Do you drown faster in cold or warm water?

Answer 1

In cold water, your body slows down to retain heat. You then start feeling lethargic, symptoms of hyperthermia. Eventually, as your body desperately tries to retain heat, you either: 1) Become unconscious and drown 2) Drown

In hot water, the heat of the water will have an upwards motion making it a bit easier to float. Thus, in warm water, you are more likely to fall asleep than drown....UNLESS... there is a current pulling you down. Jacuzzis are always at 3 ft incase you fall asleep in the relaxing waters.

In any case if you are in water and about to drown, you should try to take off some off your clothes so that it will be easier to paddle. Then with your hands and feet, kick towards the bottom so you stay up. If you are strong enough, try to grab on to something or swim to the shore. Otherwise, your fate lies with luck.

Answer 2

You probably drown at the same rate in cold and warm water, but your chances of recessitation in cold water is far higher than warm water.

Cold water slows respiration so it is possible you drown slower, but I think that it is more likely that you drown at the same rate because you will be panicked. Cold water also slows your heart beat and other body functions--this is why resessitation is more likely in a drowning victim in cold water. I heard of a child who was resessitated after over a half an hour in freezing water. Children also are more capable of recovering from a drowning incident than adults. My 18 month-old sister drowned once while someone else was watching her and she recovered fine--of course they caught it quickly, which was a definate plus.

But there are also other things you need to consider. If you fall into cold water, you might be more likely to drown than if you fall into warm water because your body might go into shock. If you fall into cold water you also get hypothermia, so you may die from that instead of drowning anyway.

Answer 3

You will definately drown faster in cold water because hypothermia will cause your body to shutdown and you will not be able to swim.......Changes in environment can radically alter the type of heat loss. For example, cold-water immersion can increase conductive heat loss 25 times. The hypothalamus controls thermoregulation. Alterations of the CNS may impair this mechanism.

Hypothermia affects virtually all organ systems. Perhaps the most significant effects occur in the cardiovascular system and the CNS. Hypothermia results in decreased depolarization of cardiac pacemaker cells, causing bradycardia. Since this bradycardia is not vagally mediated, it can be refractory to standard therapies such as atropine. Mean arterial pressure and cardiac output decrease, and an electrocardiogram (ECG) may develop characteristic J or Osborne waves (see Images 1-2). While generally associated with hypothermia, the J wave may be a normal variant and is seen occasionally in sepsis and myocardial ischemia.
Atrial and ventricular arrhythmias can result from hypothermia; asystole and ventricular fibrillation can begin spontaneously at core temperatures below 25°C.

Answer 4

It's harder to breathe in really cold water anyway, so you're a little more likely to drown.

Answer 5

it would be cold water. it tends to slow your heart beat down or , like most cases, stops your heart completely. if its not that cold, it'd take your breath away when you first hit the water. you'll tense up and wont be able to breath easily. therefore, you drown.

Answer 6

Cold water... you'll pass out (hypothermia) and drown quicker.

Answer 7

I would hazard a guess at cold water because of the shock it could have on your body..

Answer 8

If you take hypothermia into consideration, Cold Water...

Answer 9

If you can't swim, it wouldn't make much of a difference. If you can swim, then cold water will do you in sooner.

Answer 10

cold water is worse because your bodyz more likely to cramp up