My best thinking happens in the shower. Whenever I have to do something mentally taxing, I always take a long, ponderous shower before I get started. (Check out The Surprising Science Behind Your Shower Thoughts.)
I would have done so before sitting down to write this article, but I couldn’t—because this is a story about taking cold showers, something I have been doing for the past week.
Taking a cold shower is commonly thought of as a torturous act, something endured by people in military boot camps or jail. In the Seinfeld episode “The Jimmy,” George Costanza says cold showers are “for psychotics” when someone suggests he take one. Heck, the term “cold shower” itself is synonymous with “libido-killing.”
A cold shower, as the name implies, is when you crank the temperature of your shower down, away from the typical comfort of a steamy rinse. Some people take cold showers from start to finish, while others take a traditional warm shower and add a final few seconds of cold water for an invigorating. Just make sure you check in with your doctor before testing this out! On the more vain side of the spectrum, cold showers are better for our hair and skin. Where a hot shower can dry things out, cold showers hydrate and help with split ends and dry skin.
Despite all this, there’s a small but enthusiastic movement of people extolling the benefits of cold showers, and they have some real science to back them up.
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Cold water has long been used as treatment for sore muscles by sports therapists and athletes. Other physical benefits of frigid H2O are said to include increased weight loss and improved skin, but there is also evidence that cold showers can help with your mental health, too.
One study published in the journal Medical Hypotheses suggests that cold showers could be used as a treatment for depression.
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Cold morning showers also help with productivity (as the author of a New York Times piece on the topic found), the idea being that tackling a challenge first thing sets you up for success all day long.
And yet, ironically, all this evidence convinces me of one thing: Hot showers are amazing. I mean, how else can you explain the fact that nearly everyone takes them despite there being mountains of evidence testifying to the wonders of cold showers? (Heal your whole body with Rodale’s 12-Day Liver Detox For Total Body Health.)
I’ve spent my entire life testing out the benefits of hot showers, so I know they are great. The time had come to see what cold showers have to offer, so I decided to take one every morning for an entire week.
Specifically, I took 2-minute cold showers at the end of a very short (30 seconds or so) normal shower. Here’s what happened.
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1. I became hyper-focused.
During my first cold shower I began counting to 2 minutes in my head, but the cascade of frigid water quickly derailed me at “two Mississippi.” If hot showers lull me into a state of deep thought, a cold shower grabs my brain by the collar and throws it into a freezing lake.
When you start to take a cold shower, it is impossible to think about anything besides “I am taking a cold shower.” It makes those first 15 seconds or so feel like an eternity.
But once you come to terms with the fact that you are being doused with frigid water, something interesting starts to happen: I began to focus on some very basic, elemental human faculties.
My shoulders are pinched up, I thought, do they have to be? I relaxed them, uncoiling the bundle of tense muscle. I’m breathing hard and fast. Is this necessary? My gasps deepened and slowed. I became calm—cold, but calm.
2. I got motivated.
After what I estimated to have been 2 minutes passed, I turned off the shower and prepared to start my day. And when I say “prepared,” I mean it.
I sat down and wrote a to-do list over breakfast. I felt great. I felt productive. It took just 2 minutes, but I was a believer in cold showers.
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3. I had to summon some serious willpower.
The next day was more of the same, but I noticed I had more apprehension this time around before hopping in the shower. This trend continued throughout the following mornings as well.
If I knew how great it made me feel, then why didn’t I eagerly throw myself underneath the icy spray? The experience reminded me of a famous old saying, one that has been attributed to a bunch of authors: “I don’t enjoy writing. I enjoy having written.”
I don’t like taking cold showers, I just like the way they make me feel after I’ve already dried off.
The week has been a success, and I’ve assured myself that I will keep taking cold showers in the mornings. However, it won’t be easy.
I mean, have you taken a hot shower? It’s the best.
The story3 Things That Happened When I Took Freezing Cold Showers For a Weekwas originally published by our partners at Prevention.com.
For most people, one word comes to mind when you mention cold showers: why. But there’s a small, vocal faction who seem to love shivering in icy water. They talk about how it increases circulation, improves your skin, and reduces stress. A medical study from a few years back even suggested cold showers could make you less depressed. Family lore has it that my own grandfather was a fan of cold showers, and avoided all seasonal illnesses thanks to this icy armor. So, fine, I thought, I’ll try this for a week and see what happens.
Important to note: I went all in. Unlike some prior experiments, I didn’t ease into my cold showers with a 30 second warm version. Unlike the New York Times, I didn’t end warm showers with a cold burst. I just fully turned on the cold water, took a deep breath, and got in. Every day. For seven days. And here’s what happened.
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Once you’re in, it gets easier.
Stepping under the cold water was the hardest part. But, before you know it, it doesn’t feel so cold.
You know how after a while in a hot shower, you have to turn it up even hotter to feel the same level of steamy goodness? The same is true of cold ones. Sometimes I’d gasp when I got in, but after 30 seconds it would feel downright lukewarm, even tolerable. I’d turn it colder to make sure I wasn’t cheating. I’d get used to that too.
By day three, even getting in wasn’t that hard. This was still a shower, still pleasant, still relaxing—even cold.
It helped my skin, but not where I expected.
I trusted cold showers would help my skin. Because everyone says so.
'Extended exposure to water, especially hot water from your shower, can strip the skin of essential oils,' says Joshua Zeichner, Director of Cosmetic and Clinical Research in Dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC, 'ultimately causing irritation and dryness.'
When I took a really hot shower, I’d feel a bit itchy, especially on my back where the water hits me. What I didn’t expect, though, was that cold showers would help… my hands.
After all, we wash our hands multiple times a day, and expose them to sun, work, and whatever harsh chemicals we use around the house. Giving them a break from hot water that made my fingers go prune-y made my hands visibly less dry.
There was only mild shrinkage.
I'm sure you're wondering what happens to the twig and berries. On the shrinkage scale it was somewhere in between skinny dipping in a glacier and walking past the air-conditioner. Nothing too memorable and nothing that lasted after I got out.
I got my morning back.
Fact: cold showers are shorter. They’re not torture, but you don’t feel the need to hang out in there.
I’d heard cold showers can make you more focused or productive. But maybe it's fairer to say that you no longer have a hot shower to blur the lines of your morning. Instead of dreamy steam time that put my mind on “snooze” and made me late, I had a quick rinse that did the job.
Sometimes I didn’t realize how efficient the whole thing was until I was dressed and sipping coffee only 20 minutes after getting out of bed. The things I did with my new time included eating a proper breakfast, reading intelligent news, and, okay, sleeping later (twice).
It was great after a workout.
After a sweaty run, I found myself craving the cold. It was a way to feel refreshed, faster. And it stopped the post-run sweats that usually trickle on and on. You know, the ones that make putting on a fresh shirt a tricky game.
In fact, I hypothesized that my hot showers after workouts had only prolonged my sweating. Which kind of undoes the point of cleaning up.
I didn’t miss my “shower thoughts.”
I worried I’d miss out on those “great ideas” that everyone says come to you in the shower. But, to be honest, my shower thoughts are mostly half-awake musings about things I should remember to do. Which I forget because I have nowhere to write them down.
My coffee thoughts were far more productive. And the thoughts I had while shaving at the sink. Or commuting. Or any other moments of reflection.
In summary:
It was worth it. Unless you have a cold, or you’re showering with someone who considers this torment (which they will), consider cooling off by a couple degrees. The dermatologist-recommended temperature is “heated pool,” meaning around 84 Fahrenheit.
After the week I’ve had, that’s not even cold.