Should You Have a Cold Shower Before Bed? The Secret That Can Help Your Sleep

Showering is important, but we have to determine when and how is best to take an efficient rinse. It might not seem like a big deal, but the type of shower, and when you choose to take it, can play a role in how you sleep.

Showering in the morning or at night, in hot or cold water, can all have different benefits. The question still stands: should you have a cold shower before bed? Taking a cold shower before bed can help improve your sleep. Doing it an hour and a half before bed can be the best option. This helps to regulate your circadian rhythm. It can help to make you more tired and alleviate some of the symptoms that cause trouble sleeping. There are many other benefits of having a cold shower as well. It’s important to remember that it’s not a cure-all, and there are a few other things that are valuable to consider for the best night’s sleep possible.

Sleep is an important part of our lives. To make sure that we are getting the best sleep possible for our health, there are a few different things we have to consider. We are going to cover how a cold shower will play directly into the way you sleep, the reasons that you are having difficulty sleeping, and other added benefits of a cold shower. In order to make sure that this works well for you, we will also provide you healthier habits so that your sleep is as efficient as possible.

Why This Will Make You Tired

The most important aspect of this is going to be the timing at which you shower. You can’t just take a cold shower whenever you want and hope that it makes you sleepy. You have an internal clock that helps regulate when you might feel awake, energized, sleepy, or exhausted. Though we have certain things in our life that we try to keep to a schedule, there is still an internal rhythm that we have to listen to. When this cycle gets disrupted, then everything else that is connected to your health will feel the effects as well.

Taking a shower too late can actually increase your energy levels before trying to doze off. The cold shower will send a jolt of energy to your body momentarily, so if you try to hit the hay right after a cold shower, you might find that you’re more awake than you were earlier. You don’t want to do anything that is going to keep you up even longer in the end, so it’s crucial that we consider taking a shower at the right time.

An hour and a half before you want to go to bed is the best time to have this cold shower. As you go through the day, your body temperature fluctuates. It rises from the moment that you wake up, peaks in the mid-afternoon, and then starts to decrease until you head to bed. In order to speed up this winding-down process, it can be very beneficial to let a cold shower get you into a sleepy state.

The reason this happens is all about your circadian rhythm. This rhythm is how your body is able to stay awake or alert. It is something that differs in all of us, but generally, we have similar sleep patterns. Most people will be their most tired after midnight and before 4 a.m. You can certainly change your circadian rhythm. Think of people who work night shifts or even those who work in the middle of the day rather than the morning. Their circadian rhythms will be off. Those all around the world have different rhythms as well.

In order to get the best sleep possible, it’s good to stick to the right circadian rhythm. Keeping your body in the same cycle on a consistent basis is going to be the best way to get your body to a place where you can easily fall asleep and stay asleep. Our bodies evolved on a 24-hour cycle, and being awake during daylight and sleepy during the night is the natural rhythm of our bodies. Though they can’t tell the precise time, our bodies can tell us best when it’s time to go to bed.

When your body starts to cool down, this is a sign that it is time to get some rest. The additional cooling water on your body will kick that period of tiredness in your circadian rhythm into high gear. As you can understand, it’s not about the cool shower that will make your body instantly tired. It is a way that you can manipulate your circadian rhythm, which will help you become more naturally tired.

You will also signal to your body to release melatonin during this time period. When you go through the tired, cool-down period of your circadian rhythm, it starts to release different amounts of melatonin. This is a hormone that will help boost serotonin, so not only will you become sleepier, but more relaxed as well. If you’re trying to take a nap in the middle of the day, then a cold shower might not work to calm you down and make you sleepier because it’s something that will aide in your circadian rhythm.

You can incorporate the cold water gradually if this is something that scares you. It’s not like you have to jump into an extremely cold ice bath every night in order to get the benefits. You could start with a hot shower and then gradually increase the cold water to help better regulate your body temperature. The steam from a warm shower can actually help de-stress you as well. This can clear out your nasal cavities, help your muscles relax, and generally make you feel better before going to bed. The cooldown can happen in a way that doesn’t put you in shock or make you feel incredibly uncomfortable. Sometimes, an ice-cold shower could put your body into momentary shock, so you actually become more alert than anything else.

Your body has natural protection in it that keeps your organs as warm as possible. If these aren’t regulated, then they won’t function properly. Whenever your body is cold, your energy goes to making sure that these organs are warm before anything else, like your muscles or skin. When your body is exposed to the cold shower, it keeps your organs warmer, moving the blood from your skin to your internal organs. Your blood starts moving faster and working harder in order to keep these organs at the right temperature. This blood regulation directly affects the way that your circadian rhythm operates. After practicing this ritual for a week or so, you will already notice that it can have significant results on your quality of sleep.

The biggest challenge with this will simply be your comfortability. If you have a shower already, you have access to everything needed to take a cold shower! Many individuals are dependent on that hot shower for relaxation, and sometimes you might prefer a morning shower. It is all dependent on personal preference. The one thing that will be hard is pushing through the temporary pain to make it through the entirety of the shower. To enable yourself to do this, remember that it is all mental. After a few seconds in the cold, your body will become used to this temperature, and you won’t even realize how cold it feels.

You can take a warm bath as well, and then have the cold shower be something that you do afterward to wash anything off from the bath. Sometimes bath bombs and other spa products like these leave residue on your skin, so maybe you shower after a relaxing bath anyway. Though it might sound counterintuitive, it is actually a great way to relax further and give your body the chance to feel totally rejuvenated. You will be surprised at how this uncommon combo could help to make your sleep extraordinary.

Showering before bed will also release you, and your mattress, of different toxins and allergens that you might have collected throughout your day. Sometimes, these might even be things that keep you up. If you are sensitive to allergies, then having leftover toxins brought to your bed could keep you awake at night. You might experience a swollen face, headache, and other side effects that keep your sleep from being the amazing thing that it could be! Though showering in the morning can wake you up, you might not need that extra boost if your nighttime sleep is perfect.

How long should this shower be? No more than 15 minutes is best. You don’t need to go longer because, after this time, your body will start to cool down by itself. Just five minutes might be something that puts your body into a state where you get a burst of energy rather than a gradual decrease.

Reasons That You Have Trouble Sleeping

Doing things that wake us up before bed might be the very reason that we’re struggling to sleep. Having a full night’s rest doesn’t just mean that you fall asleep. We have to ensure that once we are fast asleep, we are staying that way. Sometimes you might end up waking up frequently, finding that it’s hard to stay rested throughout the night. The things that we do leading up to going to bed could keep us restless, our bodies awake and alert, and our hormonal balance off even when our brains are feeling incredibly exhausted.

Sometimes, it is our stress level that can keep us tossing and turning all night long. Your stress could be a result of abnormal imbalance as well. When you are stressed out, your body starts to release more cortisol. This cortisol is the reason that your muscles tense, you might sweat, and you feel active and alert when a wave of anxiety overcomes you. If you aren’t properly winding down throughout bed, then you are going to take that stress with you, making it hard to get that deep sleep needed to be energized for the following day.

The other person that you’re sharing a bed with can also keep you from getting the right kind of sleep. They might be someone who tosses and turns, snores, or does something else that keeps you from drifting deep asleep. You can’t always help some of the things that keep you up, but you can set yourself up in the right situation to get the rest that you actually deserve.

There are going to be many different reasons why we might struggle to get the right amount of Zs, so it’s essential that we start to look for them all now so that we can get the best chance at regulating our health.

Other Benefits of a Cold Shower

Your skin will start to see the benefits of a cold shower. When we are putting our bodies under intense heat, it can start to dry out our hair and skin. You don’t notice since you’re wet from the shower water, but sometimes, when you’re taking an intensely hot shower, you can actually sweat. This sweat takes moisture from your body, meaning that you might even be dehydrating it as you’re showering!

A big reason that many individuals have issues with skin is that they are not cleansing their faces properly. When you take a shower at night, you are given the chance to wash your face in the process. This helps remove excess dirt and other things that could damage your skin if they sit on there all night. It’s healthy to cleanse yourself from the day literally in order to give you an emotionally fresh pallet the next morning.

A cold shower can help improve your immune system overall. Your metabolism is sped up in this process too. Your white blood cells increase in order to keep up with the regulation of your body temperature. This will directly affect your immune system’s ability to fight off infection and disease, while also giving your metabolism the boost needed to help regulate your digestive system better.

Your cardiovascular system is regulated as well since your blood flow is triggered differently depending on the sleep you have. This helps with your heart health, meaning that you lower your chances of potentially fatal diseases or a heart attack.

This will help snap your focus in the right place as well. When you go through the discomfort of the cold shower, it turns your focus only to this pain. This discomfort you feel is something that you have to mentally work through because all your brainpower is going to go to decreasing these overall levels of discomfort.

There are even some studies that help to show that this cold shower could potentially reduce your depressive moods. Your hormones are affected by your circadian rhythm, which affects your depressive or anxious feelings throughout your day. Why not give our bodies the best chance possible to function optimally through the use of a cold shower?

Your entire body will feel the benefits, and this will alter the way that you’re able to sleep. What’s most important about getting a good night’s sleep is that you are rested and relaxed before hopping into bed.

Added Methods to Aide in Sleep

To make this method the most efficient, we have a few things to add to this cold shower to help you calm down before bed. It’s not that the cold shower is an instant cure, but it can be a mild treatment in order to help you get into the right sleep cycle to optimize your productivity throughout your waking life.

When you take these cold showers or any shower for that matter, add in a few essential oils. Try eucalyptus or lavender to calm you. Peppermint and lemongrass can help boost your health so that you feel better, especially during a head cold. Tea tree is good for your skin and hair too. You can drop a few on the shower floor, keep the bottle open in the bathroom, or add to your shampoo or soap (as long as they are specifically safe for the skin).

Consider sleeping in a colder bedroom as well. An average of 66 degrees is a good place to start for the perfect bedroom temperature. If you’re too hot, it will cause you to feel more restless throughout the night.

Make sure to keep electronics away before bed. At least 30 minutes, but preferably an hour or more, before bed, make sure that you shut off your phone. Staying away from the TV is a good idea too. Not only do these decrease your chances of experiencing stress, but the blue light from these devices could keep you awake for longer.

Notice the things that you are doing throughout your day that could be effective for sleeping. Are you too stressed, do you drink too much coffee, or do you take frequent naps that make you less tired towards the end of the day?

Cut your caffeine intake long before you decide to hop in the nightly shower. Sugar is also something you should avoid before bed. These things will keep you up, even if you hadn’t had them for a few hours before you start to snooze. This shower can mark the time that you decide to calm all the way down for bed. Let your shower be the thing that cuts off anything else for the night. After your shower, wind down in bed with a book, do some calming yoga or try out a puzzle to keep you focused on nothing but relaxing.

The Bottom Line

A cold shower has been known to help many different individuals. Ultimately, it is your preference to determine whether this is something that you’d like to include in your daily routine.

Showering too frequently can be bad for your skin and hair, so it’s not something that you will always want to add to your routine, but rather, replace it. Some people are fine with taking two showers a day, but it could also be wasteful in terms of water use and bad for your skin.

A cold shower is great for your heart, skin, brain, and body. Even if you decide that this doesn’t work for you, or that you don’t like it, there’s not much risk of trying it for at least a little bit!