Holding your partner’s hand while watching the sunset, having a cup of coffee while reading a book, watching the ebb and flow of tides at the beach, and playing with your pet are just a few examples of how the word “comfort” encompasses different meanings and situations for different people. Walking in a dark alley where you can hear dogs howling might leave you on edge and make you feel uncomfortable. On the other hand, going for a walk near your house at night might not make you uncomfortable.
What makes us feel comfortable and safe with a certain person or in a certain place?
While it’s difficult to observe whether a person is feeling comfortable or not (as it’s difficult to map mental processes), the reactions—behaviours—that are caused due to the feelings of comfort and safety can be studied more easily. These reactions might be in the form of relaxed muscles, a smile on the face, or appearing less self-conscious. These behaviors tend to be multifactorial and are related to both nature and nurture.
For a skydiver, being at an altitude of 8000 feet might lie within their comfort zone; however, someone who is acrophobic might instantly panic just visualizing the situation. One potential reason for this difference is how the inherent biochemistry of the brain varies from person to person; this leads humans to set a diverse range of boundaries for their comfort zones. When we perceive a situation to be comfortable, several centers in the brain worktogether to make us feel happy and relaxed. The brain secretes two hormones—serotonin and dopamine—that regulate well-being and how we feel pleasure, respectively. Through differences in the regulation of these hormones, one person could be biochemically predisposed to feel comfort in different ways than another person.
We also tend to hold preconceived notions for a lot of scenarios that lead us to decide how comfortable we are in a given situation. For example, we might be at ease while going out alone during the day, but we might get second thoughts while doing so in the dark. We might feel more on edge and be more vigilant, which is due to the brain secreting adrenaline. This is because humans have evolved in a way that makes them fear the dark. Adrenaline is secreted in fight, fright, and flight situations. Fear leads to an increase in blood pressure, pupil dilation, and redistribution of the blood from the digestive system to the muscles. This helps a person respond to this quickly in dangerous situations.
Coupled with this biological predisposition are environmental factors that can take a wide range of forms, from the familiarity of a situation and the development of social support systems to the setting of the environment. Someone who is acrophobic could go through systematic desensitization to get comfortable at higher altitudes. When people become familiar with a setting, they also undergo the process of acclimatization. Several physiological changes take place in the body during this time. Specifically for higher altitudes, acclimatization includes loss of regional cortical grey matter.
Having examined some of the various factors that interact to make us feel safe, happy, relaxed, and comfortable, an important question to ask is: “Can we control comfort?”
Most of the time, individuals can control the environmental setting that they’re in to adjust their comfort levels accordingly; however, it might be harder to increase the production of hormones like dopamine and serotonin that are the primary drivers of making us feel comfortable. Even more interesting to explore would be ways to increase dopamine production in relatively stressful environments. Dopamine levels can be increased naturally (although not by a lot) by various changes in lifestyle like a healthier diet, getting enough sleep and exercise, meditating, and listening to soothing music. Similar steps can be followed for an increase in serotonin levels. However, these boosts don’t guarantee that these hormones will be released in stressful situations.
Consider this: If someone started following a healthier routine, do you think they’d be able to feel safe if a robber invaded their house? Being comfortable in such an anxiety-provoking situation would require us to go against our fundamental nature and can by no means be achieved through lifestyle changes. However, if we could somehow develop ways of producing dopamine and serotonin in labs and transmitting them to the bloodstream in larger quantities than they’re usually present, we might be able to produce artificial comfort. The main obstacle to this endeavour would involve the tight regulation of the brain’s biochemical balance (since dopamine and serotonin are produced there) and our lack of in-depth knowledge regarding the physiology and mechanisms of the brain.
If we managed to overcome these barriers, artificial comfort could be highly useful in overcoming fears, rational or irrational. For example, it could be used to help people overcome stage fright. Easing the tension in such a situation might help people get over those occasional stutters and become more effective public speakers. However, this artificial comfort could interfere with physiological homeostasis or even make us do things that we don’t want to do. In the robber example, we are better off with adrenaline pumping through our veins and being alert than getting a dopamine rush.
So, should we actively look for ways of simulating comfort? Since it would be very difficult to regulate situations in which this comfort was produced once the hormones were transmitted into humans, it might not be a good idea. As far as minor situations are concerned, like overcoming stage fright, it can be argued that familiarizing oneself with being in front of a large audience and using natural ways to boost comfort hormones would be better. Such methods won’t have unknown health implications and might help people expand their comfort zones, as the boundaries of these comfort zones are flexible.
In the end, the next time you feel safe and comfortable (or uncomfortable) next, I’d encourage you to reflect on what is going around you and in you to make you feel the way you do.
