Cold Shower Benefits: Ancient Rituals and Modern Health Boosts

I have been taking cold showers (first hot, then cold) for 35 years. I am constantly searching for the coldest water although our water here in Maine comes from 250 feet underground and it is pretty cold. I have sometimes been in showers where I cannnot stand in the water, but I can let it stream full onto my face and body. I dread going south, even to New York or Washington D.C. because the water is lukewarm. One of the benefits besides those already mentioned is greatly improved skin tone. I'll be 66 next month and my skin is the same as it always has been. I see friends of mine whom I wish would take cold showers because I can see by their complexion that they have poor blood circulation. This is a great way to stay healthy and it's FREE!

taking a cold shower give you so much energy and especially in the morning it saves money and gives you healthy skin i love it im hooked!

Cold showers cured my dry skin and poor circulation. Wow! Just found this site after having tried this the past few weeks. Usually, I alternate between cold and hot -- always finishing my shower with at least 1 minute of ICE COLD water. My skin feels great when I get done. I feel energized, and often aroused after my shower! I'm totally hooked! TRY IT!!

I have been taking cold showers for the past 3 days at night and I can greatly tell the difference. If I lay down to sleep right after I take a shower, I usually fall asleep within 15 minutes, which is a miracle since it usually took me about an hour or more. I didnt even bother trying to take them over the summer as the water wasnt cold enough, but now that fall is coming and temperatures are getting in the 40's the water is freezing. I cant wait until snow comes so the water is even colder. I havent tried them in the morning as I get out of bed and go in the shower and usually dont feel like getting real cold but I will tomorrow to see if it effects my day. The only side effect is when I was in the shower for the first 5 seconds I started panting and almost became dilusional because it was shocking. Nothing bad about them though. I do have to go from medium to cold back to the middle of the both then cold in order to survive it. Would reccomend it to anyone!

I take two cold showers a day so that I can take a cold shower in the morning to stay awake all day and a cold one at night to sleep at night. It really helps me to avoid naps and it helps me to stay asleep at night.

I like taking cold showers at night. It helps to sleep and I feel confident getting up in the morning. I encourage everybody to take a cold shower at night. It really helps with insomnia.

I have been taking cold showers since the last two years(summer and cold winters), the feeling is simply unbelievable. After the shower, you have so much of energy injected into you keeping you fit till the end of the day and at night another shower before you sleep, giving you the best of sleep throughout the night, which i would like to recommend to everybody that this is one the most effective and cheapest investment towards health. There is nothing like being healthy.

I am very delighted to read all the good positive stories about cold water shower healing. Allow me to share my story.

I am a Moslem (from Indonesia), and the month of Ramadhan (fasting) was just over. For those not familiar with this, Moslems fast for 30 days during the Ramadhan month, every day, wake up at dawn (around 3 AM), have meal, fast during the day (no drinking no eating no sex), and break the fast at around 6 PM.

I have this problem with my right leg knee, it gives me pain when I bend during a prayer. For one month of Ramadhan, I "practiced" the cold water shower each time I wake up, at around 2:30 AM. After that, I pray (the so called "night prayer"), and have meal. To the best of my knowledge there is no reference in Al Quran about taking shower at "night", although there is the so called "night prayer" which is not obligatory, but very strongly advised for Moslems, and it takes time somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30 AM. We call it the "last one-third of the night".

I just felt I had to heal myself this way, because I heard many times especially from elders and those "natives" coming from rural villages, of cold water shower "healing", which normaly takes time between 2 and 4 AM.

Many people here say, it's not healthy to take shower at night, before 12 AM, but it's healthy if taken after say, 1 AM. Some martial arts practitioners here do take shower after evening/night training, at around 1-2 AM or later. I had a friend who literally couldn't walk, not paralyzed but pain in both his legs (thigh), was eventually healed, could walk (and run) normally again after spending about a month or so taking cold water shower from a well (using bucket / dousing) every night (at around 3 AM).

Back to myself, after 30 days of night cold water shower, I do feel better now. I can bend my knee again, with less pain.

Perhaps someone have an explanation about the "state" of water during the night, especially between 2 and 4 AM ?

Before I found this site I thought i was the only one who took a cold shower at 5:00 in the morning. It's good to know I'm not the only one.

I first started taking cold showers after night workouts. It was actually by accident, but then I saw the colder the water got, the better I felt. I felt fresh and i slept a lot better. It's not till later that I even thought about cold showers in the morning.

I used to go to work at 6:00 in the morning and for a long time i always felt tired, no energy and my eyes always half closed, when I finally took a cold shower, I had more energy and felt alot more awake.

I originally started taking cold showers because of how it made me feel. I had no idea about the positive effects to my health. The only thing that sucks is that the water doesn't get cold enough.

I never knew about Cold Water Therapy when I started taking cold water showers. It made me feel great. I also observed that the chronic sinusitis I have been suffering from (because of which I used to sneeze 20-30 times every morning) gradually disappeared since the day I started taking cold water showers. It is then that, just out of curiosity, I searched the net to know if there are others who have experienced the same effects of cold water and here I am. Now I know that there is a therapy dedicated to Cold Water and there are a bunch of other crazy guys who have been practicing it. This motivates me to continue with it and spread this information.

Thank you for the useful article given for woman's not to take cold shower during menstruation. Good message! Why do getting sneezing, nose destroy after taking bath in cold water for few minutes? Did taking cold water bath immediately after an exercise is good for health? Taking cold water bath will keep the body physical and mentally active?

I live in Norway, and was delighted to read all the feedback on cold baths and showers. Through my job, I had access to a cabin on the ocean, and bathed during the summertime (17-18 Celsius). I felt great afterwords(hot shower to wash the salt off). On a dare, we swam later and later into the fall, swimming until the water was 12C, and always getting an incredibly invigorating experience. It became the absolute highlight of every trip to the cabin! I thought this was all to do with the ocean, for some reason, and it never occurred to me that a cold shower or bath would give me the same results! It is exactly as described here by so many: I swam around until I didn't feel cold anymore, then stayed until I started to feel chilled (arms start getting heavy in 12C! ). Then into the hot shower, and out again incredibly re-invigorated. What an interesting website!

In the early 90's I took part in a trial of cold bath therapy. This consisted of taking a cold bath every morning and started off at 22 degrees C for 5 minutes and increasing the time and decreasing the temperature so that when one got to 14 degrees C one was immersed in the water for 20 minutes. That proved to be too long for me, but I did manage 14 degrees for 10 minutes and I must say, having done the therapy for a period of 6 months, I felt extraordinarily well on it. I have now decided to resume it and, having done my first 5 minutes in 22 degrees this morning, am feeling really rather well!

The therapy was thought out by a Pakistani physician here in the UK initially as a cure for Asthma and then ME. I have however lost all reference to him and the therapy and would be grateful if someone knows anything and would care to share! Happy cold bathing!

I am taking cold baths now. I feel there is a better difference between the bath and the shower. For me the cold bath helps me to better recover from the night's sleep. My routine of starting my day is easier when I take baths than showers. While the bathwater's running, I can irrigate my nasal passages, wash my face, and play my music. I still get all the benefits of cold showers, but in a different way. I have more energy than taking the shower, and the energy lasts all day. 12 inches of water in my tub is not all possible but I do fill up. I am so happy about cold baths because they work.

Forget all about cold showers! Much too brutal. Cold water baths are the thing but then only early in the morning and before the brain is in gear & knows what is happening. You run the cold water bath tap whilst brushing your teeth & washing your face.This gives you a perfect 12 inches of water to which you add some good quality lavender lotion. Then it's in you go, feet first folloiwed by the bottom. A good sponge down of the torso follows. Then stand up & soap the forked bit. After this lie down slowish until everything but the head is submerged. ( At this point I say my morning prayers). A final sponge down completes the process & you step out of the tub feeling taut, fit & very self-righteous having been no more than about 3 minutes in the bath. I've been doing this for nearly 25 years now & am healthy & fit as a fiddle.