab phone and scroll through Instagram Stories
16. Realise you've wasted 40 minutes on a deep dive into a former Made in Chelsea star's account and accidentally purchased their 'must-have'/advertised shampoo
17. Get up to have a second shower
18. Flop back into bed
19. Get up to down a glass of water, subsequently feel sick and starfish across the mattress
20. Close eyes as you take a deep breath
21. Scream at your significant other when their foot accidentally grazes your calf
22. Finally fall asleep
23. Wake up shivering at 4am and scramble to find the duvet cover
24. Fall back to sleep
25. Wake up 30 minutes before alarm goes off with one foot hanging off the side of the bed
26. Lie awake until alarm goes off
27. Pray for winter
*Warning: By the time you're reading this it'll probably be freezing and you'll be wrapped up in about four layers of knitwear in search of the nearest mug of hot chocolate*
20 Travel Pick-Me-Up Products To Infuse Some Holiday Feeling Into Your Home
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
