The real reason you and your spouse fight over the blanket and air-con remote control

CNA Lifestyle

The real reason you and your spouse fight over the blanket and air-con remote control

Temperatures affect men and women differently – in the office, at home, and in the shower. I study found that women are more comfortable when it's 2.5 degrees Celsius warmer.

06 Dec 2022 06:20AM (Updated: 03 Jul 2022 05:21PM)

If the tussle over temperature control at home and at work feels like a plot straight out of George RR Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire, y'all might not be besides far from the truth.

More than just fantasy, there is some science behind why men thrive in the common cold like Jon Snowfall, while women seem to welcome the oestrus similar the Mother Of Dragons.

Blame it on the dissimilar temperature sensitivity in men and women.

Women tend to prefer a more than specific temperature... and get more uncomfortable when the temperature changes.

In a written report by two Dutch scientists, they institute that women were more comfortable at a temperature 2.v degrees Celsius warmer than men – which might explicate why many women are oft swathed in layers of sweaters and cardigans in the office, while their male counterparts experience fine in just their cotton wool work attire.

Dr Ben Ng, an endocrinologist from Mountain Elizabeth Novena Hospital, noted in the study that "women tend to express more dissatisfaction with temperature deviations".

"Women tend to adopt a more specific temperature, and can sense small changes and get more uncomfortable when the temperature changes, particularly in cold weather. Men tend to be less affected by temperature changes."

This difference in temperature perception can be caused, in part, past "their different body compositions," said Dr Tey Hong Liang, senior consultant and caput of the National Skin Centre's Research Division. "Women generally have a higher per centum of torso fat versus muscle mass, while men accept a higher percentage of musculus mass versus body fat."

As a upshot of having more muscle mass than women, men more often than not have a college basal metabolic rate and produce more than heat.

As a upshot of having more muscle mass than women, men generally accept a higher basal metabolic rate and produce more heat, said Dr Tey, who is too assistant professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. This may explain why men demand a cooler ambient temperature than women to stay comfortable.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FEEL Cold OR WARM

Regardless of muscle mass and body fatty percentage, both genders demand to maintain a cadre temperature that allows for the body'southward functions to hum along nicely – betwixt 36.i degrees Celsius and 37.2 degrees Celsius, according to Dr Ng. And this temperature range is regulated very tightly by the hypothalamus in the brain.

Like a control heart, the hypothalamus receives signals from the environment through specialised nerves called thermoreceptors, and signals accordingly to the body to increment or lose heat to keep the trunk temperature stable, said Dr Ng. This is known equally the hypothalamic set betoken of the trunk.

If things are heating upwards, the hypothalamus triggers the sweat glands into pumping out perspiration to cool things down. At the aforementioned time, the blood vessels amplify to ship warm blood closer to the skin to cool off.

Feeling cold? Your blood vessels take on the opposite action by constricting. When this isn't sufficient to keep the warmth in, the hypothalamus has some other trick upward its sleeve: Your muscles start to contract, causing you to shiver.

Virtually of the heat in the trunk is produced past deep organs such as the liver, brain and middle.

According to Gordon Giesbrecht, a professor of thermophysiology at the University of Manitoba in Canada, yous could produce from 100 watts, up to 600 watts (in cases of mild hypothermia) of estrus by shivering.

Your pare has the highest number of thermoreceptors as information technology is the outermost organ. Interestingly, the organs that generate the most oestrus are too equipped with thermoreceptors to detect and misemploy rut, said Dr Tey. "Virtually of the heat in the body is produced by deep organs such every bit the liver, encephalon and center. The other major heat source are the muscles during exercise."

WHAT Tin 'Adjust' YOUR INTERNAL THERMOSTAT

There are factors that can disrupt your hypothalamic gear up point and affect how you perceive temperature. "An increase in weight with an increase in fatty content can reduce the amount of heat loss," said Dr Tey. "Conversely, an increase in muscle content would increment the amount of heat production."

Women'southward hormonal modify is another variable in the equation. "Hormonal changes in women, such as menstruation and pregnancy, can affect their core temperature and temperature perception, and also bear upon their metabolic rate," said Dr Ng.

(Photograph: Unsplash/Danielle Maclnnes)

Where you live geographically is another factor that affects how you perceive heat, said Dr Tey. "A person staying near the equator volition take more efficient mechanisms for heat loss, and therefore, perceive heat differently from someone staying in a cold climate."

Of course, your body acclimatises with time and that is why the longer your winter holiday is, the better you are at coping with the common cold. Similarly, even a person exposed to oestrus several hours a twenty-four hours while performing a reasonably heavy workload will develop increased tolerance to hot and boiling conditions inside 1 to three weeks, he said.

A person exposed to heat several hours a day while performing a reasonably heavy workload will develop increased tolerance to hot and humid conditions inside one to three weeks.

HE'S SWEATING Simply SHE'S FREEZING

How does your hypothalamic set point come into play in real life? Here's a look at how your body'due south perception of temperature can lead to interesting work and domestic situations with the contrary sex.

IN THE Role

If women typically have a college body fat percentage, why exercise they experience cold quicker and more than often than men in the office? Doesn't fatty insulate you confronting heat loss? "Fatty is indeed a good insulator as it merely conducts estrus one tertiary as readily as other tissues. However, the heat production in women is lower due to a lesser amount of muscle," said Dr Tey. "Although the rate of heat loss is slower in females, the total amount of estrus lost in a similar-sized female and male person is similar."

Compared to her male colleagues, a adult female doesn't produce enough heat to make up for the amount she loses. This may explicate why she may feel the need to reach for the cardigan more than men when exposed to the same role for a prolonged period.

Women are also more likely to have common cold fingers and toes in chilly places. This happens because the fat surrounding the vital organs tin can restrict blood flow to the extremities – and women do take more fatty than men.

Cold fingers may also allow women "perceive the temperature equally too low due to the thermoreceptors sensing inadequate blood floor and lower temperatures," said Dr Ng.

But if human physiology is not the reason for the faux winter situation in the office, it is a good idea to bank check with building management that the indoor temperature is betwixt 22.5 degrees Celsius and 25.5 degrees Celsius.

Point the building management squad to the NEA'southward Free energy Efficiency Improvement Assistance Scheme, which subsidises up to 50 per cent of the cost of engaging an energy services company to audit the building'southward energy consumption and ameliorate energy efficiency.

IN THE Bedchamber

Why does he find the ac not common cold plenty, while she is hogging the duvet the infinitesimal she gets into bed? Dr Tey's take is, women start off with a lower rate of oestrus production and lower internet amount of heat, so they feel cold more oftentimes.

"Although women have a higher fatty percent and more than insulation, they tend to take a greater surface expanse, too," said Dr Ng. "There is more exposed skin, and hence, women can be more prone to heat loss through the pare." Women's diet, which is often lower in refined sugars, and smaller in proportion than men'south, can also affect heat perception, he added.

Simply why do men end upwardly needing the blanket, too? "The core body temperature in men and women both driblet by ane to two degrees Celsius when the metabolism starts to fall during sleep," said Dr Ng.

According to Tan Tock Seng Infirmary's website, the body temperature hits its lows between 3am and 6am for both genders – causing men to beginning their mid-sleep search for the blanket, which by then, is already wrapped around her similar a tightly rolled popiah pare.

IN THE SHOWER

Women typically can withstand a higher water temperature than men, and you'd know from the near-sauna conditions that a female person member of the family has just taken a shower.

A possible explanation is that men generally take a college basal heat production than women, said Dr Tey. "This results in men'due south demand to lose more torso heat to maintain the same hypothalamic set up point every bit females."

A happy shower temperature for anybody at abode is between 36 degrees Celsius and 40 degrees Celsius, said Dr Tey.

The real reason you and your spouse fight over the blanket and air-con remote control

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