Fireworks won’t be the only thing keeping people awake this Fourth of July weekend.
As temperatures across the Big Apple soar into the triple digits, a staggering 850,000 New Yorkers are expected to sweat through America’s 250th birthday without air conditioning — and this Postie is one of them.
To be fair, I’m a terrible hot sleeper year-round. I toss, I turn, I flip my pillow to the “cool side” 37 times a night, and I still wake up with my blankets tangled at the foot of the bed and my pajamas drenched in sweat.
I’m not alone. About 14% of American adults say they’re too hot while sleeping “always” or “most of the time,” according to a 2023 Casper and Gallup survey of nearly 4,000 people.
Compared with people who sleep cooler, these overheated snoozers take longer to fall asleep, get poorer-quality rest and are nearly twice as likely to have been diagnosed with anxiety or depression. They also report having less energy and lower productivity during the day.
And when summer rolls around, everything gets worse.
In my Astoria apartment, that means sticky, sleepless nights followed by cranky mornings spent asking myself the same question: Is it finally time to surrender and buy a window unit?
Roughly 11% of New York City residents live without air conditioning, whether because of environmental concerns, old buildings or cooling bills that have skyrocketed more than 50% over the past decade.
Unfortunately, the forecast isn’t exactly encouraging. Research suggests that by 2028, the concrete jungle could see as many as 10 heat waves every summer and six times as many days topping 90 degrees.
Staring down a future of sweat-soaked nights, I started wondering whether anything besides AC could keep me cool enough to actually sleep. My fans certainly weren’t cutting it.
So I went hunting for alternatives. Here are the three cooling gadgets that have helped me survive the summer so far.
The Embr Wave 2
I’ll admit it: I was skeptical this would work.
Of all the gadgets I tested, this wrist-worn device felt like the biggest gamble. But I was genuinely surprised by the results — and the fact that it’s based on Nobel prize winning science.
Marketed as the “world’s first personal thermostat,” the Embr Wave 2 looks like a minimalist smartwatch without a screen. Instead of telling time, it sits on the inside of your wrist and delivers carefully controlled bursts of heat or cold.
Third-party research at UC Berkeley found it can make users feel as though the temperature has changed by 5 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The Embr Wave uses thermal stimulation as a unique and powerful pathway to the brain to produce a body response,” Liz Gazda, CEO of Embr Labs, told The Post.
Inside the device is a tiny thermoelectric heat pump that either pulls heat away from your skin or pushes warmth toward it.
Those temperature changes stimulate heat-sensitive nerves on the inside of your wrist, sending signals to the brain’s temperature-control center that can make your whole body feel cooler or warmer.
And it works — just not in a big, sweeping wave of relief. Instead, the cold is delivered in subtle pulses that are enough to feel, but not enough to make your body think it’s suddenly freezing out.
I wore the Embr Wave 2 on and off for a month and found it helped ease that familiar feeling of overheating while trying to fall asleep.
The wristband comes in rose gold and black, and it’s battery can last more than nine hours on a single charge. It pairs with a free smartphone app, unlocking six temperature modes and more than 30 customizable thermal sessions.
But it’s not just for hot sleepers trying to survive summer nights.
“We have customers using the product for menopausal hot flashes, sleep, stress, panic attacks, hot flashes caused by breast and prostate cancer treatment, symptoms of multiple sclerosis and even motion sickness,” Gazda said.
Buy it: The Embr Wave 2 costs $239 to buy outright or $20 a month to rent.
Dagsmejan Stay Cool sleepwear
In the summertime, my pajamas are usually workout shorts and an oversized T-shirt — which wind up damp and abandoned somewhere on the bedroom floor by morning.
That changed with Dagsmejan’s Stay Cool sleepwear.
Slipping into the Swiss-Swedish brand’s short-sleeve shirt and pants, I felt like I’d wandered into the iconic slumber party scene from “The Princess Diaries 2.” They’re unbelievably soft and look like luxury loungewear.
Dagsmejan says its eucalyptus-derived “Nattcool” fabric is up to eight times more breathable than cotton and dries in about a third of the time. Its open-knit construction also releases water vapor 60% more effectively.
“When sweat evaporates efficiently, it naturally cools the skin,” said Andreas Lenzhofer, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
“If moisture remains trapped — as it often does in less breathable fabrics — it can create a cycle of overheating, sweating and waking up,” he explained. “Our goal is to support the body’s own cooling mechanisms rather than artificially cooling the body.”
After several weeks of testing, I noticed I was waking up far less clammy than usual. The set stayed light, breathable and genuinely cool against my skin throughout the night.
The only catch is the price tag, which is steep for pajamas and makes it more of a splurge than an everyday buy.
Buy it: Prices for Dagsmejan sleepwear vary by item. The collection includes everything from sleep shirts and slip dresses to shorts, pants and boxers. My set cost $248.
Coop Cool+ bedding
By this point, you’ve probably heard enough about my nightly battle against sweat-soaked sheets — but Coop’s Cool+ bedding finally gave me a win.
Made from a cooling nylon-spandex blend, the sheets absorb less heat than traditional cotton while pulling moisture away from your body. The fabric feels almost like silky athletic wear — soft, stretchy and consistently cool to the touch.
There is one small downside. They’re a bit slippery.
It took a couple nights to adjust, but once I did, I didn’t want to sleep on anything else. I found myself falling asleep faster, and when I woke during the night, I drifted back off much more easily.
Hot tip: Pair the sheets with a fan, and they feel even cooler.
The biggest standout, though, was the brand’s adjustable pillow.
I’ve tested plenty of so-called cooling pillows over the years. Most start out refreshingly cold before turning into something that traps heat within an hour. This one was different.
It combines cooling gel-infused memory foam with microfiber to improve airflow. One side offers plush cushioning, while the other features a firmer cooling surface made with materials that absorb and disperse heat, helping it stay cooler longer.
Better yet, it’s adjustable. You can add or remove the gel-infused filling to customize both the height and firmness of the pillow until it feels just right.
I also tried their mattress topper, which uses a similar memory foam blend the company says increases airflow by 50%.
“While cooling bedding isn’t a replacement for air conditioning during extreme heat, it can help reduce heat buildup around your body, improve airflow and create a more comfortable sleep surface,” said Debbie Liu, director of product development and merchandising at Coop.
Buy it: Coop Cool+ bedding prices vary by item. The adjustable pillow costs $149, the sheet set $129 and the mattress topper $399.
None of these products magically turned my apartment into an icebox. But together, they made sleeping through a sweltering New York summer a whole lot more bearable.
And until I finally cave and buy that window AC unit, I’ll take every degree I can get.
