Winter is fast approaching, and like every year from the first frost, you will have the impression of losing a little of your vital energy. But is it just an impression? Yes, but only in part, as explained to us by doctor Nogrette, a general practitioner.
Primarily psychological fatigue
“In our societies, the cold, we protect ourselves relatively well, first explains the expert. Most of us can afford to cover ourselves and keep warm.” This sudden – and relative – exhaustion would therefore not be directly linked to the drop in temperatures but “to shorter days and less sunshine, which cause fatigue felt, partly psychological.”
But then, this need sometimes as physical as it is imperative to stay snuggled up under the duvet until spring would essentially be just a figment of the mind? Not really.
The danger of overheating
You are not without knowing it in these times when the expression “energy sobriety” circulates as ever: it is better to avoid turning on the heating too early, and especially to push it too hard. By a perverse effect, it is actually not the cold that tires the body, but the overheating (of your interior or your car, for example): “This has negative effects on health, because we force our body to work a lot more to regulate its temperature and cool down. And this regulation work is very tiring”, confirms Doctor Nogrette.” The problem is the same during a heat wave.
Morality? To avoid these effects, cover up and maintain a temperature of 19°C inside. “Who is not polar!, adds the doctor. Our grandparents, before the democratization of central heating in the 1950s, lived in much lower temperatures. Moreover, it must be understood that the lengthening of life expectancy in our societies is parallel to this installation of central heating.
