Dieting and wellbeing expert Dr Michael Mosley has shared an idea which definitely didn’t help him get to sleep - but has revealed a ‘short sharp shock’ treatment which might stop you getting ill with colds. Dr Mosley was appearing on BBC Radio Wales to talk about his new book Just One Thing which is coming out in paperback.
The idea of the book is putting together the small changes you can make to your lifestyle which can drastically improve your health and potentially aid weight loss. However presenter Behnaz Akhgar asked him if there were any ideas which people had suggested which didn’t make the cut - generally Dr Mosley tests out all the ideas on himself.
And there was another similar suggestion - taking cold showers - which Dr Mosley suggested was of great benefit - and he revealed the unusual way he manages to psyche himself up to do it. Akhgar said: “You seem to present lots of positive ideas, lots of simple ideas within the podcast, within the book that we could be doing, I was just wondering if you’ve been looking at some other ideas that have been sent to you, you’ve tested it, and you’ve decided ‘actually, no’ and you’ve rejected it.”
Dr Mosley replied: “There have been one or two things I’ve tried out, for example one of the suggestions was to have a hot bath about an hour before you go to bed. And that was said to help you drift off to sleep and indeed this idea came to me from a sleep expert who does it.
“But to be honest I don’t have problems with falling asleep - I have greater problems waking up at three in the morning and staying awake - that’s why I do the breathing - and I’m not about to go and have a hot bath then.
“I tend to have my shower in the morning. I’m currently having cold showers. That was one of the suggestions - have you had a go at cold showers?”
Behnaz replied: “Ah yes love that but in the summer it’s much easier isn’t it?” Dr Mosley said: ”This is the time of year to start if you’re ever going to do it. What I say to people is go in, have it on one to start with, obviously wash yourself, then you switch it to cold and initially just try to stay there for about 20 seconds. I sing a song while I’m doing it because singing is good for you and also takes away some of the pain.
“I do a couple of verses and that normally gets me through about 45 seconds which seems to be enough.” Akhgar asked: “Are you singing or screaming?”
Dr Mosley replied: “Well I’m singing although my wife might think it’s screaming.” Cold water is meant to improve the body’s resistance to certain illnesses and infections, experiencing them less frequently and more mildly. For example, cold water swimmers are said to have fewer upper respiratory tract infections. And scientists think it might be the cold water rather than the swimming that’s giving the benefit with the body getting more resilient with training itself for stress - and a cold shower provokes a stressful response.
One study found that having 30-second cold showers every morning for 60 days could decrease the number of sick days by 30%. On the issue of breathing helping you sleep Dr Mosley said: “One of my favourites and what has been genuinely life-changing is doing the slow deep breathing exercises.
“They’re really simple called 4-2-4. What you do is you inhale through your nose for four, you hold it for a couple of seconds and then you breathe out through your mouth for kind of four. You do that for a minute or so, your heart rate slows down. “If you’re feeling a bit stressed through the day it has a big impact. But say you’re awake in the middle of the night and you’re worrying about stuff.
“You do that for a minute or so and you’ll be surprised that nine times out of ten you’ll just drop off to sleep. In the book I kind of go into the science of that and also variants on it. It is amazing how much difference just changing your breathing pattern can do. It’s something really really simply but it has a profound effect.”
