Don't you understand how your boyfriend can survive short-sleeved while you're bundled up with two blouses, a jacket and a scarf? and the same thing seems to happen to other couples you know.
Or, the office where you work lives on the brink of war because men are always dying of heat and want to leave the air conditioner in Siberia mode, while women are frozen to the bone.
If you suspect that this is because women feel colder than men, know that you are right, and science has an explanation for this phenomenon.
Equal Inside, Different Outside
The internal temperature of men and women is practically identical (considering people who have no fever or have just exercised), and the perception of cold and heat of both sexes occurs in the skin through receptors located mainly in the feet. and no hands.
In colder environments, where our internal temperature could fall, the body tends to vasoconstrict, that is, lowering the caliber of vessels to reduce blood flow to the skin in order to? Hold? the heat internally. As a result, our hands and feet get less heat and get cold, an effect that happens much more to women than to men.
Read also: 10 tips to save energy with air conditioning
The explanation for this difference is that, in general, men have a larger body structure and more muscle mass than women, which makes them produce more heat and not rely so much on this vasoconstriction effect to maintain their internal temperature. .
Thus, as their skin continues to receive roughly the same amount of blood, men's cold and heat receptors suffer less from the lower temperatures. No wonder they feel comfortable at temperatures around 22 degrees Celsius, while women tend to prefer slightly warmer environments, around 25 degrees Celsius.
The Office Air Conditioner Drama
In virtually every office, the controversy is always the same: men complaining that the air conditioners don't get cold enough and women complaining that they're shivering.
While the stalemate is very current, you know that it came about in the 1960s, when the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, an association of US engineers working in heating, cooling, and air conditioning, made a study. on thermal comfort to set a temperature standard for corporate environments.
To create this model, the association took into account data such as the ambient temperature itself, wind speed, relative humidity, the type of clothing worn during office hours and the metabolic rate of people when performing office activities.
Read also: How to choose an air conditioner
The problem is that both the type of clothing and the metabolic rate considered were primarily for men, who were the bulk of the workforce at the time. To make matters worse, a 2015 study showed that the calculation engineers made in the 1960s overestimated women's metabolic rate by 35 percent.
Thus, in addition to the fact that the formula is out of date because it does not include current female participation in corporate environments, it still offers misleading results in considering that the female body produces more heat than it actually produces.
How to solve this impasse?
To put an end to the discomfort, it would be ideal if men and women could come to an agreement when it comes to regulating the air conditioning temperature of the office or even the car or bedroom when it comes to a couple. After all, it is not a? Freshness? of women, but a physiological matter!
And if they come up with the old argument that 'just put on more shirts', which we know very well is not the same as feeling comfortable in the environment, you can say that offering a more appropriate temperature increases productivity and Saves energy and fuel. Just in case, though, always take a cardigan with you!
The Real Reason Why Women Are Always Colder Than Men (April 2024)
- 1,230
