How to cope in a heatwave - according to you

As the UK grapples with some of the hottest June nights on record, people are turning to inventive and sometimes unorthodox strategies to find relief from the stifling heat.

Many are sticking to traditional methods like keeping blackout curtains closed. However, others are embracing more creative DIY hacks. Bethan Earley from Rugby uses survival blankets on the outside of her windows, finding they significantly slow down how quickly her house warms up. John Turbefield from Chichester has placed white bedsheets on the outside of windows in the hottest rooms and has also used survival blankets, taped to window frames, to reflect heat away.

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The house does still get warm, but it takes much longer to warm up.

Turbefield has also stocked his freezer with two-liter plastic bottles of water. He places these in front of and behind the five fans he has set up around his house, a method that requires patience as the large bottles can take days to freeze.

For those struggling to sleep, Stephanie Reed from Chorley, whose epilepsy is triggered by extreme heat, wets a hand towel and lays it across the end of her bed, sleeping with her feet on it to regulate her body temperature. She also sprinkles her daughter's bedsheet with water and freezes it briefly before bedtime.

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They're designed to reflect heat and they are large, so they're ideal for taping to the window frame to reflect most of the light back out.

Gordon Cooper from High Wycombe hangs a wet bath towel in his bedroom and directs a fan towards it to cool the room. Others, like Anabelle Holschuh, have resorted to changing where they sleep entirely to escape the oppressive temperatures.

The UK Health Security Agency advises opening windows only when the outside air is cooler than the inside and suggests turning off non-essential electronics that generate heat, such as TVs, laptops, and chargers, to help mitigate indoor temperatures.

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It helps to regulate body temperature and it does stay cool all night.