Have a hard time falling asleep? Lots of us do and a new hack claims to “cure” insomnia in one easy step. It comes to us from TikTok, but unlike a lot of hacks on social media, this one is actually supposed to work well. And all you need to try it is an ice pack. TikToker Frankie Simmons shares that placing an ice pack on her chest helped her get to sleep in just 15 minutes - much faster than the hour it typically takes.
In a video, she explains that putting the ice pack in the center of your chest works because it cools the vagus nerve. “The vagus nerve is one of the longest nerves in your body and it controls a lot of your parasympathetic nervous system, aka the nervous system in control of calming you down," Frankie says, adding that cooling the vagus nerve “helps it release inflammation, stimulates it, and just helps it do its job better.”
She shares that she used to regularly wake up at 4am with anxiety and had a lengthy routine of things she would do to relax herself so she could get back to sleep. But after learning about this cooling trick, Frankie’s now able to doze back off in about 15 minutes. She says you can also get the same effect by taking an ice cold shower or a dip in freezing water, but the ice pack - or even a bag of frozen vegetables - is much easier. “It changed my life,” she says of the hack and now she wants “everybody to know about this magic.”
Neuroscientist Anne-Sophie Fluri backs up Frankie’s claim that cooling the vagus nerve helps your body calm down. She explains that cold exposure like this releases a neurotransmitter and tells your body to chill out.”
Source: The Sun