Chills are your body’s way of generating heat through rapid, repeated skeletal muscle contractions. The fastest way to stop them depends on the cause: if you’re cold, layer up and drink something warm; if you have a fever, an over-the-counter fever reducer will address the underlying signal triggering the shivering. Here’s how to handle both scenarios and some less obvious causes.
Why Your Body Shivers
Chills aren’t random. A region in your brain called the preoptic area acts as your internal thermostat. When it detects that your core temperature is too low, or when infection-related chemical signals trick it into thinking you need to be warmer, it sends excitatory signals down through the brainstem to your skeletal muscles. Those muscles contract rapidly and inefficiently on purpose, burning energy to produce heat. That’s the shaking you feel.
This means chills have two broad triggers: actual cold exposure (your body really is too cool) and fever (your brain has temporarily raised its target temperature because you’re fighting an infection). The fix is different for each one.
Stopping Chills From Cold Exposure
If you’re shivering because you’re genuinely cold, warming your core is the priority. Layer clothing, wrap yourself in blankets, and move to a warmer room. Drinking something hot like tea, coffee, or hot chocolate raises your internal temperature from the inside out. Focus warmth on the center of your body: your chest, neck, and torso. Warm, dry compresses applied to the neck, chest, and groin are effective if blankets alone aren’t enough.
A few important cautions. Don’t rewarm too quickly with a heating lamp or a hot bath, especially if you’ve been exposed to serious cold for a prolonged time. Rapid rewarming can stress the heart. Avoid warming the arms and legs first, since that can redirect cold blood toward your core and actually lower your central temperature further. And skip the alcohol: it dilates blood vessels near the skin, which feels warm momentarily but accelerates heat loss.
Prevention matters too. Wearing layers lets you adjust for changing temperatures so you don’t sweat and then get chilled. Sweating followed by cooling is one of the most common ways people end up shivering outdoors.
Stopping Fever-Related Chills
When you’re sick, your brain essentially resets your thermostat higher. Your normal 98.6°F body suddenly feels “too cold” to your hypothalamus, so it triggers shivering to generate more heat. That’s why you can feel freezing under three blankets even though your temperature is 102°F.
Over-the-counter fever reducers like acetaminophen and ibuprofen work by lowering that reset point back toward normal. Once your brain stops demanding a higher temperature, the shivering signal shuts off. Adults and children 12 and older can take combination products containing both medications, typically dosed every eight hours, but check the label for limits (usually no more than six tablets per day for combination products). For children under 12, dosing is weight-based, so follow the packaging carefully.
While you wait for the medication to kick in, pile on blankets and sip warm fluids. Staying hydrated is especially important during a fever because you lose more water through sweat and faster breathing. Once the fever breaks and you start sweating, shed layers gradually so you don’t overcool.
Chills Triggered by Anxiety
Stress and anxiety can also cause chills without any change in body temperature. The fight-or-flight response redirects blood flow away from the skin and toward major muscles and organs, which can leave you feeling cold and shaky. If you notice chills during panic attacks, high-stress moments, or periods of intense worry, the cause may be psychological rather than physical.
Techniques that activate your body’s relaxation response can interrupt the cycle:
- Box breathing: Inhale for four seconds, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Repeat several rounds.
- Progressive muscle relaxation: Deliberately tense one muscle group (hands, shoulders, calves) for a few seconds, then release. Work through your whole body.
- Visualization: Picture a calm, detailed scene, like a warm beach or a quiet forest, and focus on the sensory details.
- Yoga or gentle movement: Physical poses stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which counters the fight-or-flight response directly.
If anxiety chills happen frequently, that’s worth addressing with a therapist or counselor who can help you build longer-term coping strategies.
Chills in Children
Kids get chills for the same reasons adults do, but parents should watch for one important distinction: shivering versus seizure. Febrile seizures can occur when a child’s temperature rises quickly and may look like uncontrollable shaking. The key differences are that during a febrile seizure, a child typically loses consciousness, their eyes may roll back, and they may lose bodily control (drooling, vomiting, or loss of bladder function). Normal chills don’t involve loss of awareness.
Any first-time seizure in a child needs medical attention. Seek emergency care if a seizure lasts more than five minutes, if your child has trouble breathing, shows signs of neck stiffness or pain, vomits repeatedly, or takes more than an hour to return to normal afterward.
Red Flags That Need Medical Attention
Most chills resolve on their own or with the simple measures above. But certain combinations of symptoms suggest something more serious is happening. Chills paired with a very high fever (above 103°F in adults), confusion, neck stiffness, difficulty breathing, or a rash that doesn’t fade when pressed could indicate a serious infection like meningitis or sepsis. Chills that keep returning without an obvious cause, or that come with unexplained weight loss or night sweats, also warrant a medical evaluation. If you’ve been exposed to extreme cold and your shivering stops even though you’re still cold, that’s a sign of worsening hypothermia, not improvement, and you need help immediately.