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This is no more odd than my mother’s family’s belief that sleeping in front of a fan causes illness & stiff muscles.
by AnonymousRider 8y ago
This is no more odd than my mother’s family’s belief that sleeping in front of a fan causes illness & stiff muscles.
- linkmotif 8y agoIs your mom’s family Russian or Eastern European?
- toolslive 8y agoMy parents believe that 'air draught' can cause the common cold. It was considered pseudo science in the 1960-1990s, and largely ignored by Medicine. As it turns out, draught and cold makes you more receptive to the virus. (I guess that's where it got its name from)
- teekert 8y agoAre you dutch by any chance? I spend hours in the back of my grandparent's car driving through Germany, sweating and being miserable because my grandfather "would get a stiff neck from the air draft". I never believed it.
- toolslive 8y agoI'm from Flanders (Belgium)
- TeMPOraL 8y agoYeah, in Poland, it seems all my family from my parents' generation and older believe in that too. As a kid, I had endless battles with all of them over opening a window. E.g. it would be too hot for me, but everyone would say, "close the window, there's a draft and it'll get you sick". smh. "Stiff neck" 'teekert mentions and "ear pain" would be mentioned as dangers of draft too. It's so pervasive in the local culture that I even have to occasionally remind people from my generation that common cold is a virus, not a side effect of exposure to elements.
- jacobush 8y agoSame in Sweden when I grew up. (80s)
- de_watcher 8y agoI still believe that avoiding drafts is a good thing. When you're contaminated (and you don't know because you don't feel it yet) you shouldn't stress your immune system with additional stuff like the temperature differences between different body parts. Why do you want less of blood circulation in the contaminated areas? What is called "extreme hot" for North or East Europe is a pretty normal temperature for human species anyway.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago> What is called "extreme hot" for North or East Europe is a pretty normal temperature for human species anyway. What is called "pretty normal temperature for human species" is barely bearable for me, and has been so since I was a kid. It completely destroys my productivity. I recall reading here that the "productive" temperatures fall into the range I consider comfortable, so I must not be too much of an outlier.
- jansan 8y agoAnd since my roommate in Japan fell asleep in front of an air conditioning and woke up with a severe bronchitis, I know that falling asleep in front of an AC isn't the best idea either. Luckily I was suffering from severe diarrhea at the same time, so we both had something to make fun of each other. Although his laughter sounded a bit weird due to the bronchitis.
- teekert 8y agoNo offense but basing the conclusion that sleeping in front of an AC causes bronchitis on a single observation is the way to help such misunderstandings into the wild.
- jansan 8y agoNo offense, but believing that falling asleep directly in front of an air conditioning when soaked in sweat on a 36°C day will not cause any health issues is a bit naive. I would know that even without a single observation.
- teekert 8y agoI certainly will believe that it will not feel very nice indeed.