How Koreans overcome heat waves with the cool mat
Unlike cold and dry winter, summer in Korea is pretty hot. What could bother you the most in summer is probably that it is hard to sleep. What is worse about hot weather in Korea is that it is ridiculously humid. For instance, it would take approximately 3 days at least for your clothes to dry since Koreans do not typically use any dryer machines.
During the monsoon season (Known as ‘jangma’ in Korean), this rainy season begins near the end of June and last until July. The hot weather not only irritates your skin, but also gives you a cold for excess use of air conditioning. (As a side note, Koreans believe that leaving a fan on all night is dangerous. So, that is not going to able to keep you cool throughout the night. )
Recently, this item, ‘cool mat’, has been popular to overcome this hot and humid summer in Korea. In order to get a good night sleep, you could shower with lukewarm water and sleep on top of this cool mat. Apparently, the main ingredient is water gel type material that absorbs heat from your body, which is the reason it feels like your body temperature decreases by 2-5 °C.
Due horrible heat waves in summer, the government announces energy saving measures to regulate power supply throughout the summer season in order to avoid severe electricity shortage. Because you have to maintain a certain temperature in buildings, a cool mat type sitting mats have also been popular among students and among people who have to sit at the desk all day. Get one for yourself if you are also suffering from the heat in Korea!
