Cold baths are my go-to method for recovery in the evenings and early mornings

Ice baths and saunas are my go-to ways to recoverin the evenings and early mornings...

- I thought I’d write about something that’s become almost ridiculously important to me over the past year: ice baths. Or cold baths, or whatever you want to call them—my ice bath from Swedish Cold is, at any rate, filled with ice. I’m still shivering after my latest 5-minute ice bath, and my body is bursting with endorphins! This is my story about a routine that actually helps me sleep at night and get out of bed in the mornings.

It started out as something you try once just so you can say you’ve done it. You know, a friend posts a picture on Instagram with blue lips and the caption “wow, what a rush,” and you think, sure, I can do that too. And the first time was just as awful as you can imagine. I stood in the ice bath for 45 seconds, got out, froze for an hour afterward, and swore I’d never do it again.

Then I took another ice bath two days later. And that’s how it turned out.

What I hadn't anticipated was just how much it would change my evenings. I work a lot in front of a screen, often late into the night, and for years I’d lie there staring at the ceiling at night with my brain running at 140 percent. Magnesium, melatonin, blackout curtains—all that stuff. It helped a little. But what actually helped me fall asleep was going out onto the balcony around 9:30, standing in cold water for two minutes, and then coming back inside to drink tea.

I don’t know exactly why ice baths work. People talk about the vagus nerve and dopamine and how the body is forced into a parasympathetic state of rest afterward, and sure, that’s probably true. But honestly, I think part of it is more mundane than that. It’s two minutes where I can’t think of anything else but breathing. My phone is out of the picture, work is out of the picture, everything is out of the picture. There’s just me and the water and a pretty clear instinct that this is stupid and that I should stop.

And that’s the key, I think. It’s about practicing how to stick with something difficult without running away. You’ll see the difference later on, in other areas of life.

Mornings are a whole different story. In the evening, the ice bath is a way to wind down. In the morning, it’s pure fuel. I get up around six, walk straight out in just my underwear (the neighbors have stopped reacting, I think), step in, and slowly count to ninety. When I go back inside, I’m awake in a way that coffee has never been able to achieve. It’s not that jittery coffee-induced alertness either, but something calmer. Like someone has turned up the contrast on the world.

What I’ve learned is that you shouldn’t overdo it. I was about to go too far in January—five minutes, six minutes—I started competing with myself. That’s not the point. Two minutes in the evening, an hour and a half in the morning. Any more than that and I’m just cold, and then it’s no longer recovery—it’s just discomfort that I have to overcome. That’s a different sport.

One more thing. I don't take an ice bath every day. I know there’s a whole culture around this where people have 365-day streaks and post daily clips, and that’s fine for them, but I’ve noticed that my body protests when it gets to be too much. Some weeks it’s four times. Some weeks, once. When I have a cold or am really exhausted, I skip it. It’s not an achievement; it’s a tool, and tools should be used when they’re needed.

If anyone reading this is thinking about trying ice baths: Start with thirty seconds. Breathe slowly. Get out when it starts to feel really uncomfortable—not when it’s tough, but when it feels wrong. There’s a difference.

I know this sounds like every other article about ice baths on the internet, and I’ve tried to avoid that. But the truth is, it’s one of the few things I’ve tried over the past ten years that has actually made a difference both in the evenings and in the mornings—without any side effects and without me having to think of it as a treatment. It’s just part of my daily routine now. Like brushing your teeth, but wet.

And no, my lips aren't blue on Instagram. But I know I feel great and sleep well after taking an ice bath.