Feeling stressed? Take a cold bath

Last updated at 15:00 13 January 2005


Having a cold bath in the morning could help reduce stress levels among workers, experts claim.

Sportsmen and women often have cold showers as part of a healthy lifestyle and the idea could be transferred to the world of work, researchers believe.

Dr Peter Clough from Hull University said the healthy advantages of having a cold bath were widely supported 30 years ago but were just as relevant today.

Stressed workers often became hot and sweaty but their condition could be eased if they had a cold bath in the morning, he said.

Student experiments

Dr Clough has conducted research among a group of university students to study ways of increasing mental toughness.

He took one group up a mountain in Derbyshire and made them put their hands in a bucket of cold water while they answered questions.

The outward bound-style training increased mental toughness and the ability to face stressful situations, the research found.

But Dr Clough is also developing mental toughness courses which do not include physical training.

An increasing number of companies are sending workers to the courses because of growing concerns over the level of stress among British workers, he revealed at a British Psychological Society conference in Warwick.

"You can toughen people up by sending them up a mountain but the training does not need to be as physically demanding.

"The preferred option is to make a job as less stressful as possible but another way is to toughen people up."

Most watched News videos