The average body temperature ranges between 97.6⁰F and 99.6⁰F, and many factors influence your body temperature throughout the day.
It is important to understand that your basal body temperature, your body’s lowest temperature during a 24 hour period, usually occurs while you are sleeping at night. Your temperature will begin to increase the moment you wake up and will continue to rise until the end of the day. Also, the little things you do will produce slight fluctuations in body temperature throughout the day.
A few factors that affect your body temperature are the temperature outside, your level of activity, your emotional and psychological status, eating, drinking and talking.
Because eating is directly connected to your metabolism, it can have a strong affect on your body temperature. A variance of up to 2⁰F is typical during the digestive process, and you cannot get an accurate picture of your body’s temperature if you take it around meal times.
It is important to keep all of these factors in mind before you take your temperature. If a reading seems unusually high or unusually low, don’t jump immediately to a panicked state. It is possible that your abnormal temperature could be caused by of any combination of these and other factors.
Because so many factors affect your body temperature, it is a good idea to take your temperature often while healthy. This will give you a better sense of your normal body temperature and give you a base to work from when you fear that you have an abnormal temperature. It is also a good idea to do this for your child to avoid unnecessary temperature scares in the future.
