Ice Bath Psychology
- Thomas P Seager, PhD
- Oct 19
- 5 min read
What happens to brain waves during cold water therapy?
Summary
An ice bath activates the gasp reflex, which corresponds to the fight-or-flight response in the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.
Paradoxically, brain wave data collected from subjects submerged up to their chest in freezing cold water is characteristic of a deep meditative state -- even when compared to experienced meditators who are warm and dry.
After about thirty seconds of whole body cold water immersion, the dive reflex activates the parasympathetic division known as rest and digest.
Cold water therapy is an effective method for building psychological resilience to stress be strengthening both the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the central nervous system.
My ice bath practice has been essential for overcoming my anxieties.
Ice Bath Extinguishes Fear
About the same time my wife said she wanted a divorce, and I was trying to lose weight, take control of my finances, and lose weight, a mentor challenged me to confront my crippling travel anxiety.
Flying had always been a problem for me, so when it came to traveling to foreign countries, I declined every offer I got and that became a problem. I was doing research for the Army Corp and the Office of Naval Research on disaster resilience and environmental sustainability, and they wanted me to travel to deliver lectures and participate in workshops.
My mentor pointed out that turning down these travel invitations was a big blockade to advancing in my career as engineering faculty at Arizona State University.
I knew he was right, and I promised him I would take the next international invitation that came my way--which is how I wound up in Guatemala in a Spanish language workshop on multinational cooperation in environmental research.
I didn't start a daily program of ice baths in earnest until I was afraid I was going to die of prostate cancer. As much as the thought of a slow painful death bothered me, I was even more afraid of the lifetime of erectile dysfunction that would have followed surgical removal of my prostate. I was determined to find an alternative way to treat my inflamed prostate, and I wrote an article about it in The Prostate Protocol.
Spoiler alert... it worked. My PSA dropped from 7 to 1.1 in four months and in What Happened to My Testosterone After Using Ice Baths for My Prostate, I explained the surprisingly healthy sex hormone surge that accompanied my new practice.
What I didn't realize is that the ice bath was also helping me manage my anxieties.
Metabolism vs Psychology
Although the metabolic benefits of ice baths begin at water temperatures in the low 50's Fahrenheit, the psychological benefits sometimes don't emerge until the water gets colder. In Set Your Ice Bath to A Temperature That Frightens You, I wrote about how colder temperatures are essential to achieving the feeling of cheating death. I elaborated in Ice Bath Benefits At Colder Temperatures, where I explained that beginners will feel challenged by any temperature that gives them the gasp reflex, but after about two weeks of cold training, that reflex fades unless they keep dropping the ice bath setting to colder and colder temperatures, until finally their Morozko is making ice.
For me, anything above around 40F is now boring.
Some people on social media claim that freezing temperatures are too cold for women, or that they will burn out your adrenals. Those people are wrong.
In Stress vs Cold, I wrote about some of the psychological benefits of cold plunge therapy and how changing the story you tell yourself about your stress can extend your life. That was when I discovered that a freezing cold ice bath calms brain wave data better than meditation.
At least, for the people I tested.
Your Brain Wave in the Ice Bath
To investigate whether a freezing cold ice bath could benefit someone without experience in the ice bath, I invited a successful personal trainer who was new to cold plunge therapy to measure her brainwaves before and after the ice bath, using the Muse headset. She began by meditating indoors, warm and dry, while I measured her brain waves. Then, she plunged nearly up to her arm pits in a freezing water ice bath for 4 minutes.
These were her results. On the left is her brain wave data while warm and dry, and on the right is her brain wave data in the Morozko ice bath.
Her results are typical, albeit counter-intuitive. The calming effect of whole body cold water immersion is immediate and durable. For those who are inexperienced at normal meditation, an ice bath practice may be a way for them to realize the benefits of meditation without the hundreds of hours of practice ordinarily required.
Ice bath meditation is different from any other kind of meditation. The first reaction of your body when plunging into freezing water is something called the "gasp reflex." It is an autonomic, fight-or-flight response that might convince you that you're about to die.
Overcoming that reflex requires gaining control of your breathing first, and control of the other automatic reactions in your body second.
To gain these ice bath psychology benefits, she had to overcome her anxiety. I've since replicated her results in other subjects who show the same brain wave pattern. In this respect, an ice bath may be ideal for treating mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. In at least one case, a regular ice bath practice resulted in a higher Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for an Australian special forces military veteran struggling with PTSD.
When you try a freezing cold ice bath for first time, your experience might be to fight the cold sensation, or to use willpower to overcome the urge to jump out of the ice bath.
You might look like this woman, who lasted less than 11 seconds in the Forge, and jumped out smiling.
But when you're ready to get the psychological benefits of ice baths, you won't feel the need to fight the cold any longer. And you won't jump out.
You will stay calm.
The End of Anxiety
The quote "Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear," has been attributed to George Addair. Quotes about fear and desire have also been attributed to Jack Canfield and Napoleon Hill. . My favorite way of putting it paraphrases Mastin Kipp:
Fear is a compass that points you in the direction of your dreams. - Masten Kipp
These quotes have all proven true in my case. Every step towards becoming a closer approximation of the person I've wanted to be has required passing thru another barrier I was afraid to cross. The difference for me now is that I know when my anxieties seem almost overwhelming, I know I will emerge from my ice bath braver than when I plunged in.
About the Author
Thomas P Seager, PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University. Seager co-founded the Morozko Forge ice bath company and is an expert in the use of ice baths for building metabolic and psychological resilience.