Hot take: That common advice about cold showers improving focus is not backed by the science I found

I read through a study from 2022 in the Journal of Thermal Biology that tracked 30 people over 4 weeks. The cold shower group showed no real jump in attention or energy compared to the warm shower group. I found it while digging for help with my own morning sluggishness which I can't seem to kick. Everyone online swears by it but the numbers don't line up with what I see. Has anyone else looked at actual data and found it contradicts the popular opinion?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper_smith15d agoMost Upvoted

But isn't the real question whether our modern obsession with constant peak focus is healthy in the first place?

sarah_brown15d ago

Honestly I've been thinking about this too but from a different angle. What if the whole focus boost people feel is just from the shock of cold water waking them up not the temperature itself. Like a loud alarm or a sudden splash of cold water on the face does the same trick. Tbh the placebo effect is real strong with these self improvement trends so folks probably want to believe it works. Ngl the data you found makes me wonder if we're all just chasing a quick fix instead of actually fixing our sleep or diet.