Maintaining a record may also help you avoid

A man arranges ice blocks to sell at his stall in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)A man arranges ice blocks to sell at his stall in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

City officials, with help from climate and health researchers, have implemented two simple yet effective solutions to help those affected most by heat: the poor and those who work outdoors. By painting tin-roofed households with reflective paint, they’ve reduced indoor temperatures, which otherwise might be up to 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than outside. More recently, the city hung curtains woven of straw and water sprinklers at one bus stop so commuters can get relief from the sun and heat. Officials said they plan to expand the idea to other bus stops in the city.Residents said both measures have been a relief even as they brace for at least three more months of sweltering summer.A man applies reflective paint to the roof of a house that helps keep the indoors cooler in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A man applies reflective paint to the roof of a house that helps keep the indoors cooler in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)Throughout the city’s low-income neighborhoods, hundreds of tin-roofed homes have been painted with reflective paint that helps keep the indoors cooler. Residents said their houses were so hot before the roofs were painted that they would spend most of their time outdoors under any shade they could find.

“Earlier, it was really difficult to sleep inside the house,” said Akashbhai Thakor, who works as a delivery van driver and lives with his wife and three-month-old child in Ahmedabad. Thakor’s roof was painted as part of a research project that is trying to measure the impact of the so-called cool roofs.

Early results have been promising. “After the roof was painted, the house is much cooler, especially at night,” said Thakor.“It was like a fireworks show,” Cheng said. “They’re like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe he did that.’ Then they forgot about me. But the tone was set. It was like ’Oh, this is what we’re doing. Let me talk about what’s going on with me, too.’”

While balancing classes and a full-time job during her last year of college, Rosalie Mae began struggling to get out of bed and crying uncontrollably. Yet she felt like she had “to keep it together” to avoid burdening her colleagues at the University of Utah bookstore, where Mae worked as an accounting clerk.Then she found herself calling a suicide hotline. “Once it reached that point, I knew, especially at the urging of my husband, we need to do something more,” Mae, 24, said.

In her case, that meant taking a five-week work leave to put her own health and well-being first. She recommends the same for others who find themselves in a similar position.“Taking a mental health leave is not necessarily a cure-all, but it is important to give yourself a break and allow yourself to regroup, make a plan of how to proceed and take the steps to work towards feeling better,” Mae said.