What Causes ‘Chills’ and Why Do We Get Them?

Chills are like when your body is doing a dance to stay warm, but it’s not sure how to do it yet.

When you get chills, it feels like your skin is tingling or shivering, kind of like when you jump into a cold pool and your whole body shakes. This happens because your body temperature is changing, and it wants to go back to normal.

Your body has something like a thermostat inside it that checks if you're too hot or too cold. When you get sick, this thermostat gets confused, maybe it thinks you’re too cold, even though your fever is making you warm on the inside.

So your body tries to fix this by doing something called shivering, which is like tiny muscle dances all over your body. These little dances use energy and make you feel warm again, just like when you run in place to get warm before going outside.

Sometimes chills also come with a fever, which is when your body gets warmer than usual, kind of like turning up the heat on a radiator. Your body is working hard to fight off something it doesn’t like, like a virus or bacteria.