The Power of The Cold — My Experience with Two Cold Showers Per Day
I also found a little trick that makes it much easier to do this.
- The trick
The first time I wanted to take regular cold showers, I quickly began to struggle. Jumping under a cold shower, especially in the morning, is a stressful decision. Now here is the trick: start with a warm shower, then switch to cold later on. Have a stop watch in the shower (or use your smart watch) so that you can go for the same e.g. 2 minutes every day. Maybe even make the shower so hot initially, that you are genuinely looking forward to some cooling down. The timer will also help you not betray yourself. - The progress
Instead of just “making it”, here is a way to make more meaningful progress: your breathing. The initial reaction is fast and stressful breathing. Try to focus on long and deep breaths. You will see how much easier this goes within the first week already. Slow breathing is the best KPI (key performance indicator -> measurable number) to see something like progress happening. Additionally, the “slowness” of your breath is the one thing that correlates well with the effect we are trying to have. - The effect
So what did I get out of this? Apart from resistance against getting the cold, these showers help to relax. Counterintuitively, it is even helpful to have a cold shower BEFORE going to bed. My sleep quality has gone up and the time it takes me to fall asleep has decreased, too. How do I know? Apart from my subjective experience, which may well be subject to the placebo effect, I am tracking my sleep and stress levels. Heart rate and stress go down at an astonishing rate over the course of these 2 minutes.
So overall, this was a worthwhile routine to pick up, and thanks to the tip of starting with warm water, I can actually see how this habit can be kept up in the long-term. Pro tip: once you almost got used to it, you can start to flip the switch from hot to cold while standing under the water.
