comfort zone

plural comfort zones

1. The range of temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors that people or other organisms require in order to be physiologically unstressed.

   The desirable comfort zone indicated lies between 30 and 65% relative humidity.

   2015, Victor Olgyay, Design with Climate: Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   The child who swings between extremes has trouble finding the comfort zone—the area in which her body is comfortable, efficient, and alert.

   2014, Terri Mauro, The Everything Parent's Guide to Sensory Processing Disorder, →ISBN, page 191

   All this is very bad news for coral, which has a fairly limited temperature comfort zone.

   2015, The Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2000, →ISBN

   The warmest temperature that defines this comfort zone is the critical high temperature, above which chickens suffer heat stress. The lowest temperature is the critical low, below which chickens suffer cold stress.

   2016, Gail Damerow, The Chicken Health Handbook, →ISBN

2. broadlyidiomaticThe range of circumstances in which a person feels relaxed or able to cope.

   The demanding interview panel took him well out of his comfort zone.

   1 more example

   Anything is a strong word… But the major building blocks of life: work, relationships, leisure activities and growth – dancing can help you with all of these. How? By getting you out of your comfort zone. And getting out of your comfort zone is the first step towards being a dancer, as well as succeeding at most other activities.

   2021 January 11, “How Dancing Can Help You Do Anything”, in Harlequin The Dance Store, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2021