Everyone loves the comforting sensation of wrapping up in a blanket on a chilly night. That cozy warmth helps the cold fade away and allows your body to relax. But while it feels like you’re getting much warmer under a blanket, have you ever wondered — does it actually raise your body temperature?
Surprisingly, a blanket raises your core body temperature only by a very small amount. Your body is constantly regulating its internal temperature, and it doesn’t easily shift due to external factors. That said, if you stay bundled up long enough, you might see a slight increase, especially in skin temperature.
In the rest of this article, we’ll explore the difference between feeling warmer and actually getting warmer, how your body produces and retains heat, and share useful tips for staying toasty — blanket or no blanket.
How a Blanket Warms You Up
Although sitting beneath a blanket can raise your body temperature slightly, it shouldn’t raise it enough for most people to notice. However, it can make you feel much warmer.
So, if your core body temperature doesn’t change much under a blanket, why do you feel warmer when you use one? To understand this, I’ll explain the difference between core temperature and peripheral temperature and also talk about why you get cold in the first place.
Core Temperature vs. Peripheral Temperature
Core temperature is what you measure with a thermometer. In healthy bodies, this number always stays within a narrow range of just a few degrees. People used to believe that the standard temperature for everybody was 98.6°F (37°C), but it actually shifts between about 97°F (36.1°C) and 99°F (37.2°C) throughout the day.
Your core temperature is affected by your internal circumstances. You might also notice a change in your temperature based on the time of day, the last thing you ate, and where you use the thermometer on the body.
If your core temperature does drop due to extreme circumstances like illness, injury, or hypothermia, you might need medical intervention to bring it back to a safe level. But that’s very different from the type of chill a blanket can normally affect.
Peripheral temperature is the temperature of your skin. Cold air takes heat away from your body, which lowers your peripheral temperature, and that’s when you start looking for a blanket to warm you back up.
Blankets Change Your Peripheral Temperature
As soon as you cover up, the blanket stops the air circulation and traps your body heat right next to you. The body makes heat just by doing everything necessary to keep you alive. Stopping the cold air from snatching that away makes you feel warmer instantly. The longer you stay under the blanket, the pocket of air surrounding you continues to build heat. This phenomenon is why it’s cold getting into bed at night but so toasty in the morning.
If you want to give your peripheral temperature a helping hand, pick a fuzzy blanket. The texture creates little air pockets around you and is more efficient at preventing airflow. My favorite is this Chanasya Fuzzy Faux Fur Throw, available on Amazon. They come in a variety of sizes, so pick one big enough that you can cover your toes and pull it up to your neck!
No Risk of Fever Associated With Blankets
The debate rages on about whether or not you should treat a fever by covering yourself up with a blanket. No matter what your feelings are on that matter, one thing is scientifically and rationally clear — covering up with blankets will not cause a fever, no matter how many luxurious throws you decide to pile on.
The Difference Between Fever and Hyperthermia
There are two primary situations in which the body’s core temperature is raised. These are fever and hyperthermia. Fever is the controlled response of a healthy immune system, whereas hyperthermia, or overheating, is not controlled by the body and happens due to external forces.
The big player in this is the body’s built-in thermostat, the hypothalamus. Temperature control isn’t its only job, but it’s an essential one. The hypothalamus spends the whole day raising and lowering the core temperature to keep the body within the normal range.
Fevers only happen when the hypothalamus decides to crank up the core temperature, usually as a strategy for fighting off some infection or illness. This type of fever, in most cases, is a healthy immune response.
Hyperthermia, on the other hand, happens when something is happening outside of the body that the hypothalamus can’t appropriately respond to. Something happens that heats you up, and the body’s usual cooldown strategies can’t work fast enough or well enough to release enough heat.
No Risk of Overheating Associated With Blankets
I’ve mentioned that blankets don’t cause fever, but I’ve also said that hyperthermia is caused by outside factors. These bits of information might leave you wondering if blankets can cause overheating. Fortunately, the answer is still no.
While it’s true that being overdressed in hot weather is one of the causes of hyperthermia, the treatment for that is to remove layers until the body can start cooling off again. If you got too hot under a blanket, you could immediately begin sticking out limbs until the cooling process kicked in.
If you’re operating of your own free will, your body will let you know when it’s time to come out from under a blanket. Even when sleeping, you’ll throw the blankets off or wake up to get out from under them. Remember, being hot is not the same as increased core body temperature. Using all this information, we can conclude that blankets pose no real risk of either fever or overheating.
Other Ways to Warm Up
If you feel a chill creeping in and there’s no blanket within reach, here are a few surprising ways to get comfy and cozy again.
- Stay sober. Drinking alcohol changes the body’s circulation to bring blood and body heat toward the periphery, which is why you feel flushed when you’ve had a drink. However, when that body heat evaporates, you’ll be left feeling colder than before.
- Ditch your diet. Calories are the necessary fuel that runs the engine of the body. When it’s cold outside, the body uses additional calories to keep warm, causing an energetic deficit — insufficient fuel. If you’re often cold, try increasing how much you eat — getting your metabolism going can heat you up.
- Try warming spices. Any hot drink can help, but some specific herbal teas can warm you up. Incorporate spices you associate with the winter holidays into your tea routine. Cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, and nutmeg are all excellent options. If you don’t want to blend your own, try Be Active Get Burning by the Republic of Tea. It’s specifically designed to stimulate your metabolism and warm you up.
- Do a little exercise. While sitting under a blanket can’t raise your core body temperature, moving your body can. The heat you build while working out will be released as excess, which will help your peripheral temperature rise. If you can, avoid breaking a sweat. Sweating is one of the body’s most effective cooling processes, and that’s not the direction you’re trying to go.
To Conclude
Sitting under a blanket won’t raise your core body temperature, but it will make you feel warmer by preventing cold air from taking your body heat away from the surface of your skin. Subtle shifts in temperature throughout the day are normal, but anything drastic up or down is something a blanket can neither help with nor cause.
If you are looking for a new blanket, some very cozy options are available, but changes to your diet and exercise can also help make you more comfortable.
