Want to sleep better? Maybe you need to be very cold

The human body can be fascinating. We’ve all seen what it costs us fall asleep when the room is too cold. However, according to new research, the key to sleep better May be extreme cold.

We are not talking about the cold that makes us shiver in bed and curl up under the covers, but something much more intense. The authors of this study suggest going through 5 minutes in a cold chamber at what temperatures -90°C.

This, in their opinion, can help us sleep betterbut not only that. It has also been shown to be useful against anxiety or even for reduce inflammation. This may be due to illness, but also to injury. In fact, both these scientists and others who have conducted similar studies believe that this may be a good practice for recovery of elite athletes.

Extreme cold helps you sleep better

To conduct their research, these scientists from University of Poitiersin France, with the participation 20 young people9 women and 11 men. All of them were exposed to extreme temperatures in a cryochamber for 5 minutes before going to bed. They repeated the process for 5 nights in a row.

A number of physiological parameters were measured both before and after this period to analyze the quality of your sleep or anxiety level. Thus, it was clear that after the sessions in the cold chamber they began to sleep better thanks to significant increase in slow wave sleep duration. This phase of sleep is considered the most restorative, so the longer it is, the better. Their anxiety levels also decreased. True, the benefit did not come immediately, but night after night it seemed that they were getting better.

Curiously, the effects were still there women have it easier than men. For this reason, these scientists believe that more research needs to be done to calculate the ideal time a person should spend in a cold chamber depending on their biological sex.

The study has limitations

The small number of participants (only 20) is the most obvious limitation of this study. However, there are others. For example, volunteers were asked that they did not drink alcohol or take caffeine and that they did not exercise during the entire study period. Could these factors have a greater impact than the cold room itself? It’s not clear.

On the other hand, it is true that the authors did not stop to understand what the reasons might be why extreme cold makes us sleep better, so a cause-and-effect relationship cannot be confirmed beyond chance. This is what it’s also for more research should be done.

However, remember that there are other studies that point to the benefits of using this type of camera. It has been analyzed primarily for the recovery of elite athletes, but it cannot be ruled out that it is also beneficial for sleep.

To be clear: they will continue to investigate later. They don’t expect everyone to install it cryostimulation chamber in your bedroom, but people with insomnia can get specific help in health care settings. A significant portion of the population will appreciate this, so it is worth exploring this issue.