For high performing students, the two main benefits are feeling alert and refreshed.Brief and brisk, standing in a cold shower for a couple minutes can wake up those senses and reset that brain.
Although allowing the water to wash over your head and face might feel even more refreshing, there’s no need to ruin your hair and makeup. A “neck-down” shower will do.
Down the Rabbit Hole!
What is Cryotherapy?:
“Cryo” is Greek for “cold.” “Cryotherapy” is simply a fancy way of saying, “Cold Therapy.” In practice, cryotherapy is not quite as fancy as its gussied up name.
There are some fancy forms of cryotherapy, such as liquid nitrogen “cryosaunas.” If you’d like to try that out, I would love to hear your thoughts. However, you can get cryotherapy benefits without spending the money or time driving to a “cryosauna” location.
I don’t know about you, but when I was in elementary school, the nurse had a freezer full of “ice packs.” The “ice packs” were paper towels, run under water, folded, zipped in a ziplock, and frozen. Those “ice packs” count as “cryotherapy.”
You can get the benefits of “cryotherapy” with a simple cold shower or bath, too.
What are some benefits of Cryotherapy?:
Some recent research suggests—if used regularly over time—possible long-term benefits could include long-term increase in metabolic rate, elevated mood, and better sleep.
More established and long-accepted short-term benefits after just one “cryotherapy session” include short-term increase in metabolic rate, improved circulation, and reduced inflammation.
Reduced inflammation might be the most important benefit conferred.
If you're curious...here's the rabbit hole within the rabbit hole:
Down Again!
For many reasons, you might find that inflammation is a concern for you.
Exercise:
If you exercise regularly, you will likely find that performing high intensity exercise and then performing sedentary work will exacerbate your post-exercise inflammation.
Injuries or Illnesses:
You probably know that injuries can cause inflammation. You might also know that illnesses can cause inflammation throughout the body. However, it is less know that inflammation can also severely aggravate injuries and illnesses. This includes inflammation unrelated to the injury or illness.
For example, let’s pretend you have a sprained ankle. You might well-expect that excessive inflammation around the ankle would aggravate the injury. However, the foods you consume could be causing excess inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation could also aggravate that sprained ankle.
Stress:
Like injuries and illnesses, chronic stress suffers from a vicious cycle. Stress—including emotional stress—can cause inflammation. Inflammation increases the physical stress within the body, which can lead to increased emotional stress.
This is far beyond the scope of this post to explain how this cycle occurs. I will simply provide this: Cortisol—the stress hormone—regulates your inflammatory response. Chronic stress hinders cortisol’s regulatory function. If you’re curious, I provide a bit more information on cortisol in the “Wonder Woman” brain break post.
There are many supplements, diets, lifestyle behaviors you can adopt to reduce your inflammation. However, few reduce inflammation as quickly and dramatically as a simple cold shower.
You could combine it with a Peppermint Brain Break.
You could do a breathing exercise while in the shower.
You could stand under the water in a power pose.
Congratulations!
You just took a brain break!
Even if you don’t end up using this particular brain break idea, just reading this light little post gave your brain brief relief from dense legal texts and lectures.
Yay!
If your brain is ready to get back to work, great! Get after it!
If your brain is not ready to go back to work, that’s okay, too.
You could try a quick cold shower brain break.
You could also take a look at some of the other brain break ideas, check out some motivational music, or peruse the tips and tricks.
Questions, Comments, Suggestions?
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments to this post on Instagram!
No matter what,
feel free to congratulate yourself!
You took a brief brain break, and you explored ways to help optimize your brain, your study habits, and—ultimately—your performance!