Rice Socks

These are not edible. Don't try. It's a cheap "recipe" for a hot/cold pack, but I've been using them to stay cooler in bed.

I got a weighted blanket recently, and it helps me sleep so much better, but it's warm--I tend to get night sweats anyway--and I really want to keep using this thing through the summer. I think I'll manage, with some help from some old socks.

Here's the idea: You fill the socks with rice and put them in the freezer. They get cold. When you get hot, you take out one or more and use it to cool off. They stay cool for at least half an hour, probably a bit more--long enough for me to fall asleep, anyway. They're not as cold as ice cubes, so I can use them directly on my skin. They don't get drippy, so I can fall asleep with them under the sheets with me. If I wake up hot, I swap them out for fresh ones.

I think you can also use these for hot packs by microwaving them until they're hot. Don't burn yourself.


Rice Socks

You will need:

• Old socks, with no holes--either crew-height socks or kneesocks. I'm using four socks that are too worn to wear but don't have any visible holes. For the worn toes, I turned the sock inside out and used double-sided fabric tape (sometimes called rescue tape) to tape a piece of a rag on the worn place.



• Rice, the cheapest you can find, about 1 pound per sock. I got 5 pounds for $3.18 at Wal-Mart.



• Space in the freezer. If I can do it, you can. Actually, my shoebox-sized freezer hasn't been freezing food evenly, so I stopped putting food in it--there's a chest freezer I can use in the garage, although it often has auto parts on top of it--so I can use almost all of my shoebox-sized freezer for rice socks. I have four in there so far, and I can probably fit two more. Depending on how recently I've defrosted the freezer, I suppose.

Put the rice in the sock, leaving enough room to tie the top in a knot. Tie the top in a knot and put it in the freezer. Voila!