comfort zone

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

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

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

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

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

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

   • 2016, Gail Damerow, The Chicken Health Handbook, →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.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) The 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.