Scientists from the universities of Montreal, Canada, and Poitiers, France, found that daily whole-body cryostimulation (exposure to extreme cold) improves sleep quality and mood.
Oku.AzGazeta.ru reports, the results of the study were published in the journal “Cryobiology.”
According to the information, 20 healthy 23-year-old volunteers participated in the study, including nine women and 11 men. Participants underwent daily five-minute cryostimulation sessions at -90°C. Each of the participants exposed to the extreme cold wore a wireless headband with sensors to evaluate brain activity. The objective was to determine changes in the quality and structure of sleep.
The results showed that cryostimulation had no noticeable effect after one session, but already after the fifth session, the participants began to feel improvement. The duration of slow-wave sleep, the phase responsible for the body’s recovery, increased by an average of 7.3 minutes in the first two sleep cycles after cryostimulation. This is proof that it has a positive effect on the quality of your night’s rest.
Research has also revealed that men and women respond differently to cryostimulation. Thus, the women observed significant improvements in sleep on the third and fourth nights of the protocol. According to their calculations, the quality of the night’s rest increased from 3.4 to 3.9 (on a scale of 1 to 5). Women’s anxiety level has also decreased. However, this effect was less pronounced in men. These results highlight the need for gender-specific changes in cold exposure procedures.
