Sun poisoning is a severe sunburn that causes symptoms beyond just red, painful skin. If you’re dealing with it right now, the most important steps are to get out of the sun immediately, cool your skin, hydrate aggressively, and take an over-the-counter pain reliever. Depending on your symptoms, you may also need medical attention.
How Sun Poisoning Differs From a Regular Sunburn
Sun poisoning isn’t a formal medical diagnosis. It’s the common term for a sunburn intense enough to trigger whole-body symptoms, not just skin damage. A standard sunburn makes your skin red, warm, and tender. Sun poisoning does all of that, plus it can cause blisters, severe itching or pain, headache, nausea and vomiting, fever and chills, dizziness, fatigue, dehydration, and a rapid heartbeat.
These symptoms happen because the UV damage is deep enough to set off a systemic inflammatory response. Your body reacts the way it would to any significant injury: fever, fluid loss, and general distress. Although it can look like an allergic reaction, sun poisoning is typically caused by intense UV exposure rather than a true allergy.
What to Do Right Now
Start cooling your skin as soon as possible. Apply a clean towel dampened with cool tap water to the affected areas for about 10 minutes, and repeat this several times throughout the day. A cool bath also helps. Adding about 2 ounces (roughly 60 grams) of baking soda to the tub can soothe the skin further. Don’t use ice or ice-cold water directly on burned skin, as this can cause additional damage.
After cooling, apply aloe vera gel or calamine lotion. Refrigerating the product beforehand makes it more soothing. Avoid anything containing alcohol, which dries out already damaged skin and increases irritation.
Take ibuprofen or acetaminophen as soon as you can. Ibuprofen is especially useful because it reduces both pain and inflammation. A topical gel pain reliever rubbed directly onto the skin is another option if swallowing pills is difficult due to nausea.
Drink extra water throughout the day. Your body loses fluid through damaged skin faster than normal, and the fever and sweating that come with sun poisoning accelerate dehydration. Sip steadily rather than forcing large amounts at once, especially if you feel nauseous.
How to Handle Blisters
Blisters mean the burn has reached the second-degree level, damaging deeper layers of skin. Leave them intact. The fluid inside protects the raw skin underneath and acts as a natural barrier against infection. Popping blisters exposes that vulnerable tissue to bacteria and significantly raises the risk of complications.
If a blister breaks on its own, gently clean the area with mild soap and water, then apply a light layer of moisturizer or antibiotic ointment and cover it loosely with a clean bandage. Watch for signs of infection over the following days: increasing redness, warmth spreading outward from the blister, pus, or worsening pain.
Signs You Need Medical Help
Most sun poisoning can be managed at home, but certain symptoms mean you should get to a doctor or emergency room promptly:
- Blisters covering more than 20% of your body. That’s roughly an entire leg, your whole back, or both arms.
- Fever above 102°F (39°C).
- Signs of dehydration that aren’t improving with fluids: dizziness, dry mouth, fatigue, intense thirst, or noticeably reduced urination.
- Feeling extremely cold or shivering despite warm surroundings.
- Persistent nausea and vomiting that prevent you from keeping fluids down.
In severe cases, a doctor may prescribe a prescription-strength corticosteroid cream to control the inflammation. If dehydration is serious or the burn area is extensive, hospital admission for IV fluids and wound care is sometimes necessary.
What Recovery Looks Like
The worst of the systemic symptoms, such as fever, chills, nausea, and dizziness, typically begin to ease within 24 to 48 hours as long as you stay hydrated and out of the sun. The skin itself takes longer. Severe sunburns generally need one to two weeks to heal, with peeling starting around day three or four and continuing for several days after that.
During recovery, wear loose, soft clothing over the burned areas. Tight fabrics trap heat and create friction against damaged skin. Stay out of direct sunlight entirely until the burn has fully healed. Your skin is far more vulnerable to additional UV damage while it’s recovering, and re-burning the same area can cause serious complications.
Resist the urge to peel flaking skin. Let it shed naturally. Pulling it off can tear healthy skin underneath that isn’t ready to be exposed yet, which slows healing and increases the chance of scarring. Continue applying fragrance-free moisturizer regularly to keep the area hydrated as new skin forms.
Protecting Yourself Going Forward
One episode of sun poisoning means your skin has sustained significant DNA damage at the cellular level. Each severe burn increases your long-term risk of skin cancer, so preventing a repeat matters. The burn you have now will also make your skin more sensitive to UV for weeks after it visually heals.
When you do return to sun exposure, use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher, reapply every two hours (more often if swimming or sweating), and seek shade during peak UV hours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. If you burned through sunscreen this time, consider whether you applied enough. Most people use only about a quarter of the amount needed for full protection. For your whole body, you need roughly a shot glass worth of sunscreen per application.