I have been hearing about cryotherapy a lot. From the podcasts, Tim Ferriss -Rhonda Patrick - Peter Attia - Kevin Rose land of Internet, swears by the benefit of this cold therapy. Tony Robbins, the self-help guru, has a chain of cryotherapy centers. Long story short, the science of cryotherapy is very solid. Frequent exposure to extreme cold conditions to your body has a big benefit in recovery and improving the sleep quality. I have done some experiments with other options to improve my sleep.
But I had a surprising discovery in Instagram a couple of days. A random wandering in the Instagram rabbithole lead me to a Cryokinesis, a cryotherapy center, run by a fitness enthusiastic friend of mine. I was delighted and booked a session for a whole body cryotherapy. The online booking website said 30 mins of cold therapy.
I booked in the evening so that immediately after the session, I can wind down and sleep. I was so thrilled to torture myself mildly. I went to the center and it was nice, clean and empty, as I was the last person scheduled for the day.
I was asked to change my dress - just a shorts, hand gloves and socks. I was asked to step into a small chamber. It is open at top but had a door. Once I got into it, the door was closed, but since the roof was open, it was not claustrophobic. The therapist asked my height and she entered in the panel and pressed some buttons.
I floor I was standing inside the chamber moved slightly upwards. Now my head was just popping outside the chamber and all of my body below my neck was ready for the show. The session started and I started feeling cold. It was quite tolerable for the first 20 seconds. The therapist was asking to talk and kept me engaged. She gave a heads up saying it is going to get more cold. But I didn't feel anything bad. The next 100 seconds was not really bad at all. It was cold but manageable. It was like being in a snowy hill station, but only wearing a shorts, gloves and socks.
The temperature remained the same and for the next 60 seconds, I was little uncomfortable with the cold. Nothing panic worthy and all. I had read online and seen videos where people scream, some even said it is painful. It was nothing like that. It was painless, just cold but not-scream-worthy. I just shivered in the last 10 seconds but the session was over.
Even though the website said 30 minutes, the actual cold therapy is just for 3 minutes. I stepped out of the chamber, got dressed up and it was room temperature. I was feeling completely normal now. No cold shivers or anything.
After 2 mins, I started feeling so refreshed and I could really feel something gushing in my hands and heads. I was told by the therapist that my brain is sending signals to all the cells that something odd has happened, so the blood flow is really increased. Whatever it may be, it felt very refreshing for the next 10 minutes. After that I was feeling normal, no sense of euphoria or high that you get after any a drink or a Benadryl syrup.
I didn't do any change to my sleep routine. I just wanted to see if I have any impact in my deep sleep or REM sleep. I slept quite comfortably, as usual for 7.5 hours. My resting heart rate was only 58 bpm, it was lower than 60 but didn't go any lower. But my deep sleep was for 2 hours and REM sleep was also for 2 hours. So, no wonder, I was feeling very good after I woke up.
Again, I am not 100% sure, if the improvement in sleep is ONLY because of the cold therapy. I need to repeat it for few more times and compare my sleep with non-cold therapy days. In short, like me, if you are living in a tropical region without access to ice baths or cold shower or even a bathtub, this can be a good option.