Dr. Rhonda Patrick

I haven't been doing that lately.

Now I go to the beta-hydroxybutyrate because it really kind of checks the box for me.

I do have a cold plunge at home, and I am embarrassed to say that I very rarely use it.

I'm a summertime cold plunger, I would say, more seasonal than, for example, my husband who really likes doing the cold plunge every day.

He likes to do it, interestingly, at night.

Before he goes to sleep because it cools his body down, which is funny because sauna or deliberate heat exposure is something that I use to improve my sleep.

And I've talked about this.

I did a little short video on it.

There are mechanisms there that explain why heat exposure would help improve sleep and deep sleep, that kind of restorative sleep that you want.

Because when you're exposing yourself to heat, you're making somnigenic cytokines.

These are, you know, when you get sick, you're tired, right?

You're tired.

Part of that is, one, because the activation of the immune system is sucking all your energy away.

You don't want that.

Two is because activation of the immune system, they're releasing cytokines that are called somnigenic.

They induce sleepiness.

And so the sauna can also do that where you're – or sauna or I would say hot bath, deliberate heat exposure, whatever modality you're choosing to use also can increase – Extreme heat or extreme cold?

But extreme – I wouldn't go up to the 200-degree Fahrenheit.

I'm talking more like 180 degrees Fahrenheit heat.

But yes, exactly.