Staying Cool: A Sensory-Aware Guide to Summer for Neurodivergent People
Note to Reader: In this article, we explore how warmer weather can affect sensory regulation. We reflect on why summer may feel more intense, due to shifts in touch, light, noise, and routine, and provide practical, sensory-aware strategies for staying cool, calm, and comfortable. Blending lived experience with gentle guidance, the article encourages readers to honour their rhythms and find what works for them, without pressure to push through discomfort.
Topic: neurodivergent summer support, sensory-supportive strategies, staying cool with sensory needs, heat and sensory overload, regulating in warm weather
Summer brings longer days, lighter evenings, and the kind of weather that encourages people to get outside, slow down, or try something new. However, for many neurodivergent people, the season also presents a distinct kind of challenge.
There’s the heat, constant, heavy, and often difficult to escape. Clothes that cling to the skin with sweat can feel unbearable, triggering discomfort that’s hard to ignore. Bright lights, noisy environments, unexpected changes in routine, and difficulty recognising thirst or fatigue can all combine to make even a simple day feel draining.
This guide isn’t here to tell you how to love summer. It’s here to help you make it more bearable, more balanced, and more supportive of your sensory self. With the right strategies, summer doesn’t have to be a season you dread—it can be something you move through with comfort, calm, and care.
When Everything Feels a Bit Too Much
Neurodivergent people often experience sensory input more intensely and more frequently. The warmer weather magnifies everything: heat, sound, light, unpredictability. Tasks that felt manageable in spring can suddenly become too much.
For some, the brightness of summer is overstimulating, with glare reflecting off surfaces or streaming through windows. Visual overwhelm builds quickly. For others, routine disruptions make it harder to feel grounded. Even interoception—the awareness of internal states, such as thirst, hunger, or overheating, can become harder to track. You might overlook your body’s needs until you’re already worn out.
Understanding these patterns enables you to respond to them with clarity and care. Summer brings change, and it’s okay to meet that change with supports that honour your way of being in the world.
Things That Might Help
Here are some easy-to-use ideas to help make the season feel a little more manageable. They’re not rules or must-dos—just options to explore and adapt in a way that works for you:
Staying Cool (Inside and Out)
Use cooling towels, chilled flannels, or neck fans when you need to bring down the temperature.
Choose soft, breathable clothes—cotton or bamboo are often gentler on the skin. Changing into fresh clothes during the day can also help if the sweat becomes uncomfortable.
If sunscreen is hard to tolerate, UV-protective tops or long sleeves can provide a good alternative.
Softening the Edges
Keep curtains closed or use blackout blinds when the light feels too bright.
Sunglasses aren’t just for outside wear—wear them indoors too if glare is making it hard to settle.
Try noise-reducing in-ear plugs if over-ear headphones are too hot or heavy. Brimmed hats can also soften both sound and brightness.
Keeping Hydration Gentle and Sensory-Friendly:
Smoothies, milkshakes, or thick drinks can be enjoyed through a straw, offering both hydration and a calming sensory experience.
Frozen fruit, ice lollies, and flavoured ice cubes are refreshing without being overwhelming.
Set up soft hydration reminders—stickers on a water bottle, visual cues, or part of a gentle routine.
Bringing Back a Bit of Rhythm:
Light structure can help, like a consistent morning start or a planned rest time mid-afternoon.
Visual planners or sticky-note checklists might ease cognitive load, especially on less predictable days.
Make space to decompress after anything energy-heavy—whether it’s social, sensory or cognitively demanding tasks.
Let Summer Meet You Where You Are
You might notice that your energy shifts with the season, moving more slowly, seeking out shade, craving quiet after bright, busy days. These patterns hold essential information. They reflect your body’s needs, your sensory needs, and the deep self-awareness that comes from tuning into both.
You don’t need to push through discomfort or override what your body tells you. You deserve environments and routines that work with you. That might mean planning rest into your day, choosing cool clothes that feel right on your skin, or adapting plans so they align with your pace.
Being neurodivergent means experiencing the world with richness, depth, and sensitivity. These qualities aren’t things to work around—they’re things to honour. Summer may bring new challenges, but it also offers opportunities to lean into what supports you, to explore what calms you, what restores you, and what helps you feel most at ease.
Your approach to summer might look different from others, and that difference is something to trust.
How do you keep cool in summer? Head over to the ND Perspective Community to discuss your ideas!
Supporting and Celebrating our Neurodivergent Community,
Jess x x