If you have a stiff neck, drafts can be to blame. We explain to you in which situations it creates and give you tips on how to protect yourself from it.
Maybe you have already experienced that: How out of nowhere do you suddenly get back or neck pain. You didn’t use your body very much. This feeling can also have another cause – namely drafts. This is air that we often find as flow -shaped and cold. If your neck or back are exposed to this air flow for a long time, pain can occur as a result.
Drafts can also be a sign that an apartment or room is not well sealed. This can mean energy waste and high heating costs in winter. Knowing about the development and prevention of drafts is not only advantages for health, but also for the environment and wallet.
Typical situations with drafts
(Photo: CC0 / Pixabay / Cocoparisienne)
There are different situations that favor the development of drafts. Examples of this are:
- Drive in the open convertible or open the windows when driving a car
- Switch back and forth between heat and air -conditioned rooms – especially when a room is cooled down to less than 20 degrees Celsius, this can make you sick
- sit right in front of air conditioning or a fan
- Sleep with open windows so that a pull is created
- Standing in rooms, the windows and doors of which are not well sealed, so that there is a pull in cold wind
This is how your body reacts to drafts
In the event of a strong gust of wind, the skin vessels contract to keep the body warm. However, if you are permanently in the drafts for a long time, this protective mechanism does not work: the muscles in the neck and back in the back can be more easy because the skin temperature drops after a while. This cools down the muscles, they are no longer properly supplied with blood and tension.
Note: Especially in summer, drafts can become a problem because we wear light clothing with uncovered neck and neck.
Five tips to avoid drafts
(Photo: CC0 / Pixabay / Stocksnap)
We have five tips for you how you can protect yourself well against drafts and the resulting tension:
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Cover your neck with a neckerchief, a scarf or a collar if you sit in an air -conditioned place for a long time. These are, for example, supply parts, restaurants or cinemas. Warmer clothes also help you to stay warm in winter without turning up too much heating energy.
- If you are susceptible to drafts, you should avoid, leave windows for a long time – whether in the car or overnight in the bedroom. Instead, ventilate regularly to cool the rooms. In winter you should ventilate even shorter to prevent this heat loss.
- By sealing windows, you avoid drafts and heat loss.
- Sealing doors also helps to stop drafts.
- Avoid air conditioning systems and fans over heat because they cause drafts. At the same time, you immediately save energy. Instead, find alternatives to cool off:
Instead of fan: So you cool off without drafts
To cool off in the heat, you can use various options that are not associated with the risk of drafts:
- For example, you can darken the apartment with sheets so that the sun does not heat up the apartment directly. Or you can get an insulating curtain. This can be worthwhile if you often struggle with strong sunlight and heat in the apartment.
- You can also hang wet towels to increase the air humidity in the room. However, make sure that you still ventilate enough and correctly to prevent mold.
- You can also make sure to drink enough and cool your face, your feet and your wrists with cold water.
What to do in the event of complaints through drafts?
(Photo: CC0 / Pixabay / Startupstockphotos)
If you have muscle tension or a stiff neck for several days or weeks, you should catch up with medical advice. It may be that not only drafts, but perhaps an overload of your muscles or psychological problems can trigger your pain.
In addition, it is advisable to keep your back healthy by training and building the muscles over a longer period of time. So she can tense less. A back school, some of which is borne by the health insurance companies, can prevent preventive back pain.
Especially in the home office, you should also make sure to sit properly. Look at our yoga exercises for the home office and learn to set up the home office properly in order to prevent tension and other frustrations.
Read more on utopia.de:
- Back massage: tips and tricks for a relaxing massage
- Back training: simple exercises for strong muscles
- Heat in the office: what you can do about it
Revised by Philipp Multhaupt
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