Ice baths have been around from time immemorial. Historical findings suggest that ancient Egyptians and Greeks practiced cold water immersion to alleviate muscle soreness and elevate overall well-being.
More recently, ice baths have garnered significant endorsement from renowned celebrities worldwide. From former England football skipper David Beckham to music icon Lady Gaga and Hollywood A-lister Chris Hemsworth, a long list of prominent personalities swear by the benefits of cold plunging.
But while they’re primarily associated with physical wellness, regular ice baths may also provide numerous mental health benefits, as illustrated below.
1. Alleviating Stress and Anxiety
Stress is the most common mental health problem, affecting millions worldwide. Luckily, it’s also one of the primary issues you can manage using ice baths.
According to a paper published in the PLoS One journal, cold-plunging regularly might help with stress relief. The paper comprehensively examined eleven previous studies targeting over 3,000 healthy human adults.
In these studies, participants were asked to plunge into cold water (measuring 45 degrees Fahrenheit to 59 degrees Fahrenheit) at or above their chest levels for 30 seconds and two hours. The test subjects reported significant improvements in their overall stress levels, pointing to the efficiency of ice baths as a potential stress reliever.
While there are multiple ways cold water therapy may alleviate stress and anxiety, the practice notably triggers physiological responses that stimulate the release of ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitters like endorphins. Some research also indicates that cold-plunging may inhibit the body’s signaling of the principal stress hormone, cortisol.
The best part about cold-plunging is that you no longer require a trip to a wellness spa. By investing in premium cold immersion supplies, such as an inflatable ice bath tub, you can unlock the benefits of this treatment from the comfort of your home.
2. Improving Sleep Quality
Mental health and sleep deprivation are ugly cousins.
Studies have particularly established a close nexus between anxiety and insomnia. Besides sharing a cause-and-effect relationship, the two conditions may coexist as symptoms of an underlying disease.
Now, conventional sleep pills remain the first port of call for many people grappling with sleep deprivation. But while these drugs are somewhat effective, they’re notorious for inducing nasty side effects. Your best bet is to insist on safer insomnia treatments like ice baths.
As cold water immersion can soothe anxiety, it’s potentially effective at treating stress-induced insomnia. Integrating cold water therapy into your evening routine can detox your mind from the stressful experiences of the day, thereby shortening your sleep onset latency.
Further, studies suggest that cold water immersion may activate the vagus nerve. A healthy vagus nerve can promote better sleep by shortening sleep latency and enhancing sleep duration.
3. Managing Depression
Depression is one of the most severe mental health disorders.
However, depression doesn’t develop overnight. It’s usually a result of untreated stress and anxiety, and often compounded by traumatic experiences.
Researchers have found that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) may play a significant role in managing depression. VNS is widely employed in treating severe and treatment-resistant depression, underscoring its ability to enhance overall mental health.
In vagus nerve stimulation, a special implant is used to relay electrical impulses to the vagus nerve to alter the brain’s regions associated with mood regulation. The treatment has especially proven useful for people with chronic depression.
Although VNS is an invasive procedure, the therapy triggers fewer side effects compared to conventional antidepressants. Besides, it can be safely administered alongside other treatments.
4. Supporting Cognitive Performance
Anxiety is closely related to cognitive performance. The condition can impact various cognitive functions, from attention span to learning ability and memory consolidation.
It’s unsurprising that most cognitive disorders, including ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ASD (autism spectrum disorder), present anxiety as a core symptom.
One way ice baths may support cognitive performance is by addressing stress symptoms. By relieving anxiety, cold water immersion empowers you to focus better on the task, improving your overall productivity.
Like sleep disorders, the relationship between anxiety and cognitive performance can go both ways. High anxiety levels can reduce your attention span and impact your learning ability. Similarly, the inability to master new concepts fast enough might lead to frustrations and exacerbate existing anxiety conditions.
Therefore, regular cold water treatments may address and prevent impaired cognitive performance.
5. Enhancing Blood Circulation
Nearly everyone who engages in cold plunging cites its ability to stimulate blood circulation.
Findings have shown that blood flow drops considerably during the first few seconds of stepping into an ice bath tub, a natural physiological reaction to the frigid conditions. But your blood circulation will improve significantly after being in the ice tub for a few more seconds.
Increased blood circulation ramps up the transportation of oxygenated blood and essential nutrients to your brain, while facilitating the excretion of waste products.
Keeping the brain nourished can support cognitive impairment and avert potentially life-threatening conditions like stroke and meningitis.
Enhanced blood circulation may also optimize your sex life by causing firmer and longer-lasting erections. This might, in turn, treat low self-esteem caused by erectile dysfunction (ED).
6. Relieving Pain
While pain is widely considered a physical condition, it can often result from untreated anxiety. Indeed, numerous studies have established an intertwined correlation between pain and stress.
Feelings of intense nervousness can increase the body’s sensitivity to pain signals. This relationship is best exemplified by the fact that many chronic pain patients report increased pain sensations during stressful moments. One plausible explanation is that an increase in levels of the stress hormone cortisol corresponds with a decrease in the signaling of the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin.
Although commonly associated with mental health benefits, serotonin is also involved in neurobiological pain mediation processes. Low serotonin levels can impair the body’s ability to properly interpret pain signals, causing you to respond disproportionately to pain sensations.
On the other hand, severe feelings of pain can exacerbate existing anxiety disorders.
Taking ice baths regularly can soothe away nervousness, thereby relieving stress-induced pain. Besides, cold water immersion may attenuate muscle pain by dilating constricted blood vessels.
The Bottom Line
Most of the wellness claims of ice baths have been scientifically proven. But while cold water immersion can elevate your mental health, certain precautions are necessary to unlock its benefits fully.
If you’re new to ice baths, it’s best to begin with shorter durations of around 30 seconds and build momentum gradually. Carefully monitor your body for adverse reactions and respond appropriately.
Side effects like intense shivering or dizziness can reduce the efficiency of cold water immersion, significantly minimizing its reported mental health benefits.