Claes came from Sweden to study in Sydney at the tail end of a very hot summer. We all supposed that he would find the intense heat overwhelming, coming as he did from a country intersected by the Arctic Circle. Not so, according to Claes. He was cold at night.
He tells us that in Sweden, everyone has the central heating turned up to 30 degrees Celsius while summer nights in Sydney’s West can get down as low as 16 or 18, which is a little chilly if you’re not wearing pyjamas.
The moral of this story is that how warm or cold you feel depends on more than just ambient temperature. There is an element of psychology to this as well. Have you ever noticed that if you take paracetamol for a headache, you often feel immediate relief, even though it can actually take up to an hour for the medication to take effect? It’s not uncommon to become more aware of pain and excessive cold or heat when you feel unable to focus on positive things; or when you forget to pack your pyjamas!
Some things you can do to keep the cold at bay include the following:
- Dress appropriately for the weather and have some spare blankets on hand to wrap over yourself when not moving round.
- Have warming food and drinks. Make them yourself, so you stay active.
- Alcohol is not a good idea. Although it can increase a sense of warmth in your "periphery" it does so at the expense of your "core", where all the vital organs are.
- Stay active, keep moving. Have you ever noticed that manual workers always seem to be a little under-dressed? That’s because their physical work activity keeps them warm and fit.
By Warren Heggarty from Panorama Magazine
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