comfort

Comfort (or being comfortable) is a sense of physical or psychological ease, often characterized as a lack of hardship. Persons who are lacking in comfort are uncomfortable, or experiencing discomfort. A degree of psychological comfort can be achieved by recreating experiences that are associated with pleasant memories, such as engaging in familiar activities, maintaining the presence of familiar objects, and consumption of comfort foods. Comfort is a particular concern in health care, as providing comfort to the sick and injured is one goal of healthcare, and can facilitate recovery. Persons who are surrounded with things that provide psychological comfort may be described as being "in their comfort zone". Because of the personal nature of positive associations, psychological comfort is highly subjective.

• A security blanket is a blanket or other familiar item carried especially by a young child to provide reassurance and a feeling of psychological security.
• A safety blanket is a type of cover made of a material that does not burn very easily, that you throw over flames to put them out or stop them from spreading.
• A space blanket is an especially low-weight, low-bulk blanket made of heat-reflective, thin, plastic sheeting. They are used on the exterior surfaces of spacecraft for thermal control, as well as by people. Their design reduces the heat loss in a person's body, which would otherwise occur due to thermal radiation, water evaporation, or convection.

The use of "comfort" as a verb generally implies that the subject is in a state of pain, suffering or affliction, and requires alleviation from that state. Where the term is used to describe the support given to someone who has experienced a tragedy, the word is synonymous with consolation or solace [安慰; 慰藉]. However, comfort is used much more broadly, as one can provide physical comfort to someone who is not in a position to be uncomfortable. For example, a person might sit in a chair without discomfort, but still find the addition of a pillow to the chair to increase their feeling of comfort. Something that provides this type of comfort, which does not seek to relieve hardship, can also be referred to as being "comfy". Like certain other terms describing positive feelings or abstractions (hope, charity, chastity), comfort may also be used as a personal name.

温饱

Thermal comfort is a satisfaction of the ambient air temperature and humidity. Psychologists devised a study to determine the most comfortable temperature. The study had people answering a survey as the temperature changed around them. From the surveys, psychologist found many people had no opinion of a range of temperature. This was labeled temperature neutrality, which is the rate as the person metabolism is shifting the same rate as the surrounding temperature. The average comfortable temperature is 30 degrees Celsius. Temperatures too hot (35 °C and above) and temperatures too low (12 °C and below) are considered uncomfortable to many people.

另外的说法：25℃的环境最适宜人类生活。15℃-18℃时，人的思维敏捷，记忆力强，工作效率高。

Comfort foods are foods intentionally consumed to move the eater into a pleasurable state. This could be credited to food preferences and childhood experiences (like a mother's cooking). Comfort food are usually chosen because of previous experiences of happiness linked with it. For example, chocolate is held as a popular comfort food as it is follows the pleasurable sweetness and the positive association with gifts/rewards. The time of day also play a role in consuming comfort foods. Most people tend to eat simply because "it's lunch time" and only 20% of the time is due to actual hunger.

The salivation reflex, as Pavlov called it, was mainly triggered when the dog's tongue made contact with food. After the same experiment was done a couple of times, the dog started to learn a pattern and salivate before seeing or eating the food. This was caused by the brain anticipating the same action would occur under familiar circumstances.

Food preferences splits into two categories, snack-related and meal-related. If a child was exposed to many snacks growing up, he/she would focus on more snack-related comfort foods later on in life. Food preference ranges through male/female, and younger/older. Females and the young demographic prefer snack-related comfort foods, while the male and older demographic prefer meal-related comfort foods.

A house or room that is cosy/cozy is comfortable and warm.

If you feel snug or are in a snug place, you are very warm and comfortable, especially because you are protected from cold weather.

See also

• Comfort noise, artificial background noise used in radio and wireless communications to fill the silent time in a transmission
• Comfort object, an object used to provide psychological comfort
• Comfort women, a euphemism [委婉的说法] for women who were forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese-occupied countries during World War II
• Comfort zone, the term used to denote a type of mental conditioning resulting in artificially created mental boundaries, within which an individual derives a sense of security

六级/考研单词: physics, psychology, ease, seldom, hardship, engage, heal, injure, subjective, blanket, reassure, flame, interior, thermal, radiate, evaporate, verb, implicit, tragedy, synonym, console, pillow, relieve, charity, humid, devise, neutral, metabolism, celsius, consume, hunger, trigger, exposition, snack, demographic, cozy, slave, denote, derive