Danny's Weblog

Solution to the Cambodian kramaa-pyjamas problem

As soon as I came to Thailand I became aware that the Thais all wear pajamas, or some similar nightwear, to sleep. This seems very strange to the foreigner who is unbearably hot when naked.

I wrote it off to prudery, although when I questioned people about it they said they felt more comfortable with pajamas.

Having slept without AC for a couple of years I have somewhat acclimatized, and believe I now understand the issue. It is basically caused by a shortcoming in the body's sweat control system.

If the skin is in effect enclosed – for instance, when you lie on your back – the local skin does not detect that it is completely saturated already and it might as well *stop* sweating. Instead, it goes into overdrive! Quite rapidly the supply of sweat is largely exhausted and you get the worst of both worlds: a saturated puddle of bedclothes beneath the sleeper, chafing against raw, dried-out skin.

I now realize that pajamas bypass this problem. As soon as the part of the pajama against the bed starts to saturate, the sleeper rolls over, exposing that part to the air and allowing the sweat to dissipate (although the salts and oils may remain, I believe as stated in previous postings on acclimatization that these constituents of sweat are minor in Asians). Thus the sheet *beneath* the sleeper does not saturate.

In the event that the sleeper is not wearing nightwear, he will respond by curling the entire top sheet around himself so that he can use it for the same purpose. I had noticed this peculiar behavior on many occasions (having woken up without any sheet at all around me and wondered why). I don't know what happens when two pajamaless Asians have to share a single sheet! It also occurs when the room is air-conditioned, but of course the observer assumes in that case that the sleeper is simply trying to keep warm.

There is a similar basic problem which the "kramaa", the brightly-patterned scarf so characteristic of Cambodia, can solve. It is this: unless you gaze quite horizontally, the skin tends to fold at the neck. Where the skin folds together, the sweat cannot evaporate. For some reason I never focused on this issue in Thailand, but certainly in Cambodia I have noticed that if I am looking down – reading, for instance, or even watching TV – within a few minutes the skin becomes sweaty and irritated at my neck. Of course, the kramaa can easily be used to disperse this sweat as soon as it accumulates.

A separate issue which affects pajamas is mosquitoes. For some reason mosquitoes seem to prefer to attack the calves, even when one is lying down. Pajamas, like trousers, seem to largely foil mosquitoes. (You would think they wouldn't make much difference but they do.)

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