Do you get used to being cold?

[Woeismethischristmas]

Stopped using the boiler (oil and can’t afford to refill the tank) the cold just seems to settle in my bones and toes. Am wearing layers, scavenging for wood to light the wood stove a few hours a day. How do you get used to the cold. Im just mooching around between heat sources. Electric bathroom radiator and oil radiator in the hall. Wearing layers and moving around but Still freezing even with endless hot drinks.

Do you just eventually adjust to being cold? Super warm at work so I spend the other half of the week boiling.

1950s child here. Two pairs of socks and a hot water bottle down your jumper (dungarees best garment for supporting hot water bottle), plus woolly hat if your head is cold. You do get used to a lower temperature than we currently are used to but if it is very cold that will still feel too cold. We had one room with a fire, which we all lived in and kept door shut. You put off going to loo as long as possible then ran there, ran back and stood over fire to recover...

Hat is very important and are plenty of light dense layers.
Wear something long that covers your bottom.
Hot water bottles are critical too.
Fingerless gloves.

The damp is the worst part.

Another 50s child . Our only source of heating was a coal fire in one room. In Winter we had ice on the inside of the windows. No fitted carpets either just a square on top of Lino. Lots of layers . Hot water bottles and even coats on the bed if it was really cold . Physical activity helps get you warm and to be honest we were very healthy and rarely had a cold . I still sleep with the window open and no heating through the night .

I swear by long johns under my trousers and good socks. Thermal vest top, shirt, top and decent cardi. Am sat here on sofa with a blanket and a halogen heater on and am more than warm enough. Also in Scotland in very old house with zero insulation.

@sandgrown My heating only goes on for a couple of hours at night and is off overnight and yes a window open too.

A degree or two cooler than you're used to - yes. Actually cold - no, I can't. I had a boiler that ran for 10 minutes before locking out for 24hrs, that took the landlord 9 months to get round to fixing. And over winter it was utterly miserable. As in the one and only time I ended up on anti depressants - which didn't help was still utterly miserable until the boiler was fixed and I could have a warm home and hot water without boiling a kettle. It was only really looking back I realised that was the trigger for ending up clinically depressed.

I worry for everyone who will struggle to afford to keep their homes heated to a reasonable degree :(

Yes, I think you do get used to it.

I actually think warm shoes/ boots makes the biggest difference to me.

Other than that, lots of layers and keep moving (if I get really cold I go and hoover the stairs).

I grew up in a house with no central heating. We had a gas fire in the lounge and an electric blower in the bathroom. I don't really feel the cold now.

Layers is the answer. And good underwear. Slippers and socks.

I think you do get used to it.

No. Well I dont anyway.
Had the heating on less by accident a couple of nights ago. Made me wake up, so even while asleep, I can still tell.
Was awake for ages, then realised what the problem was.

Fingerless gloves help a lot too. I am usually freezing at work because of the bloody air conditioning and they really help.

People say heating or eating.
For me, I will do without a mobile phone. Do without a pet. Do without just about everything, rather than be cold. Sorn car etc.
But I do have choices, whereas I acknowledge that some dont.

I cant function if I am cold. I cant think straight. It affects my body.
And it makes me miserable.

Whether you do or not long term cold is bad for your health and should be addressed somehow if at all possible. Mil has just gotten funding to up the rating of her house because a doctor went with her to the council and told them if she'd lived all this time in a house that had insulation and no drafts or ramps, she wouldn't have lung issues. Layers and hot water bottles are not long term fixes. Try and get some help if you can at all. That goes for everyone x

A month or so ago I googled the impact of long term cold.

ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2019/01/16/how-your-body-copes-with-cold-weather/

Under 18C indoors your blood thickens. I must admit it was rarely that warm inside in my house anyway. If you can afford it, an electric blanket is a great device. I was dead against them till I got one and now wouldn't be without it.

It makes me so sad to see this as a topic on MN, along with the other heating threads in active.

It’s 2022 for fucks sake, we shouldn’t be living like this

Damp not ramps!!

Physical activity helps get you warm

I read a twee little poem once called something like ‘Don’t sit by the fire’ that was written in the Victorian era. It basically said yes it’s cold but if you sit trying to get warm by the fire you’ll actually feel colder so get up and get busy and you’ll warm up.

I agree with you OP that it’s miserable to feel cold.

Thermal underwear, I wear lots of winter sportswear (winter running leggings) Borge fleece top over a few winter running tops, Borge slipper boots and cosy socks. Fluffy bedding, electric under blanket. We are still putting on the heating but only for a few hours only set at 16 , making as much use of the sun coming through the windows . Throws on sofa.

When our oil delivery was delayed once last year we bought Oodies which absolutely brilliant!

Decent food is a must too. The sort that sticks to your bones, so thick soup rather than hot drinks. Old fashioned puddings made with suet and custard when its really really cold. Sometimes you have to warm yourself inside out via food rather than outside in via clothing.

I found knee length socks kept me warm far more than layers, and tshirts that are long enough to be tucked inside your jeans (and stay tucked!). No baggy sleeve cuffs either. Got to make sure no bare skin is allowed near the air, not even a smidgen.

Yes you do.

When I used to do a lot of work outside I couldn’t bear the heating on when I got in at night.

The fact that this thread now seems quite common place on MN in the year 2022 is simultaneously upsetting and rage inducing.

As a country we may have had harder lives in the past, that doesn't mean putting up with it now. We should want each generation to have things a little better and a little easier.

The fact we have got to this point and millions plunged into poverty, is utterly outrageous.

I weirdly prefer being cold so don’t use the heating often and grew up in a house that didn’t use the heating (triggered my childhood migraines) and yeah I think I just became accustomed to being cold (and enjoy it!)

I do wear layers and thermal socks etc because then I can take them off if I’m too warm

We haven't had our heating on for four years now and I reckon you must just get used to it.
Oodies are fabulous and making sure your feet don't get too cold helps.