A cool brain slows down the major body and brain activities and boosts melatonin production.
The frustration and sleep deprivation that comes with insomnia affect many adults who lack access to helpful therapies. Phone use for extended hours in the night also dulls the brain’s ability to pump out the sleep juice known as melatonin.
A study presented in 2011 at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s SLEEP conference found that cooling the area just behind the forehead helps the brain to slow down for some shut-eye.
12 participants who suffered from insomnia were fitted with a cap circulating water to cool the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that conducts planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision-making, and moderating social behaviour.
At the end of the study, it was found that the caps helped insomniacs fall asleep as fast as, and stay asleep as long as adults without insomnia.
How a hot shower helps in fast and deep sleep
When you take a cold shower at night, the body revs up its metabolism to warm up which can interrupt sleep or make it hard to sleep deeply.
In contrast, after a hot or warm bath, through evapouration and opening of skin pores, the body begins to cool off. The temperature usually drops below your normal body temperature which lulls you to sleep.
This is because, during the cooling, metabolism slows down, activity in the prefrontal cortex lowers, and melatonin production is stimulated.
Once in bed, it is easier to fall asleep and enter REM sleep faster which is optimal rest for the body.
How cooling the brain helps insomniacs
One of the researchers in the study, Eric A. Nof-zinger, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine, said “when you get into the neurobiology, insomnia is a disorder of hyperarousal.”
The normal sleeping patterns include a reduction in metabolism and activity of the prefrontal cortex.
Among insomniacs, this pattern is reversed so that there is so much mental activity.
The cap was used to perform a cooling process called cerebral hypothermia through which researchers were able to reduce that activity and induce sleep.
“The cooling cap, which had a 75 percent success rate, may soon offer patients a safe, comfortable, nonpharmaceutical way to enjoy a good night’s sleep. Participants reported that wearing the cap was a “soothing, massagelike experience. Imagine your grandmother putting a cold washcloth on your forehead.
A hot/warm bath stimulates the cooling process of the body and brain which gives an experience similar to the cooling cap.
