The Science of Stillness – What Cold Does to Your Brain

Are you overstimulated often? What does that even mean any more? To us, it means that you are constantly connected. Which has its benefits, sure, but it’s not how we were built to exist. Unless you are super intentional and disciplined it’s virtually impossible for you to fully disconnect. Has clarity ever landed on your lap in the middle of a 2 hour doom scrolling session on Tik Tok?

The facts are becoming clearer, cold immersion can increase dopamine by 250 percent and heighten focus for hours (Hubermann 2022). When your skin meet’s that icy cold water your brain releases chemicals designed to wake you up, not wear you out and keep you doom scrolling.

In addition, these big tech firms targeting us via their super-duper complex algorithms, designed to steal as much of our time as possible aren’t aiming to leave you with an improved mood or balance. Within seconds of submersion into cold water the vagus nerve activates, and the body then begins to restore balance, lowering your cortisol and improving your mood regulation (Shevchuk 2008).  

We created the Being Well Cold science guides to make complex research accessible, practical, and real for us normal folk. Each guide blends modern neuroscience, physiology and stoic philosophy into everyday tools for resilience. They’re short, clear, and built to help anyone understand what’s actually happening in their body during deliberate cold exposure.  

The guides are free inside the Cold Crew community on Stan:- https://stan.store/BeingWellCold . Each one includes clear summaries of peer-reviewed research, practical instructions and optional cold coach reflections.