Too Hot to Function: How to Stay Cool (Emotionally and Physically) During Toronto’s Humid Heatwave
Alright, let’s be honest — it’s gross outside. Toronto’s been sitting in a sticky, unrelenting heatwave for what feels like years now, and other parts of Ontario haven’t been much better. Temperatures climbing above 30°C, humidex making it feel like the inside of a sealed Tupperware, and the sun judging you relentlessly every time you step outside. It’s a lot.
And while sure, we all know to drink water and stay in the shade, what people don’t always talk about is how much heat affects your mood, nervous system, and patience levels. When it’s this hot, everything feels a little more irritating. Little inconveniences hit harder. You’re more likely to feel overwhelmed, exhausted, snappy, or anxious without fully realizing it’s heat-related.
So today, let’s talk about how to not emotionally combust when the humidity feels like soup and you’re two slow walkers away from a public meltdown.
Why Heat Impacts Your Mood (It’s Not Just You Being Dramatic)
Your body’s core job is to keep you alive. When it’s sweltering out, your nervous system goes into overdrive trying to regulate your temperature — which means it has less capacity for other things. This leaves your stress tolerance lower, your energy zapped, and your brain foggy.
Some real things that happen in your body in extreme heat:
- Increased heart rate and irritability
- Poor sleep due to sticky, restless nights
- Dehydration affecting concentration and mood stability
- Sensory overload from bright light, sweat, crowds, and noise
In short: it’s not you. It’s the weather. And your system’s doing its best.
The Sneaky Emotional Toll of Heatwaves
Most people underestimate just how emotionally exhausting extreme heat can be. It’s not just about physical discomfort — heatwaves sneak up on your mental health too. When your body is in constant overdrive trying to regulate your temperature, your brain diverts resources away from things like patience, focus, emotional regulation, and impulse control. That’s why you might find yourself snapping at your partner over nothing, zoning out mid-conversation, or feeling inexplicably hopeless while standing in line for an iced coffee.
And because heat doesn’t look like a mental health trigger, most people don’t realize it’s responsible for the dips in their mood or anxiety spikes. It’s important to normalize the fact that you’re not overreacting or “being dramatic” — your nervous system is having a reasonable response to environmental stress.
Why Heat Makes Minor Inconveniences Feel Huge
Ever notice how a slow elevator or a spam phone call feels ten times more aggravating when it’s humid and sticky? Heat shrinks your frustration tolerance. Your brain’s capacity for patience and flexibility shrinks when your physical comfort is compromised.
When the air feels thick and every movement requires extra effort, even minor problems can feel like monumental offenses against your wellbeing. The trick is recognizing that these amplified reactions aren’t about the actual situation — they’re about your internal baseline being set to maximum discomfort.
Translation: It’s not that your Uber being five minutes late is catastrophic, it’s that you’re overheated, overtired, under-hydrated, and overstimulated. Awareness here is everything.
The Relationship Between Heat and Sensory Overload
For people prone to sensory sensitivities (whether because of trauma, neurodivergence, anxiety, or just personal wiring), heatwaves act like an emotional amplifier. The combination of:
- The sun in your eyes
- Sweat clinging to your clothes
- Overcrowded patios
- Cars honking
- The constant hum of AC units and fans
- And the stickiness of everything you touch
…can leave your nervous system feeling fried.
This is sensory overload in disguise. It might not register as a clear trigger, but over the course of a humid day, your body gets more and more overloaded until you suddenly find yourself fighting back tears in the grocery store because they’re out of your favorite iced tea. It’s not the tea. It’s everything.
Sleep Disruption and Emotional Regulation
Another underappreciated piece of this puzzle is the way hot, restless nights wreck your sleep. Most people need their bedroom to cool to about 18°C–20°C to sleep deeply and consistently. When your space stays hot and humid overnight, you spend less time in restorative deep sleep and more time tossing, turning, and waking up unrested.
And as we know, poor sleep directly affects:
- Emotional regulation
- Impulse control
- Concentration
- Resilience in stressful situations
If you’ve felt unusually reactive or overwhelmed after several sticky nights, know this is a predictable nervous system response to poor sleep quality — not a personal failing.
Why the Heat Can Resurface Old Stress Responses
For people with trauma histories, the physical sensations of extreme heat — tightness in the chest, faster heartbeat, breathlessness, irritability — can echo the physical experiences of past stress. This can quietly activate old survival states without you consciously connecting the dots.
You might notice:
- Feeling inexplicably unsafe or trapped in busy public spaces
- Avoiding social interactions
- Heightened startle response to loud noises
- Physical restlessness but emotional fatigue
This is your body doing its best to cope in difficult conditions. Noticing these patterns can help you meet them with compassion instead of self-judgment.
10 Actually Helpful, Therapist-Approved Ways to Stay Emotionally Cool in a Heatwave
1. Drop Your Productivity Expectations by 30%
This isn’t the week to deep clean your kitchen or solve your entire life. Heat saps energy and focus, so be realistic about what you can handle. Give yourself permission to be a little lazier, slower, or less social than usual. The world won’t fall apart because you needed an extra hour to lie on the floor.
2. Make a ‘Heatwave Survival Kit’
Create a little grab-bag of things that help your body and mind cope:
- Cold washcloth in the freezer
- Peppermint tea (hot or iced — it cools you from the inside out)
- Portable fan
- Calming playlist
- Easy, safe snacks you don’t need to cook
- A soft shirt you won’t mind sweating in
It sounds silly, but tiny comforts matter more when you’re low-capacity.
3. Have a Mood-Saving Exit Plan for Social Events
If you’ve got a patio hangout or outdoor gathering planned, pre-decide what your escape plan is if the heat or overstimulation gets to be too much. Tell a friend you might need to dip early or take a breather in the shade. Nothing ruins a night faster than feeling trapped and overheated.
4. Use Temperature to Regulate Emotions (On Purpose)
Heat naturally spikes your nervous system — so meet it with intentional cold.
- Run cold water over your wrists and neck
- Stick your feet in a bucket of cool water while you work
- Keep a bottle of facial mist in the fridge
- Wet a paper towel and drape it on the back of your neck like a pioneer with Wi-Fi
These quick temperature changes can literally help reset your body’s stress response.
5. Set a ‘No Heavy Conversations After 5PM’ Rule
Evenings in heatwaves feel extra thick and exhausting. Emotionally heavy talks at this time are a fast track to miscommunication, snappiness, and regrets. Save those deep check-ins for cooler mornings or days when your tolerance isn’t being hijacked by humidity.
6. Swap Hot, Heavy Meals for Light, Hydrating Ones
Big, greasy, hot meals can slow digestion and raise your internal temp. If you’re feeling sluggish and agitated, your gut might be struggling too.
- Fresh fruit, veggies, smoothies, salads, iced herbal teas
- Popsicles or frozen grapes
- Light rice bowls or wraps you can assemble without turning on the stove
Your digestive system and your mood are best friends — keep them cool together.
7. Normalize Canceling Plans Because It’s Too Hot
You don’t need a life-threatening excuse to reschedule a hangout. “I don’t have the bandwidth for this heat today” is a valid reason to stay home and lie in front of a fan like a sea creature. People who care about you will understand — and probably be relieved.
8. Move Your Body Gently, If At All
If you usually rely on intense workouts for stress relief, dial it way down. The heat can make your heart rate spike faster, making you feel dizzy, irritable, or anxious.
- Opt for stretching in the shade, gentle yoga, or a slow evening walk
- Or skip it altogether and call it nervous system regulation via intentional stillness
9. Name What’s Irritating You Out Loud
When everything feels wrong, it can help to literally name it: “It’s not that the internet’s slow, it’s that I’m hot and overtired and my brain’s short-circuiting.” This takes the pressure off little annoyances and helps externalize what’s really going on so you don’t misplace your frustration.
10. Focus on Micro-Comforts
You might not be able to escape the weather, but you can control small things:
- Cold pillowcase
- Light, calming background sounds (a fan, rain app, lo-fi music)
- Wearing soft, breathable fabrics
- Saying no to anything that feels unnecessarily draining
Comfort isn’t all-or-nothing. A hundred small mercies add up.
11. Take ‘Shade Breaks’ Like They’re Non-Negotiable
If you’re outside for any reason — errands, work, commuting — make it a point to deliberately stop in the shade for a few minutes every so often. You might be surprised how quickly your body’s stress levels drop when you give it even 3 minutes of relief from direct sun and heat. It’s not weakness; it’s basic nervous system care.
- Find a patch of trees, building shade, or even the shadow of a lamppost.
- Use it as a reset: unclench your jaw, drop your shoulders, take a long exhale.
12. Keep a ‘Too-Hot, Too-Tired’ Permission List
In this weather, your capacity for doing All The Things is naturally lower. Make a personal list of things you’re allowed to let go of when you’re overheated and emotionally maxed out. It sounds simple, but putting it in writing can help quiet your inner guilt.
- Skip workouts without explanation
- Say no to social invitations
- Let the dishes sit overnight
- Order takeout two nights in a row
You’ll feel less emotionally scattered when you pre-decide what can wait.
13. Practice Sensory Downtime Indoors
Even if you can’t avoid the heat entirely, you can help your nervous system recover once you’re back inside. Prioritize one-hour windows where you turn down the sensory volume of your environment.
- Dim the lights
- Lower the TV or music volume
- Avoid your phone or doomscrolling
- Lay down with a cool cloth on your forehead
Giving your brain and body this pocket of quiet can massively lower irritability and overstimulation.
14. Focus on ‘One Cool Thing at a Time’
When you’re overwhelmed in the heat, your mind races with things you should be doing: cooling off, drinking water, making dinner, texting people back. Instead of spiraling, pick one small, cooling action and focus only on that.
- Drink a tall glass of ice water.
- Sit in front of a fan for five minutes.
- Run cold water over your wrists.
Once you’ve done one thing, then decide what’s next — instead of mentally juggling 10 tasks at once in a heatwave haze.
15. Check in With Your ‘Heatwave Emotions’ Log
If you notice you get extra anxious, irritable, sad, or restless during hot weeks, keep a loose mental or written log of what emotions spike when and why. It helps build patterns you can work around next time.
- Maybe you notice 3PM is your meltdown hour.
- Maybe after a poor night’s sleep you’re snappier with family.
- Or that loud construction during heat makes you panicky.
Recognizing your heatwave triggers lets you plan your coping strategies in advance — and normalizes that you’re not just “being moody for no reason.”
It’s Not You, It’s the Heat
Heatwaves are exhausting — physically, emotionally, and socially. Your mood dipping, your patience running thin, your inability to make decisions, and your random bouts of frustration aren’t personal flaws. They’re normal, bodily responses to environmental stress.
Listen, you can’t control the weather, but you can control how kindly you treat yourself inside it. Slow down. Lower your expectations. Stay hydrated. Cancel what you need to. And know you’re not alone in wanting to throw your phone across the room every time a weather app says “feels like 38°.”
If the heat has been affecting your mental health or leaving you more emotionally frazzled than usual, KMA Therapy is here to help. Our team of therapists gets that sometimes life’s pressures, grief, and trauma feel heavier in oppressive weather. You don’t have to white-knuckle it through the humidity alone.
Book a free 15-minute discovery call with one of our registered therapists — and join our DBT Group Therapy waitlist today. ✨
