The cold shower will help though may cause sweating due to condensation on your skin. When your skin is sufficiently cooled due to anxiety or a cold shower, it can create this effect. Something like having sweaty palms; which is really just water condensation when your circulation drops to the extremities.

The wet blanket helps a bit with that effect, although if it’s quite hot outside, it may not last through a long sleep. Once the blanket has dried at least.

I too have found hot beverages has a cooling effect. The spices may also help to dilate your blood vessels (curry, garlic, etc.) as the body tries to cool itself; dissipating heat. On top of that, people tend to drink much more water when eating hot and spicy foods, increasing that feeling 🙂

I’ve read quite about this in the past – and it turns out that drinking cold things or eating hot ones don’t change your body temperature more than a tenth of a degree (C) or so, and just for a few minutes. The body is extremely efficient at maintaining constant body temperature and in many cases it’s a mental thing.

PS I forgot to mention in addition to hot food and beverage like soups, teas, and coffee, that spicy foods and stews also add to this effect significantly. Try it!

Another tropical climate trick I learned from the Thai people and I suspect they make good use of in places like India and Mexico is having hot food and beverage like soup while outside in the heat. This is counterintuitive but I’ve found it makes me much more amenable to the outside heat on those long walking days and I sweat much less. I think it has to do with bringing the body temperature close to the surroundings and therefore hastening adaptation.

How was the first encounter with bed bugs, how did it go?