The Benefits of Cold Temperatures

David Trammel's picture
Joe Cohen over on SelfHacked posted this review of the benefits of exposing yourself to cold temperatures,
 
 
I can't vouch for the medical citations or medical information Joe posts in his articles but then the science seemed sound. 
 
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I know that I sleep better when my bedroom is cool or even what many would consider cold. Bundled under a bunch of blankets, my sleep seems to be deeper and I awaken in the morning feeling more rested.
 
I will admit that now that I'm older (in my early 60s) I find my tolerance for cold is a lot less. Especially in my fingers. My place of employment is adding onto the building with a 50% extension. The heater in the warehouse where I worked had to be relocated in late November through early December, which meant we had no heat. While we didn't have too many days of below freezing weather and I work on the day shift where it is warmer, still after 8 or 9 hours of that, I was tired and often came home to turn the furnace up to 75 degrees. And yet I didn't see any illness other than my usually running nose (and that could just be my allergies, lol).
 
Its only been in the last two centuries that households had reliable sources of heat. First fireplaces, then freestanding stoves, then indoor coal and oil furnaces and hot water radiators, to today's radiant heat flooring and electric or gas furnaces. Slowly we have made the Cold something banished to the outside. But with that banishment has come people who seem to get ill at the smallest of things.
 
You temper steel by exposing it to fiery heat and then quenching cold. Perhaps we should relearn some tempering ourselves.