Body temperature too hot outside: why don't you feel most comfortable at 37 degrees?

It is also very hot in Germany at the moment, with temperatures sometimes exceeding 37 degrees. But why do most people find such high temperatures unbearable when their own body temperature is similar?

At 37 degrees Celsius, even doing nothing can make you sweat – although that pretty much corresponds to the body’s temperature. Why is that like that? One might think that the human organism does not need to expend any energy at around 37 degrees in order to reach body temperature.

The Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen explains why we don’t feel the most comfortable at 37 degrees in the shade: Humans constantly produce heat, completely independent of the outside temperature. Since the heart, brain and metabolism are in constant operation, more heat is generated than is needed to maintain body temperature, it is said. The residual heat is released to the environment through the skin.

What sounds like a waste puts the body on the safe side. In colder weather, this ensures that there is enough energy to keep him warm. However, excess heat has to get out of the body. This is done via an exchange with the cooler air. The more the body and outside temperature adjust, the worse this mechanism works.

On midsummer days with 37 degrees, “a balance between outdoor conditions and physical activity sets in,” explains biometeorologist Andreas Matzarakis, who heads the Center for Medical and Meteorological Research of the German Weather Service (DWD) in Freiburg. For humans, this means that they have to emit even more of the heat produced through their skin. This manifests itself in sweating. Because the sweat evaporates and cools the body.

Is there an ideal temperature for us? Biometeorologist Matzarakis says that humans use the least energy at 27 degrees. However, he qualifies that the ideal outside temperature also depends on factors such as humidity, wind and solar radiation. In general, people would feel most comfortable in a range between 18 and 23 to 25 degrees Celsius, explains Matzarakis.