Is the myth about the ability of getting awake by washing your face with cold water having to do with our fish ancesters true? (gehirneimer.de)

submitted 9 hours ago by Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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i tried looking on the web but im on phone and bad at searching i guess (also avoid ai)

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[-] BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.ml 9 points 9 hours ago

It wakes you up because of the temperature shock... Not because of tiktallic...

[-] HobbitFoot 7 points 9 hours ago

There is also a biological response that happens when a person's mouth and nose are covered in water, since being covered in water generally means not being able to breathe.

Said response isn't in fish.

[-] radix@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

An ice cube down your shorts will wake you up, but that's not something a fish would have a natural reaction to. Temperature seems the more plausible explanation.

Also, cold water specifically wouldn't mean much to an aquatic animal that lives in that water. It's basically the same as its body temperature, so the human equivalent would be washing your face with 37C water.

[-] blackbrook@mander.xyz 5 points 8 hours ago

I don't think we know that until someone makes little shorts for fish and performs a study.

this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026

11 points (70.4% liked)

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