Why Do We Shiver When Cold?
You get cold enough, and suddenly your body starts shaking even though you’re not trying to move at all. It seems like a strange response until you realize what all that movement is doing. Your muscles are working, and working muscles produce heat.
That’s what shivering is for. Your body is making your muscles contract over and over to generate some extra warmth. You don’t decide to do it. Your brain starts the response automatically when it detects that you’re getting too cold.
The Shaking Is Actually Doing Something
Think about what happens when you use your muscles for any kind of movement. They need energy to do the work, and some of that energy ends up as heat. Shivering takes advantage of the same basic process.
The difference is that these muscle contractions aren’t trying to move you from one place to another or accomplish a particular task. They’re small, quick contractions happening again and again. The point is the muscle activity itself and the heat that comes with it.
That’s why shivering isn’t just something that happens because you’re cold. It’s one of the ways your body responds to being cold.
You Don’t Have To Tell Your Muscles To Do It
Your body is constantly getting information about temperature, including from your skin. As you get colder, that information is sent to your brain, which can start the shivering response without waiting for you to make a decision about it.
Once that happens, signals travel to your muscles and the rapid contractions begin. You might first notice a slight trembling and then more obvious shaking as the response becomes stronger.
It feels different from moving a muscle on purpose because it is. Shivering is being controlled automatically.
That’s Why Your Teeth Can Chatter Too
That familiar teeth chattering when you’re really cold is part of shivering too. The same rapid contractions happening in other muscles can happen in the muscles around your jaw, making your teeth chatter without you trying to move them.
It’s one of the more noticeable examples of what shivering is doing throughout your body. The shaking might seem like an annoying result of being cold, but the movement has a purpose. Your body is putting muscles to work because muscle activity gives it another way to produce heat.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice.