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Extreme heat can sneak up on you. My friend Adriane learned this living in Arizona, where it’s not unusual for summer temps to top 100 degrees. She says many people don’t realize the effects the heat there can have on them. For instance one day Adriane and her mother, who was visiting from New Jersey, were driving from Phoenix to Tucson. It was 105 degrees outside on a cloudless day. They pulled off the highway because Adriane’s mom wanted to check out a scenic overlook. “Are you sure?” Adriane remembers asking. She told her mom they had to be careful in the heat. After about 3 minutes walking in the sun, the older woman started to get dizzy and lightheaded. They turned around and hurried back to the car.
Of all extreme weather conditions, heat is the deadliest. There’s three main ways heat can shut down vital systems, as Maria Godoy reports. In this comic, NPR graphics reporter Connie Hanzhang Jin illustrates how heat can kill, as well as tips to stay safe, cool down and stave off heatstroke.
Human bodies have a natural cooling system — sweat — but that system can do only so much in high temperatures and humidity.
Blood and water diverted to the skin for cooling can starve other systems
When your body is exposed to high heat, it tries to cool down by sweating and directing more blood to the skin – redirecting blood and oxygen from the gut. If that goes on for too long, the gut can become more permeable, and toxins that usually stay inside the gut start leaking out. Those toxins can trigger inflammation, blood clots and other effects that can lead to multiple-organ failure.
All that blood pumping to the skin can also tax the heart, increasing your risk for heart attack or stroke. And when you sweat, you lose a lot of water — up to 1.5 liters per hour. If you don’t replenish those fluids you get dehydrated, which can lead to kidney failure.
How hot is too hot? It depends
There’s no absolute temperature or humidity threshold considered dangerous. If you’re not acclimated to high heat— like my friend Adriane’s mom in Arizona — that increases your risk. Higher humidity and longer exposure can also increase effects.
Watch out for signs of heat exhaustion
Early indicators of heat exhaustion include headaches, dizziness, lethargy, and generally feeling unwell. If heat exhaustion progresses, your breathing can get rapid, you can become confused or uncoordinated, and even vomit.
Water and shade are your friends
Drink plenty of water before you head outside. When you’re active in the heat, drink every 15 to 20 minutes at least. If you start to feel overheated, wet your clothes and skin, or submerge your feet in cold water. Look for shade or if available, head for a cool spot indoors.
Check out the comic for more details on the science, and to see if you’re in a high-risk group for heat stroke.
Also: How to stay cool in extreme heat without air conditioning |
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The analogue toy’s fear of obsolescence has always been the theme of the Toy Story franchise, ever since pull-string cowboy Woody faced down action figure spaceman Buzz Lightyear in the original 1995 film – in a battle for the favor of their owner, the six year-old Andy. In Toy Story 5, in theaters Friday, the toys must compete for their current owner Bonnie’s love with a trendy tablet named Lilypad who quickly snags her attention. And as Woody says “Toys are for play, but tech…is for everything.”
A formidable rival, indeed.A report out this month from parental control app Aura found that 75% of children ages 7 to 11 years old said that they would rather watch videos than play with toys. And research clearly shows that screen time for kids and teens goes up dramatically during the summer, as NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee reports. School age children spend about four more hours per week on devices compared to during the academic year, according to the report — about 30% more time on screens. For teens, screen time goes up by 15%.
The Aura survey also asked kids about their wellbeing, and tracked their screen habits. As the summer wears on, one in three children score low on Aura's Digital Wellbeing Index, which correlates digital behaviors with a range of health parameters, including sleep, mood and isolation. "Many children and teens themselves report that they actually don't want to be glued to their phones over the summer," says Dr. Jason Nagata, who researches online behaviors of children and teens at the University of California, San Francisco, and was not involved in the Aura study. "It's just oftentimes, they're a little bit bored."
But if you’re a parent staring down the barrel of summer vacation, there’s hope. Here’s some advice from Nagata and other experts on how to de-screenify your kids’ summer.
🥽 Find structured ways to have fun IRL
Setting screen time limits works better if you pair it with fun alternatives, Nagata says. He suggests activities that offer a "physical barrier" to devices, like swimming. "I try to take my daughter swimming every weekend over the summers, and the pool has become our special father-daughter place," he says.
He also recommends summer camps, which almost always ban cell phones and tablets. Camps that provide opportunities for physical activity and outdoor play may be especially beneficial, Nagata says. If your kid isn’t the sporty type there are alternatives like art, music and science camps. You might look around and find something more specific too, like Junior Chefs Kitchen, a summer camp in Chicago where kids cook two recipes each day, and take a field trip to a different restaurant each week.
Organizing days around trips to the library or park, and taking advantage of community organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs of America are lower cost ways to give summer days more structure.
🙋 Let kids have a hand in the planning
"It's actually really important to just have that discussion with the kids and recognize that it's very easy to get lost in screens, but we want to really be in agreement that this is something we're going to try and do together," says Merve Lapus, vice president of education, outreach and engagement for Common Sense Media, an advocacy organization. Niki Cordell, who runs Junior Chefs Kitchen and has three kids of her own, uses an approach called “family bingo.” They write down a bunch of different activities on pieces of paper – like kayaking, a water balloon fight, or crafting – and put them in a jar. When her kids get bored, they pick out an activity from the jar and do it as a family.
📋 Set rules for the whole family around media
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends implementing a family media plan, and has some resources for how to do it. The plan should include certain times and places where devices are not allowed – like at the dinner table or at bedtime. There can also be exceptional times when devices are ok. “Like you can have screen time when it rains," says Simmons Hanson, a teacher and mom. "And sometimes it's determined by it's a long day after soccer camp and everybody needs to cool off and I need to make dinner. And so then that becomes screen time." And remember, the rules apply to parents too!
Read Rhitu’s story for more ways to show your kids they’ve got a friend in you – and in real life, off screen friends – this summer.
Listen: Practical advice for modern dads |
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Primary care doctors raise alarm as telehealth companies get involved in obesity drugs
Tick season is getting worse. Is managing deer helping?
Live with a partner? You may be sharing more microbes than you think
Most parents track their 18- to 25-year-old kids on their smartphones. Is it healthy? |
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All our best,
Andrea Muraskin and your NPR Health editors |
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