Quick answer
Sun poisoning is the common term for a severe sun reaction with systemic symptoms: extensive blistering redness plus fever, chills, headache, nausea, dizziness and dehydration. Treat it by getting out of the heat, cooling the skin, rehydrating steadily and resting. Get urgent medical help for confusion, fainting, seizures, a very high temperature, rapid breathing, or inability to keep fluids down.
Call emergency services if there is
The symptom list
| Skin symptoms | Whole-body symptoms |
|---|---|
| Extensive deep redness | Fever and chills |
| Blistering | Headache |
| Swelling and tightness | Nausea or vomiting |
| Itchy bumps or hive-like rash | Dizziness, faintness |
| Weeping or crusting areas | Marked fatigue, muscle cramps |
| Painful peeling later | Dehydration, dark urine |
Sun poisoning vs ordinary sunburn
The dividing line is whether you feel unwell. Ordinary sunburn hurts where the sun hit and peaks at 12–24 hours. Sun poisoning adds systemic features — fever, nausea, dizziness — because the burn is extensive enough to trigger a body-wide inflammatory and fluid response. Our side-by-side comparison is in sunburn vs sun poisoning.
Home treatment
- Get indoors, out of both sun and heat.
- Cool showers or damp compresses, repeated — never ice directly on skin.
- Rehydrate steadily; oral rehydration solution is better than water alone if you have been sweating heavily.
- Rest lying down with legs slightly raised if lightheaded.
- Paracetamol or ibuprofen for fever and pain if suitable for you.
- Leave blisters intact and cover loosely — see our guide to sunburn blisters.
- Stay completely out of sun until symptoms resolve.
When it is photosensitivity, not a burn
Not every severe sun reaction is thermal. Polymorphic light eruption produces an itchy bumpy rash on newly exposed skin, typically in spring, and many common medications increase UV sensitivity — some antibiotics, diuretics, retinoids, NSAIDs, amiodarone and St John's wort among them. If you burn or react far faster than expected for the UV index, review your medication list with a pharmacist.
Afterwards
Once you are well, the skin still carries the damage. Severe blistering burns are strongly associated with later melanoma risk, so start photographing and following any new mark on sun-exposed skin, and use the skin cancer risk quiz to place your personal risk. The safe sun exposure calculator helps prevent a repeat.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Sun poisoning is the everyday term for a severe sun reaction with systemic symptoms: extensive redness with blistering, fever and chills, headache, nausea or vomiting, dizziness or faintness, marked fatigue, and dehydration. Some people also develop an itchy bumpy rash on sun-exposed skin. Unlike ordinary sunburn, it makes you feel unwell all over rather than just sore where the sun hit.
Systemic symptoms such as fever, nausea and headache usually improve over 24–48 hours with rest, fluids and cooling. The skin component behaves like a second-degree burn and takes 1–2 weeks, with pigment change sometimes lasting months. Symptoms that worsen instead of easing need medical assessment.
It can be. Call emergency services for confusion, fainting or collapse, seizures, a very high temperature with hot dry skin, rapid breathing or heartbeat, or inability to keep fluids down. Those features suggest heat exhaustion or heat stroke, which are medical emergencies rather than skin problems.
Ordinary sunburn is a local skin injury: red, hot, tender skin that peaks at 12–24 hours. Sun poisoning describes a severe reaction where the body responds systemically — fever, chills, nausea, headache, dehydration — often alongside blistering. The distinction matters because sun poisoning needs fluids, rest and often medical review, not just after-sun lotion.
Get out of the heat and sun, cool the skin with cool showers or damp compresses, drink fluids steadily (oral rehydration solution if you have it), rest, take paracetamol or ibuprofen if suitable, and leave blisters intact. Seek medical care if you cannot keep fluids down, symptoms worsen, or any emergency feature appears.
Yes. Some sun reactions are photosensitivity rather than thermal burn — for example polymorphic light eruption, or a drug-induced photosensitive reaction to antibiotics, diuretics, retinoids or St John's wort. These can produce an itchy rash and feeling unwell with relatively modest visible burning.
Common photosensitising agents include some tetracycline and quinolone antibiotics, thiazide diuretics, certain NSAIDs, oral and topical retinoids, some antifungals and antipsychotics, amiodarone, and St John's wort. If you take these, check the label warnings and treat any UV as stronger than the index suggests.
Often, yes — small itchy red bumps, blisters or hive-like patches on sun-exposed areas, sometimes appearing hours to a couple of days after exposure. A rash that recurs each spring on newly exposed skin is a classic pattern for polymorphic light eruption and is worth discussing with a clinician.
Yes, and they are more vulnerable because they dehydrate faster and have a larger surface area relative to body weight. Any child with a significant burn plus fever, lethargy, vomiting or reduced wet nappies should be assessed the same day. Infants under one year with sunburn should always be reviewed.
The severe blistering burns that usually accompany it do. Intense intermittent burning is the exposure pattern most strongly linked with melanoma, so an episode of sun poisoning is a good prompt to start checking sun-exposed skin regularly.
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Medical Disclaimer
Educational information only. "Sun poisoning" is a lay term, not a formal diagnosis. If you feel systemically unwell after sun exposure, seek medical assessment. ScanSkinAI does not treat burns or diagnose skin cancer.